Last Monday night, we were doing a side control drill. Guy on top controls, on bottom try to escape/put the guy in the guard, normal drill.
I weigh about 220 and am a newer purple. A guy about 190 was on top of me, white belt, not that great. He's skinny and didn't even have much pressure on me. I did the usual and turned into him to hip out. As I did it my rib just popped and it was the worst pain ever. Had to drag my carcass to the ER that night.
WTF happened?? I've had people put way more pressure on me and my rib cage literally 100's of times in there. Was this a total fluke or am I now more susceptible to this type of injury and will this happen to me again?
My doctors told me with a broken rib there is nothing to do for it but rest and take Vicodin and Motrin. It still hurts a lot but is better than Monday. Of course all the drugs probably help.
Knowing me, I will try to train and lift much sooner than I should, when the pain becomes bearable.
But being smart, is that OK or should I wait longer to get back at it? If it's just slight discomfort that's OK, I just don't want to reinjure it or injure it worse by starting up too soon.
Anyone have a similar injury can advise me here? Thanks
Bro -
here is my advice to you. I had the exact same injury happen and have heard it happen to others who escaped their hips and POP the rib seems like it went in and came back in place and it was the worst pain ever. Really really bad, and I've broken my ribs before, etc., got kneed over the eye and need 16 stitches - this was the worst pain.
I came back way too early and was pressured to do a lot of warm up drills that highly aggravated it. Don't make my mistake. It is getting better now but it has been almost 9 months now since I originally injured it (it was reinjured a few times). The best thing you can do is DO NOT ROLL until you feel no pain at all and be super cautious with this injury. It is not worth dealing with it for almost a year now like I have.
Wait a month after you stop feeling pain before you even think about going to class. When you do, just go for the technique part of class so you can guage accurately from that one class how you feel.
Yes... I was playing football and fell on someone...no pain...
Day after I'm in bjj and I'm in a defensive position on my hands knees (turtle) and I've got a guy trying to get hooks in and I bridge and twist and fall into his half-guard...
choke him, he taps...I get up go get water...
I feel kinda tense, start to spar with someone else and the minute they pin me I have to have him off!
Really bad pain, ok...so I thought it was a pinched nerve...3-4 weeks go by and I return to class. Now I'm doing technique with the instructor who weighs more than me and he pins me...major pain again...Ok so I go to doctors, and he isn't sure if its fractured or not (25% of fractures aren't seen in x-ray if they are non-seperated).
He is pretty sure its a stress fracture in 2 places, so he prescribes me Vioxx.
Anyhow, its been a good 3-4 weeks of light light training. I took 2 weeks off and I'm just Muay-thai now with minimum technique. I dont feel much pain, but I'm going to wait till mid January to be completely healed.
When you do go back, remember to keep your ribcage inflated. Full lungs if you can to create a pillow and some movement.
I think its when you breath out and take an impact it's flex point is at its lowest and thats where it cracks.
Like you said, 100 times the same moves, 100 times doing things more dangerous then it just takes 1 time for it to snap...
I feel your frustration!
Yes... I was playing football and fell on someone...no pain...
Day after I'm in bjj and I'm in a defensive position on my hands knees (turtle) and I've got a guy trying to get hooks in and I bridge and twist and fall into his half-guard...
choke him, he taps...I get up go get water...
I feel kinda tense, start to spar with someone else and the minute they pin me I have to have him off!
Really bad pain, ok...so I thought it was a pinched nerve...3-4 weeks go by and I return to class. Now I'm doing technique with the instructor who weighs more than me and he pins me...major pain again...Ok so I go to doctors, and he isn't sure if its fractured or not (25% of fractures aren't seen in x-ray if they are non-seperated).
He is pretty sure its a stress fracture in 2 places, so he prescribes me Vioxx.
Anyhow, its been a good 3-4 weeks of light light training. I took 2 weeks off and I'm just Muay-thai now with minimum technique. I dont feel much pain, but I'm going to wait till mid January to be completely healed.
When you do go back, remember to keep your ribcage inflated. Full lungs if you can to create a pillow and some movement.
I think its when you breath out and take an impact it's flex point is at its lowest and thats where it cracks.
Like you said, 100 times the same moves, 100 times doing things more dangerous then it just takes 1 time for it to snap...
I feel your frustration!
Yes I do actually... I'm 215lbs and I've been lifting for about 7 years and I competed about 3 years ago and took 4th place ...
I've read that the muscles become so strong the improper movement actually torques the ribs and cracks them.
Which would explain my situation. Considering the guy was on my back and I used full force to lift him off in the air and twist to move him to the ground...snap...
I guess proper technique for escapes would have prevented this injury ! doh
"I guess proper technique for escapes would have prevented this injury ! doh "
I don't know. I like to lift weights but by no means am I a bodybuilder. And the move I got hurt on I was using zero stregth, just trying to do proper technique.
Thanks for the input guys, and I will take it easy til the pain is gone. Then I will slowly ease in, techniques only first, without the stessful warmups to see how my body can take it.
This sucks!
Yea,
I had pretty much the same thing happen to me. Had a guys back and tried to wiggle around for a better angle and pop went my rib. Very painful.
Went to the doc and he gave me the "nothing u can do but rest story".
So i took three weeks off, the rib actually felt pretty good at this point, so i decided to start rolling again. Well that lasted literally about two minutes before it popped again. It hurt even worse this time.
So another two months off.. Lasted about two weeks untill the damn thing popped again. Not so bad this time, but bad enough that i couldn't roll for about another month or so.
Its been about 10 months now since it first popped and i'm just now finally feeling confident with it again.
As much as you don't want to hear it if I where you (or if it happens to me again) i would take at least two months off maybe three and let the thing get good and healed. I wouldn't even train techs or anything as even the smallest movement can aggravate it.
There are worse things in life than taking a little time off.
Good luck bro.
i would take at least 2-3 weeks off.. when you come back.. just practice being on top.. passing guard or whatever. cause if you are on the bottom its easy to get stacked or have your body curl up - dont want that.
Take the rest advice and the ease back into it advise when you start back. Also, I found that a neoprene chest wrap worked great to keep mine from popping in and out every time I moved around. I think it helped me heal much faster by stabilizing the area. I don't advise wearing it all the time because the lungs don't need to have that much temperature change too long (bacteria and phenumonia, sp?). But, any time I had to work or do anyting active, I wore the wrap. Now, I keep one in my bag when it's not out on loan.
Where would I get a wrap like that?
Heal fast!
I've seen them on the rack at Walgreen's. I made mine from neoprene and velcro that I have at work.
it happened to Ryan Gracie in his second fight with Ishizawa.
Really? Did that end the fight?
Cuz if he was able to continue he's way more a man than I am. I couldn't have tapped out my 2 year old after I did it
same injury happened to me. ripped the cartilage from the point where the bottom 2 ribs insert into the sternum.
my advice to you. suck it up and don't take pain pills.
stephen
no he rolled over and tapped as soon as it happened
"my advice to you. suck it up and don't take pain pills.
stephen "
The reason I am taking the Motrin is that the doctor told me that it acts as an anti-inflammatory and should help me get better faster (as opposed to just masking the pain).
Why do you say to not take anything?
My pain threshold is pretty high, but if it gets me better faster I will keep taking it. If you think otherwise please let me know, thanks
motrin is not a pain pill.
when i ripped my ribs, the doc gave me a script for vicodin. looked at the side effects. way too many. the only side effect of ripped ribs is pain. i can deal with that.
stephen