F@#%!!! Injured again...

As posted previously, I was back into the swing of things- I hit class on Friday, Saturday, and then again Monday which was an excellent kick-off to my planned Mon /Wed/ Fri/ Sat schedule.

Monday night it happened. I was doing an up-down-out drill from the closed guard with a 2-stripe white belt and he compressed my rib cage hard enough that it popped my lowest rib on the left side.

Here I come to a quandary- I don't want to blame the kid that hurt me. He was just trying to learn Jiu Jitsu. Really, this injury was the result of flawed logic on my part. I figured I'd send myself down to the Intermediate classes for a while to shake off any mat rust from my prolonged summer hiatus. This turned out to be bad logic because what I had forgotten was that drilling with low level guys generally has a major negative side effect: They try really HARD. The belt around my waist is a target to them, and by "beating" me (by any and all means possible) they prove to themselves that they are tough guys. This means they clamp down on me with all their might, really force positions using muscle and limited technique, and generally try to hurt me. It's not as intentional as it sounds, but rolling with newer students tends to be pretty rough. What I need to be doing is practicing technique- and that only happens with the higher level dudes. Lesson learned, remember for when I return...

Let me tell you- a popped rib sucks BIG TIME as a BJJ injury. I can't do shit. I can't even drill since it hurts to sit up, and I risk perpetuating the injury if I just try to tough my way through it. It hurt to sit in my chair at work, it hurt to sleep at night- the only time it didn't seem to hurt was when I was running or swimming.

To treat the problem I have been using DoTerra Deep Blue rub along with a portable ultrasound. this along with a healthy dosage of ibuprofen has been getting me along for the past 2 weeks, and now it seems i may be ready to come back to the mat again for some drill work, and light rolling. I plan to head back to Easton on Monday to begin (again)

In the mean time- I'm rucking the Denver Rock-N-Roll Half Marathon on Saturday with some of my GORUCK Challenge peeps. I bought a nice new Isreali civilian model gas mask just for the occasion... should be fun.