Back to Training

There is nothing more exciting and enjoyable than getting back into training after a long break. Myself, I have been out due to injury for over nine months and its been a real shame to miss so much training.

BJJ is not a rough sport and is good on your body if you take care. Judo I think is more rough and injuries can occur from standing in my opinion of course depending on your sparring partner.

One injury that I got in Judo was from a throw which made be land incorrectly and hit my head on the mat. That was some years ago but I think if you know how to breakfall it is not guaranteed what can happen if your partner does something different. Some throws can cause injury and I have seen it happen over and over again.

I enjoy training. Learning new techniques and getting myself fitter for competition. Hard training and light training are both great and actually have their advantages and disadvantages.

At some point I was training around 5-6 times a week and it is then that I got my shoulders injured. Slowly this deteriorated into more and more pain especially at night and in the morning when you can't sleep on either side.

I took some breaks to let it heal but it did not seem to do anything. I wait a week and then train and it is back to where I started. The more I trained the worse it got and it seemed like nothing can be done.

First of course I took a more conservative approach, physiotherapy, so pills they game me, hot water and compressors. Nothing like this helped.

After some injections did not help surgery turned out to be the only option. SLAP lesion was diagnosed and basically this put me out of training for another seven months unfortunately as it takes a lot of time to heal up and rehabilitation can last upto a year.

Certainly this is something you never wish that will happen again. After a few months I started to go to the local fitness gym. Training my back, stomach muscles and the shoulders of course. Unfortunately I also managed to catch mononucleosis, something Brock Lesnar actually got I understand which put me out of the sports world for another two months with severe fever and endless headeaches as well as a feeling of complete exhaustion.

Finally today I am back training. With my second training session behind me and the first sparring session for so long, I feel unfit but getting ready for Monday's session once some of the muscles I have no used for for so long have recovered.

Some pain is still there of course but you try to get over it and train with care. After all for me it is all about technique and learning to be a better jiu jitsu fighter and grappler.

It is great to be on the mats with the guys though. Sparring was great and I even had a chance to do some submissions myself as well as playing for positions. We are currently practicing for the upcoming no-gi contest and it is great to practice some takedowns for this that can really improve the stand up game and help you put your opponent on his back.

Watching a lot of tapes, I have really become a great fan of the wrestling part. I prefer to put my opponent on his back and pass his guard. If I can't I will play guard and I prefer to win the takedown and I believe I should be able to do this in most cases unless the guy has a strong wrestling background himself.

Jiu jitsu is truly a beautiful sport. Really enjoy it. Keep training and check out some of the fightworks podcasts on Itunes. Check it out.