BJJ like every other sport where combat is involved puts you at a high risk of getting injured. It’s not that the sport itself is not safe. It’s usually lack of training or over-practice that can lead to injuries.
Some of the body areas prone to injuries in BJJ are the neck, ears, lower back, knees and shoulders. Those five injuries are the most common one and no BJJ practitioner hasn’t had a nasty experience with at least one of them
In most cases, either you don’t pay attention to your teacher or try to overreach. This is why the rule of thumb in BJJ and all MMAs is to listen to your body and never push it too far. So how do people get injured in these areas in BJJ? What can you do to avoid such setbacks? And What to do if you happen to suffer an injury? Read on to find out the answer to these and other pertinent questions.
Knees
Your knees carry the full weight of your body and that’s no small burden. So how do BJJ players get knee injuries? The most common occurrence when performing leg locks. It’s one of the most popular techniques in the self-defense sport. You use it to take control of the opponent’s body, limit their movement, and open the way for submission.
But as important as the leg locks are in BJJ, there’s a whole lot going on behind the scenes in this seemingly innocuous technique. You’re not just wrapping your thighs around the adversary’s body and locking them in place, you’re calling on all your joints, muscles, ligaments, and tendons to rise up to the occasion and help you out here.
Which as you can imagine is easy to get wrong. Push your joints too far and your knees pay the price. It’s the ligaments in the knees that are first to give in. These tough yet fragile parts of the knees are resilient enough but there’s only so much they can do. Keep pushing and they will snap.
The first thing you’ll feel is a searing pain in your knee area. This is more serious than the dull pain you get if you fall on your knees on the mat or your opponent slams their body weight over your knee. The pain here is immediate and demands your full attention. In this case, medical attention is in order. Don’t try to ignore it or roll with it. Remember what Dr. House said about the knees.
Lower Back
While a knee injury is a serious issue that requires weeks of rest depending on the condition of the injury, you can still go back to the mat even before your knee has fully healed and focus your training on the hands’ defense techniques and upper body. The same however cannot be said about lower back injuries. These affect BJJ players of all levels, ages, and body shapes.
Ask any BJJ black belt about their worst experience while training and the most common issue that crops up is the lower back maladies. Call it a curse if you will, but it seems nobody is immune to this affliction. And it’s easy to see why. All the heaving, contortions, and twisting of the body make every player vulnerable to lower back injuries.
Your spine is a series of connected vertebrae and the only thing that keeps them from breaking are the groups of muscles that line alongside the backbone. However, those muscles weaken around the small of your back leaving that area open for the odd injury from a deep twist in the wrong direction. The problem with these injuries is that the pain is not immediate as is the case with knee afflictions. Not at all. Lower back pain takes time to show up. Usually, a few hours and sometimes you go to bed feeling fine only to wake up in the morning and you can’t get out of bed.
This is what happened to me when I got my lower back injury after a BJJ class. I spent the next couple of days crawling on all four like a toddler. Luckily, in my case, it was just a matter of a twisted muscle but some BJJ trainees don’t get off so lightly as far as back injuries are concerned. Many suffer from a herniated disc which is a painful condition and takes a long time to heal.
You won’t be able to roll with a lower back injury. Rest is the only way to get better and you won’t step on the mat again until you get the all-clear from your physician. So don’t force yourself and be patient.
Ears
Believe it or not the ears take a lot of punishment during BJJ practice. Whether you’re training, a top-ranking practitioner in a competition, or just testing the waters trying to figure out whether to commit to BJJ or not, your ears are vulnerable. There’s a term for it in BJJ. It’s called “cauliflower ears” and it’s worthy of a full article on its own.
The ears are mostly made up of soft bones called cartilage and skin. Soft bones imply they can be bent and twisted which is exactly what happens when your opponent gets you in a headlock and your ears get squeezed in whatever inhumane shape they happen to be forced into. And the injury shows almost at once.
Blood vessels in the ear rupture and the broken cartilage form unworldly shapes and clumps in your ear. Naturally, this is accompanied by the suitable amount of pain you can imagine and your ears become too sensitive to the touch and even a gentle breeze will make them smart.
You can protect your ears with headgear. If your ears are injured, you can still train but focus on lower body engagement and avoid any technique especially rolling that gets your ears close to the opponent or the mat.
Shoulders
Your arms play a major role in BJJ. Both offensive and defensive techniques rely on strong arms to get you out of a bad position and perform locks. All that is fine and dandy and you often forget that your shoulders are really just joints that are prone to all the ailments and vulnerabilities that all joints have in common.
Whether you’re rolling and your shoulder joints are pushed into a weird twist, or you’re engaged in arm attacks, you can sustain shoulder injuries in more ways than you can imagine. Keep an active posting up for long and your shoulders will pay the price.
A shoulder injury is easy to detect. The pain from the sprain or snap echoes throughout your arms and shoulder blades. You’ll feel it at once and you need to disengage and have a doctor examine it. You should also apply ice to the injured area on your way to see the doctor. Your physician will recommend plenty of rest and you’ll need to abstain from BJJ practice until you’re fully healed.
Some players still go to class with an injured shoulder. It’s not the recommended option but if the injury is light and not serious enough, you can tie that arm with a belt and try to avoid getting in contact with another player on the mat. It’s not a perfect solution, but at least it protects you from making your shoulder any worse.
Neck
Your neck sits pretty well balanced over the top of your spine. It carries the weight of your head and relies on a group of muscles to keep the precious load of the spinal cord, glands, and large blood vessels intact. This works in ordinary situations but when your neck is in the vise-like grip of a BJJ opponent intent on getting a submission, all bets are off.
Again it’s a matter of bad practice and lack of experience both on your side and your opponent’s that could land you in neck trouble. If techniques like Mata Leao or the Guillotine are performed accurately you won’t sustain an injury. But if the adversary got you in a neck crank clumsily performed you might even know that your neck is being molested beyond all recognizable BJJ rules and laws.
An injured neck is not a trivial thing. You cannot just ignore it and power through it. You might need months of rest and neck braces and every time you want to turn you’ll use your shoulders rather than your neck. So, yeah, you can’t roll with this one. Stay safe!