Keep pulling muscles and getting irratated!

[TheCarpetCleaner]

I have stepped up my exercise reigeme as I accept that any older (now 30). its going to be much harder to lose wieght and get fitter.

What is really getting me pissed off is that I keep ending up with various joint injuries, despite warming up and down properly, and changing my exercise patterns so I don't give any particular part of my body too much stress.

Rough idea of my exercise -

Mon - Minimum of 3 or 4 mile walk (paced so just coming up to being out of breath after a 10 minute amble to warm up.

Tue - Krav Maga - 1.5 of savage evercise and partner work (If you don't know what Krav Maga is, just think Kickboxing kind of exercise)

Wed - Nothing - rest day

Thurs - 3 to 4 mile walk

Fri - 3 to 4 mile walk

Sat - 5 Mile walk

Sunday - Nothing

This is not including any extra stuff I do (carpet jobs, walking around sites etc)

At the moment I have a wrist that is painful when I move it (wearing a wrist brace), my left knee gets a slight twinge occasionally and feels "loose" (wearing a knee support), and my right ankle is aching on the top all the way down to the big toe occasionally...

I appriciate getting older is not going to help matters, but is there anything else I can do to stop myself from falling apart quite yet??!

I currently weight 16 stone and I am 6ft.

[Animal]

You haven't said anything about stretching?

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Sorry yes - Stretching after Krav Maga at end of the lesson, after walking I do a warm down, but did not consider it strenuous enough to warrant a full on stretch session as it were.

[Ken Sington]

The KM is probably the source of your problems. I did 6 months of that a few years back and had all sorts of problems as a result.

[Animal]

Maybe you should stretch more often? I try to have 5-10 mins each morning to stretch (gently) and stretch a little more after going to the gym.

See if you can find a cheap copy of a book called (funnily enough) 'Stretching' by Bob & Jean Anderson. A couple of hundred pages on different methods of stretching and stretching routines for different sports and situations. Well worth having, imo.

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Will do!

What is the general consensus on those Wii Fit with balance board jobbies that are going around? I heard they are very good for basic interim excercises and stretching and stuff...

[ShadownINja]

Tell me about your warm up routine. Throw in as much detail as you can...

[TheCarpetCleaner]

ShadownINja said:

Tell me about your warm up routine. Throw in as much detail as you can...

For walking - first ten minutes is at a moderate pace, then up to brisk pace for however long it lasts, with a break every hour (if doing a two hour walk or more) for ten minutes.

Krav Maga - the warmup is a mix of slow shadow fighting for 5-10 minutes, then various other things involving moving around a lot (walking round scanning and shadow fighting) for a further 5 or 10 minutes. Then something a bit harsher, usually slow fighting an opponant while moving about for 10 minutes or more, then various light stretching.
After that, it gets into the lesson which you probably know what involves for an hour.


Should I be doing more in terms of the walking? I have little control over the krav warmup obviously but have time to do stuff before the lesson (usually 15 mins or so)

[ShadownINja]

Not quite what I meant. Maybe I misunderstood your first post. Anyway, here's the thing. You need to focus on warming up everything. So work the shoulders, then the elbow joints, the wrist joints, the fingers, etc. Eg swing the arms in circles for the shoulders, wiggle the fingers for the finger joints. Don't miss out any joints. Circle them, move them to get them warm. As a climber who likes to over-do it, if I don't warm up as above a session, 50% of the time, I'll come away with some sort of injury...

And stretch to cool down. Stretching to "warm up" is not actually a good idea as you're trying to tear ligaments and muscles that are cold. It is apparently fine for doing at the end and aids recovery. (University research found that karate practitioners reduced their power by 10% when stretching as part of a warm up routine.)

[ShadownINja]

You could turn up to a class 15 minutes early and warm up. If anyone asks, just say that you keep pulling muscles so want to warm up a bit more. I always warm up pre-climb and don't give a toss if people think I look silly. I'd rather look silly than have an injury for 6 months...

[bales]

It looks to me that the main problem is that you don't really have a warm-up, your body might be warm but unless you move your muscles through the full range of movements then you aren't really doing much.

You need to do some dynamic stretching as mentioned above, lunges, arm swings, high knees, butt kicks, back stretches and really make sure you feel loose. I imagine that if Krav Maga is like kick boxing then you are putting a lot of strain through hip, knee and ankle joints. If you are doing this when not properly loose then its not suprising your getting little pulls all the time.

Look on google for some dynamic warm-ups the exercises will be similar for all sports pretty much, this should take between 15mins and 30mins ideally to do it properly -especially if you are doing an impact type activity.

[Babu 01]

You may not like this answer but I think you may be taking on too much too soon with the KM.

Any contact sport will involve injuries but to be continually sustaining them suggests to me that your level of general fitness and/or strength may not be up to the demands of your chosen sport. My recommendation to you would be to find a trustworthy local trainer or gym for an honest evaluation of your current state. If needs be you can then agree a programme with them to improve your flexibility, cardio and strength to the point you can train KM without problems.

I could well be wrong and maybe you are ready to train. In which case it's just warm up, warm down and follow the RICE protocol when appropriate. Eventually your body will adapt.

Edited by Babu 01 on Friday 22 January 10:16

[TheCarpetCleaner]

Babu 01 said:

You may not like this answer but I think you may be taking on too much too soon with the KM.

Any contact sport will involve injuries but to be continually sustaining them suggests to me that your level of general fitness and/or strength may not be up to the demands of your chosen sport. My recommendation to you would be to find a trustworthy local trainer or gym for an honest evaluation of your current state. If needs be you can then agree a programme with them to improve your flexibility, cardio and strength to the point you can train KM without problems.

I could well be wrong and maybe you are ready to train. In which case it's just warm up, warm down and follow the RICE protocol when appropriate. Eventually your body will adapt.

Edited by Babu 01 on Friday 22 January 10:16

You are right, I don't like the answer but I think it is probably the most likely one. I used to be very, very fit including doing Karate 4 times a week, cycling everywhere etc then due to the hernia op starting sitting around and eating lots for a while.

I will look into the warmup options first and see my local gym fitness trainer as well.

[coupeboy]

Relative to the rest of your plan the KM is going to be the hardest on your body, maybe if you try a couple of 1hr circuit sessions, concentrating on core strength and stability, this will help condition your body for your intense KM session. The way you train now the KM will always be a bit of a shock to your body, making your prone to injury, also make sure you have a good warm-up and stretching routine.

[coupeboy]

Relative to the rest of your plan the KM is going to be the hardest on your body, maybe if you try a couple of 1hr circuit sessions, concentrating on core strength and stability, this will help condition your body for your intense KM session. The way you train now the KM will always be a bit of a shock to your body, making your prone to injury, also make sure you have a good warm-up and stretching routine.

[ShadownINja]

08:58?? I was still asleep, then!

[LordGrover]

There was a lot of it about. Time And Relative Dimensions In Space and all that.

[ShadownINja]

GIVE ME MY SLEEP BACK!!

[Bill]

Babu 01 said:

You may not like this answer but I think you may be taking on too much too soon with the KM.

Any contact sport will involve injuries but to be continually sustaining them suggests to me that your level of general fitness and/or strength may not be up to the demands of your chosen sport.

I'd go along with this. (How long have you been doing the KM btw?)

I'm assuming from the other exercise you're doing that you're not 6ft and 16st of muscle in which case your walking is great but the KM is probably too much too soon. You'd be better off doing the KM type exercise more often and less hard to give your body a chance to adapt.

At the moment you're working very hard once a week so not only is your body being over-strained but the stimulus for your body to become fitter is infrequent enough to be less effective.

[Babu 01]

TheCarpetCleaner said:

You are right, I don't like the answer but I think it is probably the most likely one. I used to be very, very fit including doing Karate 4 times a week, cycling everywhere etc then due to the hernia op starting sitting around and eating lots for a while.

I will look into the warmup options first and see my local gym fitness trainer as well.

I had a similar situation. Trained various martial arts from late teens then suffered assorted injuries in a car crash at 31. I found out just how quickly fitness can drain away when I jumped back into the martial arts. Constant tears, sprains and eventually an AC joint seperation showed me I needed to spend time getting my strength back.

I found it a bit of a tedious ballache but having done it I can now train what I want to again so worth it in the end.