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Muay Thai | September 26, 2015 | Muay Thai Basics

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Outside of competing in the ring, sparring is the biggest culprit to most Muay Thai injuries. If you are sparring with different people all the time, you should expect a minor injuries every once in a while. After training for a while, you will start to notice less injuries as you start anticipating moves, techniques, attacks and defensive moves while adapting to the training.

Here are the 7 the most common training injuries that will challenge you:

#1. Swollen/Sprained Ankles

When you connected a kick on your sparring partners elbows, most shin guards have a little area around your ankle that is unprotected, which is one of the reasons why you don’t get the needed protection.

Ankle sprains are another injury that can occur, but they don’t happen quite as often.  If you do sprain your ankle, make sure you do strengthen exercises to help you recovery from the sprain. Having a weak ankle in training is not suggested.

Prevention Methods: Time your kicks better so they don’t land on your opponents elbow. This can be a lot easier said then done and if you have an injured ankle you can also wear ankle guards to provide a bit up extra cushion and protection for soft or hurt ankles.

#2. Bruised Shins

Bruised shins are the probably biggest annoyance for people who are new to Muay Thai since they haven’t yet been properly conditioned to withstand the blows.  Thus, you will have a lot of pain when you first start kicking. This is something you will have to get used to.

The problem for most people is they want hard shins right away. This doesn’t happen. Over time your shins will harden, but you have to endure the pain first. Once you have properly conditioned your shins, the only time your shins will consistently get injured is after a fight.

When you get into the ring for the first few times, I can guarantee that your shins will get busted up at the end. Realistically, it can take a long time after your first fights to be able to kick with full power. It takes a while before they start to harden up and you experience far less pain.

Prevention Methods: Slowly condition your shins over time. I see a lot of people online who are beating their shins with baseball bats trying to toughen them up. You need to gradually build up your shins or you won’t be able to use them. Hitting a hard heavy bag is a great way to naturally condition your shins.

#3. Sprained Wrists

Spraining your wrist usually happens when you are a heavy bag and a punching with full power. If you hit the bag at the wrong angle your wrist can bend the wrong way, and there’s a good chance of getting a wrist sprain.

Once you sprain your wrist you will have to take it easy and make sure you give your wrist time to heal. If you have a hurting wrist, you won’t be able to spar or clinch properly.

Prevention Method: Make sure you properly wrap your wrists so they are fully protected. If you have a sprained wrist you can tape it in place before training to make sure that it doesn’t move around when you are punching the bag.

#4. Injured Elbows

One of the side effects to blocking a lot of head kicks with your arms is that it can hurt your elbow. If your sparring partner lands hard kicks on your elbow, your elbow will probably hurt for a few days.

This is especially true if you are sparring taller fighters who throw higher kicks at your arm level. If you don’t lean back from the kicks, you will find that your arms naturally absorb the impact of the kicks when you are sparring.

Prevention Methods: The best way to prevent this is to avoid sparring hard with your partner. Another method is to lean back if your sparring partner is throwing a lot of high/head kicks at you. This will prevent your arms from absorbing the damage.

#5. Strained/Pulled Neck Muscle

You must get used to clinching.  The first few weeks of clinching will be rough. Expect your neck to be constantly sore from resisting your opponents locks. If you clinch with more experienced guys, expect them to get you in some good locks in the clinch.

Most of the time when you strain your neck, you likely will only have to wait a few days before it feels better. Before training warm up your neck to get the blood flowing. The more you clinch, the stronger your neck muscles will become. This will reduce the amount of soreness you experience from clinching.

Prevention Methods: Strengthen your neck muscles with exercises outside of training. This will help you get used to people pulling down on your head. Another way to avoid this is don’t let your clinching partner to get his hands in position around your neck. Use your arms to block any inside grips he has on you.

#6. Bruised Legs

If you ever spar against someone who is good at throwing low kicks, there is a good chance you will walk away limping. Even if someone isn’t throwing their kicks 100%, repetitive kicks to the same part of the leg will cause you to be sore. Unless you have conditioned your legs to take kicks, low kicks will hurt most.

Fortunately, taking low kicks in sparring is not so bad. It will toughen your legs and teach you how to deal with pain. The hardest part of taking low kicks is rubbing out your legs when you notice knots that have formed. This is where the real pain begins.

Prevention Methods: Block your low kicks. If you are not blocking your low kicks, you deserve to be limping around after sparring–again, keep your focus and head on what you’re doing. This is the best way to teach you through the feedback loop that you need to block. Trust me, a few weeks of limping around and low kicks will definitely be on your mind.

#7. Headaches and Concussions

Every once in a while you might leave training with a minor headache if you had a hard sparring session. This is especially true if you are sparring with people who come from Eastern Europe and have K-1 Kickboxing styles.

Whenever you experience headaches or concussion like symptoms it is important that you try and give your brain a break.

Concussions are no laughing matter, so if you are dizzy for a few days after training, make sure you take time off. If you ever get knocked out, you should get immediate medical attention and certainly take a few days off, even if you feel fine the next day.

Final Thoughts

This list could be a lot longer and include things like busted up toes, bruised ribs, strained groins, knee injuries, injured knuckles, shin splints, and infections (mainly in Thailand) but I don’t want to completely scare people away from training. The bottom line is if you train hard, you can expect to suffer from the occasional injury from time to time.

To prevent injuries in training it is important to properly warm up before training and make sure you stretch. Taking the right precautions will ensure that you keep the injuries to a minimum. Adequate rest days will also help you recover when you are training hard.

Just because you have an injury, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come to training. There are plenty of things you can do to improve while you are injured. Remember to train hard and train smart!

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source:  Never fight with bulls!If you play with fire, you know what can happen! If you “play” with bulls, you know exactly that you are an idiot. Now, if you are a complete moron, stupid enough to combine both things, well, this is what you get!!#safetheanimalRegards Sabrina Terence