Ouch!

Any one who trains in martial arts, or any other sport has more than likely had to deal with injuries whilst training. There is alot of different ways we can deal with this problem, the best being sitting on the couch and eating ice-cream.....

On my first training session jiu jitsu last week I pulled my groin during the warm up. It hurt like hell, I've never pulled a muscle before I didnt really know what it would feel like. So i found myself limping around and bored. But then I figured, why not use this as an opportunity to get into the gym and work the upper body. I got down to the gym for a few days and made the most of the situation.

Over the years I have gotten alot better at handling injuries. Finding what works for me and listening to others about how they dealt with similar injuries. One thing that really made a big difference for me was massage. A mate of mine is a massage therapist and he helped me out so much with tendonitis in my elbow/ tricep area, I couldnt believe it. I payed attention and now anytime i have some problem i have learned how to massage it out myself. And there is always exercises that can help you strengthen any area of your body. I have increased the strength of my delicate ankles so much over the last year by doing various balance exercises that i can now run pain free. The only hard part is knowing what to do, and committing to doing it.

So all this is about, dont just accept your injuries as something you have to live with. Do your research, it is most likely something you can beat.

you have to start somewhere

All the planets seemed to align for once, and I have finally started training brazilian jui jitsu....

Ive been wanting to start grappling for a while (I figure Im probably already at black belt level from the amount of ufc I have watched) but it just never seemed to happen. Then I was at a cool cafe in Kelvin Grove chatting to the owner on a quiet saturday when a bloke came in wearing all sorts of bjj paraphernalia, I started talking to the guy, it was Eduardo Dias. Eduardo is a Brazilian guy, who is bjj black belt and runs Garra bjj in Kelvin Grove. www.garrabjj.com.au

So it seemed like I had found a cool place to learn... Then down the Gold Coast for a weekend I poked my head into the planet max store and saw the shiny new Hayabusa Gi (aka karate suit) so I bought it. Yep I love impulse shopping. 

The last thing came into play when work changed the shift times by a couple of hours which would allow me to catch the morning class from 11:00 until 12:30 at Garra bjj. So I did it.

I made it to 3 classes last week and it was great. There is a pretty cool atmosphere at the gym and I am just starting to have my eyes opened to jui jitsu. All I could do was laugh sometimes at how easy some of these guys were getting submissions on me. And my body has been feeling pretty battered all weekend, but i love this feeling.

So now I  just have to keep it up. Try and absorb as much as I can in the next 4 and a half months before I take off to train full time in Thailand