Ego Is Not Your Amigo: Training With Injuries /// By: Lea Young

It doesn’t matter what belt color you are or how long you have been training – we have ALL been there before.  You get injured while training, and whether it is minor or severe, the pain of not going to jiu-jitsu hurts you SO MUCH MORE.

I used to think that this was a phenomenon amongst men, as I would often witness guys furiously taping up their fingers, toes, feet, and wrists before class.  I used to shake my head and ask, “Why don’t you just stay home and let it heal?” But then, slowly but surely, I became one of them.

It started with my finger last November. I was rolling with another blue belt who had not been training consistently and was known to use more strength than technique (mistake #1). My right index finger got twisted pretty bad on the outside of his pant leg while I was trying to pass from the top. When I started to feel pain and realized what was happening, I told him to stop. Apparently he didn’t hear me the first time and continued to fight to break my grip off his pants. Once I felt (and heard) a crack and my finger went numb, I finally yelled for him to stop. It swelled a little and I could bend it, so I went home, took Ibuprofen and iced it. I was back on the mats the following week… with taped up fingers. In my head, I thought that by not being able to use my right hand 100%, I’d be able to train my weaker grip to become stronger (mistake #2)… In any case, my finger took over 3 months to heal and the swelling appears to be permanent. But that’s life with jiu-jitsu fingers, right?

The next month, I had a cyst removed from my leg that left me with 4 sutures and 2-3 weeks of no training. At the 10-day mark, my doctor told me that my leg was healing nicely and that I could remove the sutures. So I did… and I went back to training (just to drill) one or two days later. Biggest mistake ever. The wound wasn’t fully healed and after “light” drilling (although I really did want to roll), the wound opened up and I ended up in the emergency room because I could literally see into the hole in my leg. The emergency room doctor explained to me that they could not close the wound again so I had to let the hole close on its own. Long story short, it took my leg almost one month to fully heal completely. Luckily for me, I was still promoted to purple belt (despite not being able to roll) and it was during the holidays so I didn’t feel like I missed out on everything.

So what’s the moral of this story? Jiu-jitsu is addicting. But for the majority of us, it does not pay the bills. So if your injuries are truly serious, please sideline yourself and let your body heal. Spend more time with family during that time (I’m sure they will appreciate that too) or geek out on BJJ videos all day. A week or two away from the mat is better than months away from the mat. But… if you do decide to train with injuries, use caution, know your limits, and communicate with your training partners so that you don’t increase your risk of getting hurt again. Ego is not your amigo, especially when your body isn’t working at 100%.