As martial artists, each of us will inevitably face an illness, injury, or surgery that will knock us so far down that the evil little voice in our heads will whisper, “This is it. You’ll never train again.” Turn to the internet for solace and you may begin to feel even worse. Loss of community… Loss of identity… Depression… Weight gain… It’s all bleak and it’s all very real.
But it doesn’t have to be your personal prison. Whether you’re out for a couple of weeks with the flu or you’re facing months in a brace after surgery, you can still train. It may take a little creativity and a more generous definition of the word but train you shall.
Here, we’ll look at some clever and constructive ways to broaden the definition of training. But first things first: You can’t adequately recover if you don’t take care of yourself, so see your doctor. Follow his or her instructions, whether that includes medication, physical therapy, or both. Eat right and get some sleep. But in your waking hours, train.
Stay Connected
For many of us, the dojo or gym isn’t just a place we go; it’s where we thrive. Our friends are there. Our mentors are there. It’s where we can let go and just live in the moment. One of the most soul-crushing aspects of being sidelined is feeling like you no longer belong because you can’t physically participate. There’s only one way to beat that defeatist mentality: keep showing up.
Joan Dehnert broke her collarbone taking a bad Aikido roll two months into her training. It resulted in surgery to place a plate and nine screws. Even though she couldn’t step on the mat again for six weeks, she attended every class and took technique notes. Once she was cleared for physical therapy, she returned to the floor to participate in basic stretching and warm-up exercises alongside her training partners. “Since I still had a limitation in movement, my sensei, after showing a technique, would come over to me and show me how to do one-armed aikido and adapt my aikido to the limitation,” she recalled.
She still wasn’t allowed to take any falls for many months, but she kept practicing her techniques the best she could. “Most of my rehab actually came from class since my sensei had rotator cuff surgery six months before my injury; he knew things I could do.” With patience and persistence, Joan slowly returned to Aikido rolling and falling, but perhaps even more important was that through it all, she stayed mentally present in her art and connected to her tribe.
If you can’t make it to class, ask your instructor or one of your training partners to video the lessons. Then watch at home or turn to training DVDs or YouTube and still “show up”. Even when you’re stuck on the couch.
Fall Back on Your Forms
Some practitioners love ’em, some don’t, but when the doc says, “no contact,” knocking the dust off your old kata or learning some new ones can keep techniques fresh in your mind, keep your body moving, and also ensure you stay mentally connected to your training. Tih Penfil’s last injury was an impinged nerve under her scapula, coupled with a torn muscle. After four months away, she was able to get out of her tie-down brace and begin physical therapy.
“Some of my Modern Arnis stick and form work was made part of my PT process. My sensei had always wanted me to slow down my practice and this achieved that too,” Tih said. Her form work and continued physical therapy kept her on track to receive her black belt.
Use Any Tool at Your Disposal
If your focus mitts, Thai pads, and heavy bag are off limits, what can you use? Kathleen Offenholley tore a hip muscle so badly that she could barely walk. But that didn’t stop her from practicing Goju Karate anyway – she just did everything from an office chair. “Kata in an office chair. Seated sparring. My classmates were great; they got out another chair to spar sitting down with me,” Kathleen said. “My school (formerly The Center for AntiViolence Education, now Brooklyn Goju) was always very accepting of physical differences, so I knew it would be okay to train in a chair, but I was thrilled when my classmates offered to also sit in a chair so I could spar with them.”
As Kathleen began to regain strength, she would train everything but kicks. “It was sometimes really frustrating not to be able to kick, especially trying to adapt katas so I could do them without kicking,” she said. “Now that my hip is better, there are still a few katas I don’t remember correctly because I learned that kata when I was injured. And my hip is still not what it once was, so I still do have to modify sometimes. But I’m glad I learned to do so in such an accepting atmosphere, because it allows me to imagine that I will continue training even as I get older. I know some people who have quit as they got older, because they felt they couldn’t give as much as they once did. But I think that it’s okay to do a little less in some ways, even as my karate gets stronger and deeper in other ways.”
Keep Working What Still Works
When any part of your body is out of commission, it’s hard to muster the energy to keep training. But you can battle inertia and depression by focusing on the parts of you that are still strong and powerful.
Team Tooke purple belt BJJ practitioner Melissa Lozano survived cancer, but not unscathed. Not only did she undergo a bilateral mastectomy but her recovery was both mentally and physically excruciating. “All of my movements were limited by what my body could do, but more so by what I thought I could do,” Melissa recalled. “I lost total confidence in my physical ability to do most things, and I really think that it set my recovery back by months.” So six years later when faced with an ACL graft repair and MCL and meniscus surgery, the IBJJF 2016 World Champion and 2017 PanAm Master 3 Lightweight and Absolute Champion worked to shift her focus to what she could do rather than what she couldn’t.
“As a personal trainer, I came up with my own recovery scheme that was very much in line with what my doctor permitted me to do. Knowing that I had great stability and core, we were both pretty secure in me returning to exercise within a few days of surgery as long as I would abide by his guidelines of no weight-bearing,” she said. Melissa kept her BJJ fundamentals sharp and her core strong by practicing exercises like one-legged shrimps and doing medicine ball sit-ups, along with one-legged down dogs and resistance band training.
“Right now, I’m four months out from knee surgery and the recovery has been nothing short of miraculous,” she said.
Embrace the Art that Supports You Best
Shifu Sara Gellhorn holds a third-degree black sash in Kung Fu, a fifth-degree in T’ai Chi and internal arts, and a fifth-degree from the Wushu Sanshou Dao Association. She chose to focus on the art that best suited what her body could handle after tearing her ACL. After her surgery it was clear that she couldn’t put the same energy into both arts that she had before. And that was hard for her to come to terms with. “I was definitely depressed,” Sara explained. “I had previously trained through pain, and my unspoken motto was ‘Just do it!’ I couldn’t be that way anymore, and I felt a loss of identity. I taught again as soon as I could be relatively mobile, but it took me a year to return to training.”
Though Sara was able to train Kung Fu for another decade after her injury, the art’s jumps, long, low stances, and squatted landings ultimately proved too painful to continue even though she still loved it. However, T’ai Chi, with emphasis on mindfulness, slow practice, and body mechanics, helped her regain strength while supporting healthy movement. “Slow, steady, forward, backward, sideways, squatting, standing on one leg – it was really all helpful. In addition to gaining better form all the way around, I also won a few competitions with my new and improved T’ai Chi skills.”
Take the Long View
During your recovery, show yourself compassion. Remember that your martial arts will always be there when you’re ready to return. Your journey isn’t the same as anyone else’s, and that’s a good thing. Yes, you may miss the big tournament or take longer to attain your next rank. But the warrior spirit is in your heart and no bruise, sprain, tear, or break can ever touch it.
(editor’s note – for another perspective on injury and training, read Louie Martin’s post, Martial Arts: Getting in Shape While Destroying Your Body)
How has your training been? Have you been sidelined with an injury or illness that forced you to take a break? Leave a comment below and let me know what your path to re-entering training looked like.
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Excellent points! A very encouraging article, thanks for posting.
Thanks, David! I’m glad you enjoyed it!