Issue 153

Chiropractor Robert Haley provides expert advice on how to get healed and work through your injuries.

Unfortunately, in the world of mixed martial arts, injuries are almost inevitable. Once an injury occurs and is stabilized the next question is: how long will I be out? This is not always a simple question to answer, dependent on many factors.

Some of the important aspects that must be considered in determining healing time would include: the severity of the injury, what structures are damaged, age and physical condition of the athlete.

In dealing with mixed martial artists, their physical condition is rarely an issue nor is their age for the most part. So we need to primarily concentrate on severity of the injury and what specific structures are damaged.

BONE FRACTURES

Some of the common structures that can get injured in MMA are bones, nerves, muscles and ligaments.

A bone fracture is a crack or break in a bone that can occur from a high-impact trauma to a bone. Examples would be: suffering a fractured forearm while blocking a kick, or suffering a rib fracture while being slammed to the ground with your opponent on top.

With fractures, the different types are classified depending on how a bone is broken. A simple fracture breaks in one place while a comminuted fracture can fragment into several pieces.

In an undisplaced fracture the ends of the bones are aligned, but in displaced fractures the bones are not aligned. Usually an uncomplicated fracture will heal in four to six weeks. But more severe fractures can take months to heal.

Injury to a nerve is classified by the pathological change that occurs to the nerve. This can range from a minor Grade I injury, in which full recovery is anticipated, to a crushing or tearing of a nerve as seen in a Grade III injury. Grade III nerve injuries can result in permanent impairment.

Luckily, Grade III nerve injuries are not that common in MMA. More usual would be a Grade I nerve injury. This can be seen in a cervical ‘burner’ injury. This results from a trauma to the neck and shoulder that causes a traction or opposite side compression injury to the brachial plexus which are nerves that lie in the neck.

If you ever experienced this injury you can attest to feeling a burning sensation down your arm. This can be transient and last for a few moments or longer due to increased severity. Overall this type of injury should heal within a few days with the more complicated cases lasting for months.

SPRAINS AND STRAINS

The most common injuries associated with MMA are to the muscles and ligaments. These would be in the form of sprains and strains. To clarify, a sprain is a stretching or tearing of a ligament and a strain would be stretching or tearing to a muscle or the tendon which connects the muscle to the bones.

They are graded by severity with a Grade I sprain or strain, in which there is stretching of the structure with some very mild tearing possible.

Grade II is more moderate where incomplete tearing is noted. Complete rupture of a ligament or muscle would be a Grade III injury. Most mild to moderate sprains and strains can heal within three to eight weeks. Grade III injuries can take months to heal and it's not uncommon for them to require surgery. This is a common scenario with ACL injuries.

To be able to safely return from injury, the area should be pain free and not experiencing any dysfunction as a residual of the injury. There should be no swelling present and full range of motion should be achieved.

If it is an extremity injury you can compare the range of motion to the opposite side.

Also, compared to the opposite side, your muscle strength should be normal. If you are recovering from a lower-body injury you should be able to fully bear weight without a problem. You should also be able to perform movements that stress the lower body like running, squatting, lifting your opponent, kicking and shooting takedowns without any difficulty.

For upper-body injury you should be able to perform pushing and pulling movements against resistance, throw punches and move your arms around without difficulty.

INJURY RECOVERY TIPS

1: Always try to maintain your fitness level while you are healing. An example would be if you injured your upper body you still should be able to work your lower body and vice versa.

2: Don’t try to come back before healing is complete. This can increase the chance of re-injury and lengthen the healing process.

3: Also, the quicker injuries are recognized and proper medical evaluation and treatment are provided, the faster you can get back to training and competition.

BONE MACHINE

• As a baby, you're born with 300 bones, however as you get older it decreases down to 206
• All those muscles that you're constantly working on account for 40% of the weight in your body