Dear Steemers & BJJers,
This topic is a sensitive one for me because I've been living with chronic back pain every day for several years now. After training I usually don't sleep well, and toss and turn to find a less painful position. During the day it's basically the same, but I noticed that the more I move, the less it hurts, so resting is not the answer for me.
I once did a handstand in my house (o a tile floor!) and fell on my hip, which has left me with pain that feels like a sciatica and comes and goes. Apparently now, my body compensates by using all the muscles on the other side of my hip and torso, hence my hips are not leveled anymore, and the result is constant hip and lower back pain on the left side, while having the "sciatic"-like pain on the right.
In short, I'm a mess...
Now before you all rip my head off, YES I've seen doctors. A spine specialist, and a hip specialist as well as an osteopath. Both specialists told me to just take pain meds and stop doing BJJ. You can imagine how I followed that advice.
First of all I can't take anyone seriously who thinks that pain meds are the answer. They basically just mask your issue without eliminating the cause. And stop doing BJJ? Come on, give me a break!
The osteopath thought that my issue was muscular and that I had to just stretch every day. I've been doing that but not much has changed...
How does it affect my #BJJ?
Well it makes it hard for me to do exercises such as certain take-downs or anything that requires me to throw a person over my shoulder while standing. Luckily for me, there are plenty of variations, such as double and single leg, and of course I can always pull guard if need be. But I prefer not to play bottom =)
It also makes it painful to have a heavier person on my mount. If a guy mounts me, I basically have to tap if I'm having a very bad day.
Sometimes, I can only do the warm up and techniques, but not roll at the end of the class. It's just not worth it hurting myself even more, and not being able to train the next day.
Luckily, I don't always have days that end up with jiujitsu blue balls, as my friend @angiebocas calls it. I do roll most classes, but I choose my training partners carefully. I tend to avoid male white belts who don't know any better than to use their strength, as well as those who always fight as if their life depended on it.
Thankfully that doesn't apply to too many people at my gym =)
I found this YouTube channel Yoga for BJJ, and I'm trying to do some of these exercises on a daily basis. I say "trying" because sometimes I just forget or don't have time (or when I'm just plain lazy!)
I'm sure that I could have advanced much faster in BJJ if this wasn't constantly holding me back. My professor would probably respond to that, that BJJ isn't a race, it's a marathon.
It's frustrating, and has a huge influence on my mood. Sometimes I just want to cry and give up, but of course I'm not going to do that.
If you have any tips on how to deal with back pain while training BJJ feel free to comment =)
Oss