Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery

Conventional Fitness advice will only compound your injury – spare yourself pain, discomfort and accelerate your recovery with just one simple change

By Paul "Batman" O'Brien 

B.A., N.C.E.H.S., Dip. Acu., Cert Clin. IMed., Dip. Adv. OBB, Dip. CHM, Pn1, PN-SSR, PN-NCA, M.AFPA., M.C.Th.A.

Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery is one the hidden gems of an isometric training system. All too often martial artists, and in fact many athletes are injured either in the training of their sport and art, or in the supplemental training such as weight lifting they think will benefit and improve their performance.

The funny thing is once they have been injured by their art or in weight lifting they seem to think that the training or weights that caused the injury can be used to rehab and fix it! And worse still countless doctors, physiotherapists and personal trainers continue to give out advice to this effect when in fact they are only compounding the damage and injury, increasing the length of recovery time needlessly!

I see this time and again in my medical practice where I treat sports injuries on a daily basis and it never ceases to amuse me how people blindly follow illogical advice that causes more pain and damage even when they see their health and injury getting worse.

Let me explain how you can recover from your injuries faster and bounce back stronger than ever without lifting weights or risking further injury so you can get back to doing what you love. To do this we will use Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery.

As martial artists we routinely subject our bodies to rigorous physical demands. We demand more of our bodies in training, then in many other sports or exercise regimes. We train for lightening fast reflexes, flexibility, near superhuman strength and physical intensity, cardiovascular stamina and endurance and in harder styles condition ourselves for combat, to be hit, suffer physical trauma and continue moving, to continue functioning at peak performance.

There is a price to be paid for such skill, for the results of training. Often it is injury. Muscle strains, bruises, black eyes and even broken bones. And we know it’s worth it. Some injuries are less sudden and dramatic, creeping up over time to challenge us. Joint pain, particularly in the knee’s hips, elbows and wrists is a common feature. Too many snapping mai geri’s or one to many days striking the makiwara can result in repetitive strain and stiff aching joints.

But how does these injuries actually effect the body? How do we adapt to them? And how can we use Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery?

The primary problem with most injuries isn’t to the actual muscle – these recover in about 3 days or so. The problem is the damage to the surrounding supportive tissue, the tendons and ligaments - they are so slow to heal is because of poor blood supply - keep this in mind, it'll be important later. Most doctors and physio’s tell you that takes about 3 months to heal from these, but that’s simply not true. In fact if you know what you are doing you can repair the body relatively quickly, and in a moment I’ll explain a little of that process so you can recover from injury far quicker than normally expected.

Unfortunately when people try to rehab injured muscle, while the muscle can take it they’ve given no though to the damage to tendon and ligament tissue. As a result these vital support tissues have been neglected and failed to recover as quickly as muscle. Training, PARTICULARLY IN A FULL RANGE OF MOTION – often interrupts the tissues attempts to heal and further compounded rather than accelerating the recovery process.

As you may have gathered from my other articles on this site, and in ebooks (7 Seconds to A Perfect Body!) full range training and conventional lifting techniques do not sit well with me as they can lead to repetitive injury, and a reduction in blood flow as a result of compression. And it is in this respect that Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery is the most useful.

Conventional full range lifting creates a reduction in the blood flow to the damaged, already low blood volume tissue of the tendons and ligaments, and just restricts blood volume further. BLOOD carries with it all the nutrients necessary for repair. Let’s look at it step by step....

Initial injury results in trauma to the ligaments, tendons and bones, compromising blood flow to an area that already has little.

Injury is often worse first thing in the morning - not surprising, blood flows out the limbs when we sleep and into the internal organs. On waking there is a reduced blood supply to the tendons and ligaments, leaving injured areas cold, stiff and achy.

Repetitive RoM training further compromises blood flow resulting in longer rehab time.

See where I am going here? ;-)

Increasing blood flow and circulation without compression damage is vital – and no other only ONE form of training offers increased blood flow and circulation without compression damage – that’s right – isometrics.

Isometric Training for Martial Arts Injury Recovery would help warm and lubricate the muscle, tendons and ligaments with vital necessary fluid - blood, resulting in a decrease in discomfort increased range of motion and strength. Tada....;-)

Avoid full RoM weightlifting, this compress the area and will cut off / reduce blood supply.

SO...IN CONCLUSION....

Full RoM - unnecessary and damaging. Isometrics - help you heal.

If you’d like to learn about how you can heal yourself and improve your overall strength, energy, muscle tone and lose fat all at the same time and in just SECONDS of actual training time, then I strongly suggest you take a look at my highly recommended 7 Week System called 7 Seconds to Build A Perfect Body, The Scientifically Proven Method for Transforming Your Body in Just Seconds!

With over 250 pages and filled with more than 130 photos it was a launched in January 08 to huge success and endorsed and praised by martial arts publications such as Irish Fighter Magazine. You can read more about the program and see my incredible transformation, even watch videos of my strength feats HERE.





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