Training while injured, my thoughts and yours....

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[Mary Eastland]

Am I enough even if I am broken or bent? "Of course!" I say to others.
Inside me there is a tiny voice that says "NO, go hide until you are better. Don't drag your chair out on the mat and throw. How embarrassing! What will people think?"
The little voice...(I have named her Mildred), is a negative part of my brain that would like me isolated, alone, drinking myself to death.
As I sat in my chair in class yesterday I noticed she had really quieted down, especially after I led warm ups. After I got to throw shomen uchi sankyo from my chair she completely disappeared. Have you ever noticed that when you shine the flashlight of your heart on the demons in your mind, the demons melt away into the nothingness?
See ya on the mat. I will be the one in the chair for a little while longer until my leg completely heals.

[Rabih Shanshiry]

Active training while injured is good to the extent that you don't prolong your own healing or cause injury to others.

And don't forget: mitori geiko is training too.

[Janet Rosen]

There are times with acute injury it pays just to watch the training, to ensure proper healing. Other than that... yeah our own worst enemy can be the voices in our heads telling us we aren't good enough...

[Eva Antonia]

Hi,

last year in September I got knee surgery, and I passed three months without doing aikido at my ease...three months too much for my pleasure, and three months to little for my doctor. I sat aside (two weeks), I played at kids instructor (two months and a half), telling myself that taking ukemi from the real teacher to demonstrate a technique wouldn't be really aikido and therefore didn't fall under the doctor's ban - and then we had a seminar in our dojo. I had classes at the university to keep me out of temptation, but they were cancelled, and I just came to watch how it was and who participated...and there I was back on the mat.

My Mildred is just the opposite. She says: "go by bike to the hospital and get the surgery; you'll be a miserable wimp if you don't dare that", or she says "just try that seminar; it won't hurt you, it's just once...", she says "you'll regret the things you didn't dare to do, never those you dared to and failed", she always pushes me to go one step further than common sense would allow - so I'd call her rather Wildred than Mildred, and it is difficult not to succumb.

Best,

Eva

[susanmarie]

My Mildred is just the opposite. She says: "go by bike to the hospital and get the surgery; you'll be a miserable wimp if you don't dare that", or she says "just try that seminar; it won't hurt you, it's just once...", she says "you'll regret the things you didn't dare to do, never those you dared to and failed", she always pushes me to go one step further than common sense would allow - so I'd call her rather Wildred than Mildred, and it is difficult not to succumb.


Your Wildred and mine must be related, they say the same things. :D

[RED]

I have 3 broken discs in my back and hernias in my wrists. I've experimented with both training a little while injuries heal(as much as what I described can heal.), and I've experimented with getting off of my feet altogether.
In my experience getting off your feet altogether grants the best results. You heal quicker, and hour per hour it allows you to train more classes later, and for more hours per training session. When I'd train "soft" while injured the Aikido was sub-par in my opinion, and I would technically still be training less hour, compared to when I took myself off the mat entirely. Removing myself from the mat entirely allowed me to heal quicker, and thus get more training hours per week/month.
My experience, might be different for you.

[Peter Goldsbury]

Hello Mary,

Sorry to hear read of your injury.

I strongly suggest that you do not resume your normal training schedule too soon. I did after a meniscus injury and am now having to cope with arthritis and knee injections.

Best wishes,

Peter Goldsbury

Am I enough even if I am broken or bent? "Of course!" I say to others.
Inside me there is a tiny voice that says "NO, go hide until you are better. Don't drag your chair out on the mat and throw. How embarrassing! What will people think?"
The little voice...(I have named her Mildred), is a negative part of my brain that would like me isolated, alone, drinking myself to death.
As I sat in my chair in class yesterday I noticed she had really quieted down, especially after I led warm ups. After I got to throw shomen uchi sankyo from my chair she completely disappeared. Have you ever noticed that when you shine the flashlight of your heart on the demons in your mind, the demons melt away into the nothingness?
See ya on the mat. I will be the one in the chair for a little while longer until my leg completely heals.

[dps]

My Mildred is just the opposite. She says: "go by bike to the hospital and get the surgery; you'll be a miserable wimp if you don't dare that", or she says "just try that seminar; it won't hurt you, it's just once...", she says "you'll regret the things you didn't dare to do, never those you dared to and failed", she always pushes me to go one step further than common sense would allow - so I'd call her rather Wildred than Mildred, and it is difficult not to succumb.

Best,

Eva

It sounds like this Mildred is a friend of Arthur (Ritis) an unwanted constant companion.

dps :)

[Michael Hackett]

Taking the time to fully recover will pay off. Rushing back to strenuous activity can set you back considerably. Go to class and watch, maybe take notes. Watch some video, read a few books and heal completely and properly. A couple of extra weeks now can mean a lifetime of being able to do what you wish. Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery!

[SeiserL]

When I was asked this question a while back I asked the person if they were over 18.

If they were under 18 and not training while injured, they were whimps.

If they were over 18 and not training while injured, they were showing wisdom.

Lets hope we are learning some intelligence and wisdom about training and not macho ignorance.

[Shadowfax]

About 6 weeks ago I severely sprained a meniscus, doing a simple tenkan pivot of all things.. I also was extremely upset about the prospect of not training. To make matters worse I was supposed to be testing last week and knowing that not training and the injury was going to postpone testing made me even more unhappy and frustrated.

After consulting a number of people, my sensei, my Dr and a friend who has been a professional martial artist for many years. Even with that friend saying I could go ahead and train. I decided to just give my body the time it needed to heal. Like Sensei said this is just a small interruption in what will, hopefully, be a very long aikido career. I sat out for about 3 weeks. Still attending every class and observing,taking video notes etc. No it wasn't easy sitting there dying to jump up and train every calss, but I did it.

It was kind of funny when one of my fellow students was leaving after first class and noticed that I was staying. His comment was ,"don't you have dishes or something to do?" Like just because I can't train physically means I should be home doing something more interesting? :confused:

I really was afraid this was going to be a big setback and watching was just not going to be useful. But it turned out that watching classes was really very interesting. I was able to see things I never saw before.

Yes when I got back on the mat I felt a bit out of kilter for a while but I had not forgotten how to do aikido and I actually felt as if I had gained something from the experience. I also discovered that that time was actually a really good educational experience.

My first couple of weeks back on the mat I took things easy but I'm back to training at full capacity and to be honest feeling better physically than I had for some time leading up to the injury. In a way I'm kinda glad I got hurt.

Anyway. Take the time to rest and heal. ;)

[Keith Larman]

Heck, I'm on hiatus right now due to a broken tail bone although I did teach a segment of a workshop that didn't require me to hit the ground. I have attended a number of our instructor classes and advanced classes just to watch. I often learn more watching from the sidelines. I also enjoy watching students I help train to see how they do with someone covering my class. It gave me ideas on better ways to approach things for some students when I see how they react to someone else's approach. Good to keep an open mind -- we all get into our own patterns and seeing someone react well to another approach should give one inspiration.

If you're in it long term a few weeks off here and there makes no difference at all. Heal quickly, but come back slowly. I fight it too wanting to get out there before I'm ready. But... there will hopefully be many more days to train. So better to train healthy than be distracted and running only on half of the cylinders.

[Marc Abrams]

Mary:

I am lying in bed, with my left arm in a sling, one day after shoulder surgery. Great surgery, minimal damage. This is my third joint surgery in my life (each knee also scoped). I will be back to teaching as a one-armed Napoleon tomorrow. I start PT next week and will not resume my physical training for 8-12 weeks. I NEVER push my recovery. I work my PT to the max. and will not resume my 6-day training weeks until I am fully ready. Our old bodies do not heal quickly and we really need to respect and treat our bodies carefully.

I am already doing my breathing and internal energy work to quicken my healing time. I will use Chinese trauma liniment instead of ice. I will do everything I can to take responsibility for my injury. I recommend a similar approach for you too. This way, we can rejoice in training all-out again when we are truly ready.

Marc Abrams

[lbb]

Wow, we've got a real trauma ward in here! I'll be joining y'all in a couple weeks, post-surgery (hysterectomy). What I've been told is: two weeks before you're really up and about, six to eight weeks before I can train fully including ukemi. That's going to leave me sitting on the sidelines for the Lorraine DiAnne seminar at our dojo, and probably misogi as well.

I'm almost feeling like we ought to start a recovery/rehab club. Anyone in?

(Marc: "ice is for dead people" ;-))

[Janet Rosen]

Mary (M., not E.), I started aikido after being cleared post-hysterectomy. As I recall (its been nearly 15 years...) surgery was in the first wk of November and my first class was 3rd week of January because of holiday/birthday the first 2 weeks of the new year.
For anybody who has never had abdominal surgery (regardless of gender or procedure)...be aware that it's VERY weird to have NO muscle tone in the abdominal wall post-op. You just feel like everything is sloshing around, not to mention it makes the act of getting up from bed rather um.... challenging...

[lbb]

This won't be abdominal surgery, so I'm hopeful that there won't be a muscle tone problem...but I'm told there will be lots of fatigue. And, of course, a restriction against lifting more than ten pounds.

[Janet Rosen]

...but I'm told there will be lots of fatigue. And, of course, a restriction against lifting more than ten pounds.
I rather enjoyed having, at the time, paid time off (disability) and not being able to do housework .. MDH would bring me a cup of tea, a bit to eat and the newspaper in bed before going to work; dealing with those things would be so exhausting, it would be time for a nap...

[Elldav]

This won't be abdominal surgery, so I'm hopeful that there won't be a muscle tone problem...but I'm told there will be lots of fatigue. And, of course, a restriction against lifting more than ten pounds.

Hi Mary,
I started training again about 9 weeks after having my second caesarean section delivery - took it fairly easy at the beginning and it did take a while to get the tummy muscles back in shape (which won't be a problem for you). I'm not sure of your circumstances, but my mother-in-law (who is very fit and was a professional athlete) recovered from her hysterectomy very quickly because she felt so much better as a result of the op. Hope that's the case for you!

In regard to the OP, I have escaped serious injury from aikido but have trained through other ailments - my general rule is if it hurts, stop!
Elly