I Have Frustration

[Darth SS]

So, this weekend was weird.

I went to Muay Thai on friday morning. Got there at 6AM, and went all out until 8AM. We did a lot of bag work, and a lot of pad work, using the "hard pads" as opposed to the "soft pads" that are use in a lot of cardio-centric classes. As expected I walked out of there feeling absolutely terrible, went home, showered, went to school. Two classes later I burn some time in the library waiting for my sister, eventually just going home. Y'see, one of my best friends got married on Saturday, and I was driving back for his wedding. Due to the mix-up with my sister, we didn't get into the car until 3. Due to a traffic jam in the middle of Saskatoon of all places, I wasn't on the road until 4. Roll into Calgary around 11, dead tired and without having eaten in a while. I hate night driving, especially against the wind, especially through construction, and especially with rain. This drive featured all of the above. Okay, no big.

The next morning I get up, shower and eat. I notice I'm still really sore, but hey, I was going all-out last night. My mom watches me walk into the kitchen and asks why I'm limping. I just say my calf is really sore, so she asks to take a look. To the surprise of both of us, my calf is absolutely huge, like twice its normal size. I have absolutely terrible eyes, and I got dressed without my glasses being put on, so I simply couldn't see that my leg was swollen. Quickly, I investigate the rest of my body and realize my left hand has an epic bruise down the back of it and is also swollen, though not as extreme as my shin. However, best friends hopefully only get married once, so I made the dumbest decision of life, I said it didn't hurt that bad, iced both for 15 minutes and went to the wedding anyways.

The wedding itself was actually quite fun. The ceremony was nice, the reception was actually very charming, I danced and flirted with some girls I know from high school, and the steak dinner was awesome. I get home at 1AM. Wake up bright and early, ready to drive back to Saskatoon because I have class bright and early Monday morning. My calf and my hand hurt waaaaay more than they have before. Normally I'd just tell my sister to do all the driving on the way back, but it is hard to describe just how anxious she gets while driving. In an effort to avoid interrogation from family about why I won't stop grimacing, I eat and pack everything up and we hit the road at 11AM. Seven hours later we're in Saskatoon, and I go straight to the hospital.

That all out morning session? I cracked my shin and broke a bone in my hand. Minimum 6 weeks recovery time. I'm on some awesome anti-inflammatories to control the horrible horrible swelling that built up from multiple days of untreated injury. I was supposed to make my first serious entrance into a Muay Thai tournament in 4 weeks.

Here's what is so unbelievably frustrating: I want to start going competitive with martial arts, and going competitive into MMA just to see how I do. I was supposed to do this last year but I sprained my wrist. When I recovered from that I sprained my MCL and a hip flexor in a hockey game. About 7 months ago I tore a muscle in my shoulder (i have some amazing wasting back there now) and didn't have it diagnosed until two months ago. I hid that from my coach until about two weeks ago, when we firmly agreed that it was time to start putting me into serious competition. Just to prove that the shoulder wouldn't stop me in anything, I went into kickboxing sparring and promptly tooled five people one after another, then went to Jiu-Jitsu the next night and sparred with four guys all with higher belts than me, and submitted every single one. At that point my coach grudgingly says, "Okay, if your doctor says you can't make it worse, you can fight through it."

Now this. To those of you keeping track at home, this is 5 pretty serious injuries in the space of 18 months, each one timed to keep me out of the very thing I have been training non-stop for for the past two years. It's not even the inability to spar that's bad, the worst part is that I'm locked out of the gym until both have healed, so my conditioning is going to go to shit. When they're better, I'm probably having surgery on my shoulder anyways, so that's another 2 months out of commission. So I have a 3 1/2 month delay now, and then I still have to bury myself in the gym and get back into shape all over again. My weight has flown from 165-185 back and forth with every injury, and I can't do anything to keep myself in shape because I can't even go running!

What. The. Hell. I'm turning 21 in three days, my body should not be this brittle.

How incredibly unlucky do I have to be for this to happen?


TL;DR- MMA training on Friday, felt bad. Drove 7.5 hours, went to a wedding, drove 7.5 hours back, found out I broke my hand and cracked my shin. I was supposed to start kick boxing competitively in a month.

[bluestarultor]

I hate to say this, but maybe you should consider that doing MMA is going to get you, y'know, hurt. That's kind of the point of fighting. I suggest you seriously consider this. If you're getting hurt this badly in training, what do you think is going to happen when you actually start fighting? On top of that, how do you think the training is affecting your recovery? Hint: it's hurting it.

Being young is not some magic bulletproof status. The star gymnast when I was in high school was described by a doctor as "a girl with an 18-year-old body and an 80-year-old back." She was good, but she got hurt and pulled the same stunts you're pulling now.

Rather than trying to "fight through" this, I'd honestly take a hard look at how it's affecting your body and ask yourself what your options are, including just not doing it.

[Azisien]

While I don't suggest dropping out of anything, maybe you shouldn't "go all out" for 14 fucking hours straight. Seriously take a half hour break or something. I feel like that had something to do with breaking bones.

I would also spend your recovery time gathering supplies to become your city's equivalent of Batman, you clearly have the martial skill necessary to fight crime.

[Geminex]

Yeah, definitely. Pushing your body to the limits is fine if it's necessary. But when you're doing it for 14 hours, that's not necessary. And any benefits you get from the training are gonna be cancelled out by the fact that you're doing some pretty serious damage to your body. Seriously, take it easy. I'm no doctor, but I'm thinking that if you limit yourself you'll get injured less and you'll actually be able to compete in tournaments. Also, you won't get tons of diseases that all stem from general wear and tear later.

[Ryanderman]

I think he meant 8AM, not PM. A 14 hour workout doesn't fit with the timeline of the rest of the story.

[Azisien]

It just seems so much more bad ass though, so I went with it.

[krogothwolf]

Yeah, a lot of injury prone pro athletes play through pain and make things worse. They also come back before fully healed thus greatly increasing the chance of re-injuring yourself.

[Seil]

I agree with everyone else. Maybe you're training too hard.

What was that weight lifting thing... oh yeah - more reps with less weight, or less reps with more weight.

[Hanuman]

When did you start bashing your bones? It's very dangerous to grow your musculoskeletal system in such a drastic manner once you are past 20 if you haven't been doing it for 5-10 years (5-10 before hitting 20), you will get big cracks, bone tumors and other nasty stuff. I suggest looking into soft martial arts, ones that dont involve a hit or block but instead diffuse the fight or hurt the weakpoints in the body instead of trying to go straight through.

[batgirl]

Taking it easy is paramount. I'm a big fan of MMA and know that those athletes fight hurt all the time, but you have to be careful.You keep going like this and you'll tear an mcl or really kill your back and then where will you be? Not fighting is where.

I work in a physically demanding field too, and I have to overcome a lot in terms of my size, and I know my limits. I'm 5 feet tall, it's very hard to move and lift someone who is 6 foot 6 and 350 pounds when I have no leverage. While in the past I might have muscled through it and then ignored the searing back and knee pain I'd get and do 8 more patients like him, when I pulled an oblique in February that took 4 months to stop hurting I knew I had to slow down a bit. I don't want to slip a disk or tear something so I take a breather or ask for some help, and when I get home I rest and ice/heat the parts that hurt me.

I know this is something you're passionate about, but you need to think a bit smarter if you want to go far. The smarter MMA fighters know when to take a day off and when to stop practice early because of fatigue and pain.