The 1 Grappling Injury You Cannot Shake

Episode 332: Have you got Injury One-itis? Got that first big BJJ injury that you are struggling to deal with. When major injury strikes, it can really take over your life- but what can we do to get over this? A major part of getting through the process of rehabbing an Injury is not Catastrophising the situation: making it seem worse then it actually is. JT & Joey examine where you need to start, you must find out the nature of your injury and exactly how bad is it? Next step is having a rehab plan to get you back on the mats. This is a great opportunity to learn some new coping methods and develop some systems to deal with injury so the next time it does occur its a much easier process and you bounce back faster!

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Dealing With Injuries and Oneitis

Speaker 1 0:07

A good martial artist does not become tense , but ready . Essentially , at this point , the fight is over , so you pretty much flow with the goal . Who is worthy to be trusted with the secret to limitless power ? I'm ready . Do you need the best inside information on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu ? I have the answer for you . It is Tap , nap and Snap , the Jiu-Jitsu newsletter . We have partnered with them to help you guys connect to the latest happenings , drama , gossips and going-on in the BJJ world . We even have our own little section dedicated to helping you move better for BJJ . So if you're interested to find out more , click the link below and get connected with Tap , nap and Snap , the BJJ newsletter . Ladies and gentlemen , welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast . Ladies and gentlemen , welcome to another Bulletproof for BJJ podcast .

Speaker 1 1:10

Have you got one serious injury and you can't shake it and you're focused on it and you're thinking about it all the time and possibly you're making it worse for yourself ? You have injury oneitis and Joe is going to explain how we can get out of this problem . Well , talk to me about oneitis , joe , how we can get out of this problem . Well , talk to me about one-itis , joe . I'm not sure that I can give a solution , but at least we can shine a light on this problem . It's very interesting actually that we discuss this because I've got a heat pack on my knee as we speak right here .

Speaker 1 1:36

I did myself a little mischief in the last couple of days . The jiu-jitsu Could have been jiu-jitsu could have been in bed . Who knows , could have just been . I mean , that implies furious boning . It wasn't even . You know there is a bit of that going on . It could be that I was just talking about sleeping . Who knows these days , who knows ?

Speaker 1 1:53

Yes , in any case , I had a conversation with a close friend who has recently copped their first significant injury . Right , they're at Blue Belt . First significant . Recently copped their first significant injury . Right , they're at blue belt . They um . First significant injury . Significant as in it didn't just resolve after a week or so . Stops you in your tracks . Yeah , you got to go see a couple . You know you got to go to physio a few times . Physio's like I'm not really sure you got to get a scan . That costs a bunch of money . It's scary . You know you got to do a bit of investigation . Yeah , there's the potential of this . Could be something serious . This could be a torn ligament or something like that . In any case turns out that it's , it's , it's not a torn ligament , so it's . You know , basically they've been given the all clear , structurally intact . Yeah , structurally intact , relatively pain-free , uh , good to return to jiu-jitsu and good in the gym , but there's still some things that cause it discomfort . Right , it's in your mind as well , yeah , and so we'll have in the chat earlier this week and , and you know the , the narrative has been like with me , having been in the game for a long time and having had a lot of injuries , I'm like , dude , like just , you know you'll be okay in a couple of years from now you won't even remember this injury , but right now it's like the biggest thing in your world , oh , my god . And then it got me thinking about oneitis , which is a concept that I learned . So there's a book came out many years ago now .

Speaker 1 3:14

This book controversial , it's controversial these days . It's , it's a piece of shit book . Yeah , like it's . It's . It was called the game . It was written by neil strauss Strauss . Probably some of the older listeners were like , ha-ha , yes , I know that , but when it came out it was pretty big . It was pretty big for dudes , right , but of course , yeah , it was basically about this journalist who infiltrated this secret society of pickup artists , which were basically dudes on the internet that were looking for tricks that they could use to meet women . Sure , not just meet women . Pick women up , yeah , pick them up right , specifically yeah , because these guys needed tricks , right , like they were not whatever . They lacked certain other things . They lacked game . We need a fucking hack . This was the formula . Yeah , to be able to get women , yeah , exactly . And so there's this term in the book , right , and again , I'm acknowledging that this is not cool these days , it's fleas in mccheesy , yeah , but whatever , just don't go with us on this . For , you know , for a young joey who was traveling in europe at the time , this is a fun and entertaining read .

Speaker 1 4:14

There's a thing called oneitis , which is the first person that you , when you have the first significant person that you get really interested in , right , this could happen , could have happened at school , could have happened as a young adult . You fall in love with them , whatever , but the feeling's not mutual and you just can't get that person out of your head , right , you're just stuck on them . Challenge you got one-itis , right , we've all been there . I'm sure we all know the feeling it fucking goes back to like year three for me . Of course it was with myself Fucking love .

Speaker 1 4:50

The romance continues , joey loves Joey , and so the cure for one-itis , right , is to go and… Find a new love . Yeah , find ten . They say , like , go and hook up with another ten people , sure , and… you're probably going to forget about that first one right In that process of okay . So I'm like okay , there's a rationale there . Now , I'm not prescribing this as a medicine for anyone , that's , you know , looking for love , whatever but I was like there is a rationale there which is like get some more time in the field . Sure , deal with this thing that you're dealing with now more times , and all of a sudden , this kind of will be much less significant . Yeah , you become less attached . Yeah , so my , so my feedback was I think you just need to go and cop some more injuries . I'm like don't like , don't like drop a barbell on yourself , but like , just , you know , do some shit . Yeah , no , I'm not , I'm not , that was just a joke , but but that's the reality . If you're doing jiu-jitsu , if you're living a physical lifestyle , you're lifting weights and doing training , you are going to cop injuries . Yeah , and what's going to happen is you're going to cop more over the next two years and then , all of a sudden , the one that's this really big deal right now will just not be as big a deal significant injury in comparison to the next 10 . Sure , but it will be much less important .

Speaker 1 6:11

This reminds me of Major Payne , another 90s throwback . Was that one of the Wayans brothers ? Yeah , damon Wayans , and he's the drill sergeant . And it opens with him doing a mission and one of his mates gets shot in the leg . He's like , ah , my leg , my leg . And he's like I got to take your man off the pain . And he just breaks his finger and the guy's like , ah , and so anyway , he gets kicked out of the military and he ends up being in charge of this group of kids and has to discipline the kids and he's always got this classic line which is I got to thump and take your man off the pain . And he grabs this young kid's hand and then the lady's like no , no , no , don't , don't , don't break that kid's finger . And I was gonna say it . It's very similar to that .

Speaker 1 6:57

If you only have one problem , you think it's a big deal . You know like it's , because it's all you can think about , because it is so inconvenient and because you haven't experienced it before . You don't . You haven't developed any tools or coping mechanisms . It's just boggling . You're like , fuck , what do I do now ? I can't this , I can't that . Every time I walk upstairs , you know it just seeps into every part of your life because it's new and you don't know how to deal with it . But once it's not your first rodeo and you've torn a ligament here , you've strained a rotator cuff , there you get familiar with the process of how the hell do I deal with this ? And then , once you've learned that , you're like , ah , this is okay , it's okay , she's not calling me back , there's other fish in the sea . I text her five times . Why hasn't she replied before midnight ? I sent her so many photos of myself naked . Why didn't I get any back ?

Speaker 1 7:55

You learn that injury ain't thinking about you , you're thinking about it . Injury doesn't give a fuck about you , it's busy hurting other people too . It's out there in the world . It doesn't care about you . I thought that she belonged to only me . She belonged to jujitsu .

Speaker 1 8:12

Injuries hurting everybody and the hard thing is when it's new , it's sensational . But when , when you've been there a couple times , like , once you've lost your first tooth from getting kicked in the face , losing a tooth ain't so bad , you know , like it , it becomes normal . You're like , oh , I'm a freak , fuck , I'm missing a tooth . Get the tooth replaced . Replaced , you lose another tooth . You think I've done this before and so did you ever have an injury , one-itis , joe , where you just had that injury that just you're like , oh fuck , I'm retired now . Oh , no , I can't say that , I've , not , to my recollection .

Navigating Injury and Medical Advice

Speaker 1 8:49

You know , I think I was pretty oblivious to injuries back at that early stage . Sure , because I was just blinded by testosterone , you know , mid to late 20s , taking them left , right and center . Yeah , you know you , and I'm sure you can vibe with that where you're just like , whatever you get injured , but you just keep doing the thing anyway . Sure , you know , I think it's . I think that the person that I was having this discussion with , and I think that the people who are in the training realm these days , they're a bit more intelligent , they have better information , they know more , and so they're more considered . Sure , and that's great , right , it's excellent , it's a progression of , you know , the collective .

Speaker 1 9:32

However , sometimes knowing more causes you to kind of get fixated on the thing , overthinking Exactly , whereas when you're just like , nah , it's fucking sweet , I'll just take a couple of weeks off , which is what 25-year-old Joey would have said . Sure , I actually got by on that . Yeah , you know , to talk about , like , say , my knee now , which which I I sort of tweaked it at training yesterday , um , I've been like the last 24 hours I've been catastrophizing a little bit like fuck man , are you for real like this is my other knee like surgery ? You know ? Like just all that shit . Do I even want to do jujitsu anymore ? All that stuff , yeah , and then today I I did a workout this morning and the knee's feeling a lot better than it was last night and I'm like sweet , it's going to be fine . Yeah , and that that's a key phrase right there , the catastrophization . So this is where I think , um , getting the right , uh , advice and help is important , like , not , not that , because there's obviously ends to the spectrum .

Speaker 1 10:29

So there's a pretty famous entrepreneur and , as she said , she had a . She had a single dad . Her mom died when she was quite young and he was a walk it off kind of dad . She was like doing stuff on a BMX bike and she'd gone off a jump and she fell . She broke her arm and her collarbone and she was quite a ways away from her house . And she got to a pay phone , called her dad at work . He's like , well , I'm at work , you're just going to have to walk home . Like , I'm sure it's not that bad .

Speaker 1 10:57

She had her bones sticking out , yeah , like just fucking jog on , you know . And she said , because he didn't go , oh , we'll get an ambulance , I'll be there right away . She had to just deal with the pain of her collarbone and her broken up . She didn't know . She's like , oh , this is bad . And so she literally walked five miles home with her bike because she couldn't ride it , yeah , and then just sat at home and watched tv and and and wait , had to wait till he got home from work . And eventually he didn't take her to the hospital then because he's like that seems tomorrow . But she had started bleeding from a cut where the bone was like trying to poke through her skin . We should probably go to the hospital .

Speaker 1 11:36

But this gave her a totally different mentality because she had to just deal with the fucking pain . Now we're not saying that you should , um , not address your injuries , but that is probably the extreme end of not taking care of yourself , but it gave her a toughness mentality . There is something good in there , there is a value in that . But then if , if we find a physio or a doctor who says , oh well , you're . Oh that's , that's terrible . You're , you're not , you're out , you'll never walk again . You know , you're like jujitsu . I don't think you'll be doing any more of that . You know like you get those . I've seen the way you guys break those timber boards with your bare hands , spinning kicks , judo chop . Thanks , doc Taibo , champion of Australia .

Speaker 1 12:22

So I think it was important , because I actually got this phrase from our friends , the Open Mat Physio , when I was hanging out with them in LA Shout out to the dudes , shout out , they're the best . And they were like yeah , our role as physios is we don't want to catastrophize this , because that actually makes the client more alarmed . Yeah , like if we say no , it's okay , you'll get through this , you'll be all right they actually respond better to the treatment as opposed to going oh my God , this is a war wound . I haven't seen an injury this bad in my whole career . That then makes them more reactive and more emotional about it , and trying to find that delicate balance of you need to look after this . But also , don't , don't freak out . Don't freak out . Yeah , it's important , it's true .

Speaker 1 13:09

Yeah , the words you know , yeah , the how the practitioner frames things and what they say to you . It's so powerful even for me , like knowing all of this . Yeah , if I go and see a practitioner and they're like whatever , just the things that they say , I notice that those things stay with me . They affect you , yeah , kind of forever . Yeah , like when a practitioner says , oh , you gotta , wow , you really got quite .

Speaker 1 13:30

A um , like your pelvis is really quite tilted . You know , like you do a lot of sprinting and you're like , oh , fuck , what really ? Like , have I got postural issues ? No , no , it's okay , you know , but it could be a problem , you know . It just plants the seed in your mind . You're like , well , I got fucking postural issues . I don't , I don't know . Like , because they're the professional right , I just got fucking big glutes . Cunt , my pelvis is perfectly straight . You've never seen a fucking huge . But donka , donka , yes , like this junk in the trunk . Motherfucker . Haters will say it's photoshopped little . Do they know ? You get a hold of these glutes and that over under you're like god damn , I can't even get my hand around . I gotta get my whole arm around it .

Speaker 1 14:06

But here's the deal . You've had a serious injury and you're freaking out because you don't know any better . That's fair . But you need to get informed , you've got to find out . And also you might go to a physical therapist and they might be an idiot . They might be like oh , I don't know what this is . Oh yeah , I guess just don't walk . Don't know what this is . Oh yeah , I guess just don't walk . Uh , you're probably gonna have to see a surgeon and they do nothing for you . That doesn't mean that all physical therapists are useless . It just means that one didn't kind of help you and many people when they go to a doctor , they will go get a second opinion if depending , if they're happy with the , the information they got .

Speaker 1 14:43

I think it's really important because both joey and I've learned a bunch from our injuries that when you get that first big injury , you don't want to stay stuck in like mode . You've got to be like all right , fuck , how do we deal with this ? What now ? What are the steps ? And the first thing I always do because we get people all the time saying to us hey man , I've got this pain in my back . What do I do about that ? And we we go ah sorry , I don't have mri vision .

Speaker 1 15:09

Um , can't diagnose this over the internet on a chat room you know what I love on that when , like you know , we put all this shit out , content and stuff , and then , like people , just text through this huge instagram message like so I've got this . Boom , boom , boom , boom , boom , like whole injury thing . Yeah , what do I need to do ? There's no like preface of hey man , um , love your content . How are you mind if I asked you a question about my injury ? It's just like hey , doctor , fix this . Hey , free doctor . I'm like yeah , bro , just go fucking train as hard as you can , you'll be good . Knee injury yeah , pistol squats , loaded pistol squats yeah , lots of plyometrics , heaps of jumping . Just push through the pain , you'll be right . Look , here's the thing you don't wait to say thanks , cunt .

Speaker 1 15:56

None of what we are talking about here is actual medical advice . It's just general advice to be able to steer you , like , towards the people who can give you medical advice . That's right , but you can also sue if they don't tell you what you want to know or tell you the wrong thing , whereas we are more you know , I should say entertainment than education . But bear with me . If you don't know what you need to do next , this is what I would recommend you need to .

Speaker 1 16:24

I would say some people have said I can't go to a physical therapist unless I get a referral from a doctor . That's not how it works . In Australia you can just call up a physio and go there . You can't do that like in the US . It depends it depends on your health cover and it also depends on what state in America you live in , because it's a different state to state . So whatever you've got to do , get to see a physical therapist .

Speaker 1 16:50

Most likely they will ask for a scan . They're going to say x-rays don't do squat for ligaments . So getting an x-ray can often just be a gimmick and it will expose you to radiation unless you have a broken bone . But if it's clear you don't have a broken bone , don't get an x-ray . It's not going to do diddly squat for understanding ligaments . If you've got a sore joint , it's probably not a broken bone . Yeah , you need to get the MRI and depending on where you are in the world , that might be expensive or not . But at least then the practitioner knows what the hell is going on .

Speaker 1 17:20

Ultrasounds are also , I think , a good intermediate , like cheaper Yep , it might be a halfway step , depending on who you're talking to . Yeah , and then what would be really important also is to get the physical like push them right . You're paying money to be there with them . It could be 70 bucks , it could be 370 bucks . You've got that time . Don't be passive . Like ask them , like okay , how bad is this on a scale of one to ten , like how long will it take me to ? What do I need to do to get it right ? Can I get a rehab program ? What should I be doing in the gym ? Yeah , like , what should I avoid ? Get as much out of that as you can , because that is your opportunity to learn .

Overcoming Injuries in Athletics

Speaker 1 17:58

And then it's also your opportunity to get over this bitch , this injury , because you're like she did me wrong . I gotta get past this . I got a case of the one artist , doc . I've got to move on , but I can't . Looks like I got you , bro . I've got to let something take mine off the paint .

Speaker 1 18:16

So it's the challenge , but it's the opportunity . Yeah , and then , invariably , this is something your coaches are going to tell you . You are going to get another injury . Yeah , just stick around , you'll , it'll come , it'll happen , it'll happen . But what's great about going through this process of getting over your first major injury is you do get some tools , you do develop a few systems and processes for how to deal with it , and then that can help speed up the process of moving on .

Speaker 1 18:44

And moving on to your next great love , which might be a shoulder injury or a herniated disc , whatever it might be . You love the game . You've got to love the pain . So it is a challenge , my friends , but definitely , even though it may be your first , it won't be your last , and how well you deal with this one will dictate how well you deal with the subsequent ones , because maybe , if you don't get past one itis , this bad boy might retire you . You know , it might just take you out and you just become that weird uncle who never , never , has any love in their life and sits on the side of the mat .

Speaker 1 19:22

Yeah , yeah , I did jiu-jitsu for six months back in the day but blew my knee out . Now I just , uh , just do lawn bowls , play a bit of bocce on the side . Yeah , I was a warrior , but you know , it's the price of the game . Just talking smack on the side , watching everyone else enjoy jiu-jitsu ? Don't be that guy , don't do that . But um , my friends , we do have a small ask for you , because we we do appreciate you giving us your attention and if you could bring your attention to the subscribe or follow button , depending on where you're seeing or listening to this , that would help us a lot . And on your audio platforms , give us a five-star rating , because that means more people in need can get to see and hear this content . So please just bring your attention not only to the sound of our smooth voices , but to that subscribe and follow button . Hit it and give us a five-star rating . We appreciate you .