Answers for the Injury Prone, Shoulder Dislocation & Cortisone Injections
May 13, 2024Season 4Episode 331
JT & Joey
Episode 331: Are you always getting injured even though you do the right things? If you are someone who is constantly injured what the heck can you do about it. The Bulletproof boys bring some alternative answers that you may not expect. Friend of the podcast Pablo dislocated his shoulder and is not sure when is the right time to get back to training BJJ, so JT & Joey give a guideline on how to know when you are ready. Return caller Rae talks about dealing with Bursitis of the hip and getting a Cortisone Injection
Episode 331: Are you always getting injured even though you do the right things? If you are someone who is constantly injured what the heck can you do about it. The Bulletproof boys bring some alternative answers that you may not expect. Friend of the podcast Pablo dislocated his shoulder and is not sure when is the right time to get back to training BJJ, so JT & Joey give a guideline on how to know when you are ready. Return caller Rae talks about dealing with Bursitis of the hip and getting a Cortisone Injection
A good martial artist does not become tense, but ready.
Speaker 2:
Essentially, at this point, the fight is over.
Speaker 1:
So you pretty much flow with the goal.
Speaker 5:
Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power I'm ready I've had that situation a couple of times recently where I've come to training with some water but I haven't had any electrolytes, and I've finished training and I've had to go to a convenience shop and buy myself some kind of sports drink. Usually, a gatorade cost me like seven bucks. It's small and it really doesn't contain that much of the good stuff that I'm looking for, which are the electrolytes. Sodi, on the other hand, is my partner when it comes to hydration and I'd simply just run out of it and it sucks because I got to go buy expensive stuff that doesn't do anywhere near as good a job. I'm super stoked that we've been restocked with the Sodi and now I can be properly hydrated when I train Jiu-Jitsu.
Speaker 5:
This has always been an underexplored aspect of my training and I'm so stoked that we now have these guys in place to support us and also the listeners of the show. So if you want to be hydrated on the mat so that you can perform at your best and have the best mental clarity while training, get yourself some Sodi. Go to sodicomau that's S-O-D-I-Icomau. Get yourself some delicious hydration salts and use the code BULLETPROOF15 for 15% off. Go to sodicomau, get yourself hydrated. Hey guys, jt and I are out here putting out this content for you guys because we love you and we want to ask you a favor One small thing it's going to take you about five seconds. It is to like and subscribe to the show and please leave us a five-star review. If you're listening on an audio platform, just hit the five stars goes a long way to support us so that we can keep doing this thing, and it helps to share it with other cool jiu-jitsu humans just like yourself.
Speaker 2:
Thank you thank you very much&A for BJJ. We've got cool people like you ringing in. They want to know information. We have the answers. Go to bulletproofforbjjcom. Click on the podcast tab, scroll down. There's a red button. Leave us a voicemail, tell us who you are, where you're from, or keep us guessing and then ask your question First one coming in from Josh and then I'll ask you a question.
Speaker 4:
First one coming in from Josh. What's up guys? Josh here, long-time listener, first-time caller Calling in from the sunny state of Florida. I'm a three-stripe white belt with about 10 months of experience. I'm calling in because I wanted to see do you guys have any tips for people that are injury-prone, for instance? I'm the type of person that will get injured very easily and I consider myself that person that also does everything right to prevent these injuries.
Speaker 4:
I do mobility drills before and after workouts. I try to do yoga almost every morning. I also weight train five times a week. But recently, when I was rolling with another guy at my gym, I took top mount and tried to break my legs, just trying to stretch them out, trying to attack. But I overstepped in my left leg and I felt my knee pop. Thankfully it was nothing serious. The doctor just recommended that I put some ice on it and put a compression sleeve just let it heal up. But just wanted to see if you guys have any tips for somebody that's injury prone like myself, but still doing everything right in my opinion. Thank you guys. Awesome podcast. Looking forward to future episodes.
Speaker 5:
Awesome, what a legend Josh.
Speaker 4:
Thanks for the question man.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, shout out to the sunny state of Florida.
Speaker 2:
All right, look, man, I'm going to go a little bit different to this, to what you might expect. It sounds like you're doing the right things, so for sure can't give you any discredit. But often injury, in your instance, might be either a lack of awareness or a lack of mindfulness. I had a friend who used to always be bruised, always, and this person was like a bit of a wrecking ball, but the thing was they were a solid person. They weren't a very compact, solid human and so you wouldn't think they would get injured. You think that they would just break stuff because of how solid they were. But they were always kicking their toe, banging their head, banging their elbow, because they were just a very distracted person.
Speaker 2:
And as a result of that and I've've found this myself when I've had too much caffeine and I'm not thinking clearly, that's when I drop my keys, that's when I trip, that's when I shut the door on my finger it's because I'm not actually paying attention to what I'm doing. I'm five steps down the road and as a result of that, it means I'm missing what's happening and I'm missing the danger. And I think that's the thing, that something very it might seem like very basic, like oh, I'm just doing this move If you're not aware that your knee's really tight because you've done a bunch of squats, or maybe you're overextending your arm in a position you tap late. Whatever it might be, it can be a result of lack of mindfulness or awareness, so that might sound a bit strange, but maybe if you're able to slow it down a little bit and pay a little bit more attention, this might be helpful in having you be less injury prone.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, that's a really good suggestion. It definitely sounds like you're doing everything. My mind goes to the same place. We can, we can do all of those, have all of those things in place right to support us, to be as strong and as resilient as possible. But there is still this thing about our coordination and the positions we choose to put ourselves into and all that kind of stuff. And you know, if you look at, like a lot of, say, older grapplers who have been in the game for a long time, they generally will play a game that's very kind of safe.
Speaker 2:
More conservative.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, that's right, basic positions they're not overextending their legs, like I think about. Like, say what you said with the grapevine? I wouldn't do that personally, because I just don't like the idea of what the forces that are on my knee in a position like that. But you're new to the game, you probably don't have that awareness of those positions yet and someone's shown it to you and you're like, oh, that looks great and it's effective. So in that way, like you know, maybe you can take this information and then, given some more time and experience on the mats, it's going to start to make a bit more sense to you.
Speaker 5:
But yeah, being a bit conservative in that way, some people are more injury prone. Right, like josh sounds like this might have been something that you've just experienced in life, and I do know people that just, they just do cop more than their fair share of injuries and I think that if we were really talking about like the best sport choice for such people, jujitsu probably wouldn't be the one. It's not that, but let let that not. You know an excuse for you to not do it. Maybe let's just try and approach it with a bit more mindfulness and perhaps like… yeah, mindfulness is the one, isn't it slowing down and like trying to be aware of the positioning that you're in? You might even be doing too much that's true.
Speaker 2:
Five days a week. Yoga every morning, lifting weights, doing jiu-jitsu like you clearly are a high energy person, you got the froth. I would even say it could be. This sounds strange because this goes contrary to a lot of what we say. It could be worth doing a fraction less so. Maybe not as much yoga, or maybe only lift weights four days a week. Or maybe there's a critical point where, because you are doing so much, your body's not actually getting enough time to bounce back and that means you're more susceptible to injury.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, that's just a weakened, uh, maybe a slight counterpoint there and we're assuming, too, that you are eating a good diet, sleeping plenty and well hydrated. If, of course, any of those things aren't in place, that would be a something to focus on as well a factor yep.
Speaker 2:
Thank you, josh pablo.
Speaker 3:
What's up jt and joey? I'm pablo, from porto lego, south of brazil, nice. I'm a 42 years old blue belt and three months ago I had a shoulder dislocation trying to tackle a younger black belt, 120 kilos. Obvious goes wrong and I'm still on rehab with my physio and I have almost 100% of my mobility back but I still have some pain and still feel my shoulder kind of weak. My doubt is if I need to wait to have my shoulder 100% to go back to the gym, to the mat, or if I can start to doing some training in the mat, kind of light training, without rolling. Do you think it's possible? What's the best timing to come back to train Jiu-Jitsu again? Thanks, bro. Cheers from Brazil.
Speaker 5:
Cheers Pablo from the mother country. Mais legal Mais guy. Awesome that, bro. Cheers from Brazil. Cheers Pablo from the mother country.
Speaker 2:
Mais, legal, my guy. Awesome, that's awesome. Great question, because a lot of people do ask this and specifically with shoulder subluxation or dislocation, it's hard to get the confidence back. It is I didn't fully dislocate my left shoulder, but almost, and I've damaged my rotator muscles and it took ages to heal. This is what I wanted to say. If you can go back to jiu-jitsu and not roll, that's good. Getting an opportunity to drill and do positional stuff is good. But if you can't do 10 push-ups or 5 pull-ups, if you can't stabilize your arm and your shoulder girdle, then you should definitely not roll. Like. What happens is people get to the point where they're like, oh, I'm drilling, I still got shoulder pain, I can jump in, can't I Just a light roll? You know classic fallacy, you know that a light roll, take it easy.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, just because, hey, man, light roll, you know classic fallacy, you know that a lot easy. Yeah, just because, hey, man, I've hurt my shoulder.
Speaker 2:
Okay, don't attack my shoulder if you could just not come more on my shoulder? Yeah, it's. It can often be the worst thing you could do is coming back early. So good question. I would say that part of your when you actually come back to rolling should be dictated by how physically capable you are. So I would say you should be good to drill now. But yeah, you want to be able to get some pull-ups and some push-ups before you start getting back on the mat to roll.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, I think, like your physio, the physical therapist that you're working with should be able to guide you on this. If they can't, I would consider trying to find another one that can're working with. Should should be able to guide you on this. If they can't, I would consider trying to find another one that can, because this should be within their skillset. If you can put weight on it, like in a pushup position, and you could do like 10 pushups, and if you can do some pulling, maybe pull ups could be a bit full on right, depending on what your capacity was pre injury, but some kind of pulling strength work, like rows or something like that you can do like some sets and it's not a problem. Then I would say, yeah, definitely like back in drilling and moving around on the mat. But if you know you found it awkward to place weight on your hand in a push-up position, then you definitely don't have any place being on the mats, even drilling.
Speaker 2:
Yet right, because you'll be forced to post even if your partner is drilling? Yeah, and they have. If you're like framing against them, yeah it happens.
Speaker 5:
Yeah, like, even if you're like I'm just going to play top position, you fucking c grip in the shoulder, push them down like there's forces in the shoulder, um, and then the process would be more time in the gym, making the movements slowly more complex and more intense. And then then at a point you're going to be like I feel pretty good with everything in the gym. You might find certain things, like the overhead position, as an example, might feel uncomfortable for you, but perhaps anytime that your elbows below the shoulder feels okay. So maybe you could go. Okay, I'm going to roll, but if there's any point where my arm is getting pushed overhead, I tap. You know that's easier said than done for a lot of folks.
Speaker 2:
Well, look, you sound like a game fellow, being a blue belt and trying to tackle 120 kilo black belt. Sounds like you were getting after it. That's a fucking shit black belt 120 kilos.
Speaker 2:
I respect what you tried to do there, but it also tells me that you are a slightly reckless man. You know, like you know Casca Grosso, you got the thick skin. I respect it. But we don't want that recklessness to now turn into something which becomes a lifelong weakness, Because once you dislocate your shoulder, the more times you dislocate it, the more likely you are to dislocate it. If you don't reestablish the confidence and stability in your shoulder, girdle Fujita, you will be fucked. So let's restore the confidence, do the work, but yeah, maybe some drilling for now, but no rolling.
Speaker 5:
Yeah with it. Thanks, pablo. Next one coming in from Ray ray, I think, raise a return caller hi guys, it's ray again.
Speaker 1:
Um, first of all, on the accent, you were both right. Um, I am not from chicago, but I have always lived, since I was born, within about 150 miles of Chicago. Okay, however, you're also correct that you should not call people where I'm from from Chicago. On one hand, you did a remarkably good job of pinpointing the accent, but on the other, we specifically have a cuss word where I'm from. That means people from Chicago. But on the subject of my hip, it turned out that I had bursitis, so they did a steroid injection into the hip and that has resolved a lot of the pain, but not all of it. They also found arthritis in my spine, so I'm going to be doing physical therapy as well, but I am back to boxing one day a week and doing jujitsu one day a week. So we're making progress. Love the show. Thanks so much, guys. Bye.
Speaker 5:
Cool. Oh, what a legend. She called to share the update. That's nice.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's brilliant, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:
And look, I think, speaking to that Ray, when you do go and get a proper assessment of where you're at, when they let you know you've got bursitis or you've got degeneration of this or that, don't let that interfere with your view of the world.
Speaker 2:
You know, like I've, I've gone in for MRIs and found out I had more problems than I knew I had and sometimes, even though we always promote people finding out where they're at, it's awesome that you're back to doing some boxing and doing some jujitsu. Don't let doctors talk you out of being active, because there was a point in life where people didn't have MRIs and they didn't have x-rays and they were able to keep going. And it's great that you've had the steroid injection for you to be able to restore your, your, your hip function and even though you might still have a little bit of discomfort there, don't let any kind of medical practitioner be like well, you've got arthritis in your spine and you can't X Y, z, because there's a lot of people out there who have a degree of degeneration to their spine and they're living happy, healthy lives, yeah. So I would just say my little thing on that is just just get after it.
Speaker 2:
It sounds like you're on the right track yeah, they.
Speaker 5:
It's commonly said that if you put a, you know, if you scan any one spine, you're going to find degeneration. Yeah, um, large part of that is that our spine evolved for an animal that walked on four feet, yeah, and we now stand upright, and so our spine is imperfectly designed for the job that it does, but it does a reasonable job, but in that way, yeah. So, particularly if you're a little bit older, you're going to see some shit if you look close enough, and it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to change anything you're doing For sure. The arthritis I think that's also one of those things is pretty fucking common, right?
Speaker 3:
Yeah.
Speaker 5:
And, of course, there's arthritis and there's arthritis. So you want to make sure that you're keeping an eye on the severity of that and acting accordingly.
Speaker 2:
And blood flow is important, like part of the reason why we get degeneration around our joints is they either get used beyond their means and take damage and have inflammation, or they get underused and, as a result, get you know degeneration. So what I'd encourage you to do is, yeah, keep up your physical therapy and also work on getting that area stronger, because that's going to help support the area, get the blood flow in there and, ultimately, keep you stronger for longer.
Speaker 5:
Fuck, yeah, good voicemails today. Thank you, ray. Shout out to the good people 100 miles outside of Chicago. I want to know what that curse word is. Yeah, fuck, come back sometime. Tell us what that word is. She's too polite.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, that's right. Chicagoans are like. We know what that word is.
Speaker 5:
Don't you say it, the secret C word. Guys, if you've got a question you want to leave it on the pod? Go to the website bulletproofofbjjcom podcast tab, record a voicemail or you can just go through our instagram. If you just click the link in our bio, you can record a voicemail through there. We'll play it on the next show. Don't forget to like and subscribe. We'll see you next time. Peace, fam.