Martial Arts is not a “no impact” activity. But that doesn’t mean that needs to be an activity riddled with injury and pain. Avoiding injury in self defense training should be priority number one in any gym or studio.
Most adult students realize that getting older means that things don’t work quite as well as they once did. We don’t heal as quickly after injury and we tend to get injured more easily.
At Dynamic Self-Defense our goal isn’t to injure students, it’s to prepare you to injure an attacker. With that in mind here are a few tips to help you prevent training injuries:
Strength Training: Research shows that moderate strength training can help prevent injury by building muscle mass and strengthening joints. When it comes to martial arts, we recommend working those parts of the body most commonly injured in training, shoulders, knees and lower back.
Go Easy On Joint Manipulation, Falls and Take-downs: Rapid shock to joints can extend injury beyond just the range of motion. For this reason remember to go easy when manipulation joins or practicing take-downs as these exercises can easily create undesired injuries
Know Your Limits and Speak Up: Our training is supposed to make you stronger. Working an injury can prevent you from making progress. Be sure to let your instructor and training partners know of any injuries or issues so they can work with you and at a pace where you can improve.
For more on aging, weight gain and strength see: Why We Gain Weight As We Age
photo credit: Robbie Veldwijk via photopin cc