Written by Most people in my day-to-day life don’t know this, but these past few years I’ve been having fairly bad joint issues. I’ve been hypermobile all my life. I’ve got bendy fingers; my shoulders are so flexible that the Americana shoulder lock doesn’t even work, my knees are almost always locked when I’m standing ( and yes, I have been trying to fix that ), and I’ve always been close friends with ankle sprains and breaks. Around 2 years ago I had a really bad ankle injury; luckily nothing was broken, but I was in a boot for at least a month (I probably should have worn it for more, but I really hate that thing), and even after I wasn’t able to run or stretch my right foot without it hurting; even just walking sucked for a while. So I adapted; I stopped doing the runs before class, took a break from sparring, I tried acupuncture, taping, stretches, muscle strengthening, and slowly, oh my god, so slowly, it got better. I’m still not back to how it used to be, but I’ve made some progress.
Let me explain: my joints aren’t torn or anything- they’re what’s known as “lax”- meaning my connective tissue isn’t strong enough to hold them together sometimes. In addition to strengthening exercises, I’m also trying something called Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy is a complementary therapy that uses a joint irritant like dextrose as well as vitamin B and ozone to jump-start the body’s collagen-making processes. It’s helped me so much! I started being able to go to sparring class again, still careful, but hey, at least I’m sparring! So far, my black belt test has definitely been a strain. I’ve been walking/biking a lot, and I know it will help strengthen my joints. It’s still really hard to keep going in the moment. I’ve learned to take lots of breaks while training, as my knees also hurt now. But every morning that I wake up and feel a little less sore is a win. I’m able to do more spins and fancy moves each week, and as I build stability, I’m a little less worried about screwing them all up again. There are still off days, but recovery isn’t linear, and I’m glad that I’m slowly seeing progress!
