The Injury Cycle and Jiu Jitsu
The Injury Cycle and Jiu Jitsu
We love to train, however often times it comes with a price which takes a toll on our bodies.
To be specific, once we over work a certain muscle through repetitive movement in any sport or activity, a few things occur.
Number one 1: Once a muscle has been over worked, it hinders the ability of that muscle’s antagonist to function. (Reciprocal Inhibition)
Example: Jiu Jitsu: Playing guard we are constantly performing hip flexion, which makes the psoas have increased neural drive (over active). Its antagonist, the Gluteus Maximus will now have decreased neural drive (underactive). This will lead to my next point Synergistic Dominance …
In the above example, we can see that now since the Glute Max is underactive, the body will try to adjust to still get the movement done. Which is called Synergistic dominance, in this case the hamstrings (which are the synergists and the erector spinae which are the stabilizers, and the piriformis which is the neutralizers will substitute and become over active ( Synergistic Dominance) Which now leads to decreased neuromuscular control, and altered joint kinematics. This now results in abnormal, joint movements, and proprioception, which affects posture and our center of gravity. The body will once again try to realign itself, however by doing so it will place stress onto other groups which is undue.
Look at it this way: if you read so far, thank you.
In my mind it would be like this.
Imagine a work place, where everyone has a job to do. In this work place, some people are doing way more then others, which decreases the performance of that company. (Reciprocal inhibition)
Now since the company is doing worse, others try to help who are not qualified for the job, but try to get the job done however they know how, which ends up being not the best since they are not in their field. (Synergistic dominance)
This leads to poor structure and function of the company as a whole, and places undue stress on the boss and the people up top. Which means everyone suffers in the end, including the consumers, etc as it goes down the chain of command. (Altered Joint Kinematics)
What you could do?
After every session, wherever you feel tightness and pressure, stretch and foam roll those spots, this will help keep the muscles more limber and prevent this whole thing from happening. Of course, it goes much deeper than this, I chose to use this as a prime example for Jiu Jitsu, there are many others. However, the good news is that this rule of stretching and releasing the tissue will forever remain.
Thank you for reading,
Stan with Wetek Personal Training and Massage Therapy
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