About listening to my body and respecting, what it says.

If there is one thing, I have come to a conclusion about through out the years of training, it is, that when my body is trying tell me something, it is for a reason, and I shouldn't ignore it.

Six years ago, I got a herniated disc in my lower back after a deadlift 1 rep max test. Since then, I haven't done any lower body training because of pain in my leg. I have tried physiotherapy and all sorts of other weird stuff, but nothing really helped, and eventually, I just designed my life and training around the injury, not stressing it too much. A lot of situations in Jiu Jitsu, I just skip if I get there and if I have been standing up for about ten minutes, I always find a place to sit down, not even thinking about it.

I haven't really done any serious rehab training for my lower back since the injury. The first many years, I didn't even know what had happened. Since the pain was in my hip area, many doctors and physiotherapists failed to diagnose me. An MRI scan a few years back finally did the job, and it was nice to find out what was actually the problem.

Now, about a month ago, I re-injured my lower back. It was pretty bad, as I couldn't stand up for a full day. When that happened, I realized, that my body was trying to tell me something. It told me loud and clearly, that I shouldn't ignore my disc injury anymore, and it was now time to do something serious about it. There was no doubt about the message, and I completely got it.

The last month, I have been strengthening my lower back with a serious training programme and it seem to have done wonders. Not only is the injury gone, I feel like my back is even stronger now, than it was before. Since I herniated my disc six years ago, I have not been able to do any form of squat or deadlift. Even with the bar only and no weights on, I would be looking at a good week of nerve pain down my leg after a few sets.

I am thrilled to write, that last week, I managed to do deadlifts for the first time in six years, and I have had no pain from it at all. I am moving slowly and is currently lifting 70 kg and doing some hurdle jumps. It feels great to finally be able to do some leg training again.

Once again, I am reminded, that I should respect my body and obey to whatever it is telling me to do. I recommend you do the same :)

Training with Martin Aedma and putting weight back on

Training here at home is going well. It is nice to train with all my usual training partners again, and I enjoy sharing some of the experiences I have gained on my trip. Next week, I am starting up my competition team project for the 2012 Europeans, something that I really enjoyed doing last year.

Martin Aedma from Estonia is visiting my gym these days, teaching all the BJJ classes for two weeks. You might have seen his ever popular "Estonian guardpasses from hell" or read his blog, but if not, I highly recommend you doing that. Unfortunately, he just got a knee injury, which prevents him from rolling. I had been looking forward to do some sparring with him while he was here, but that will have to wait :-/

I did lose a lot of weight during the last part of my trip, going all the way down to 74 kilos at one point. I am working hard to put it back on, so I can reach a good weight for competing in the middle weight division. It is going pretty well and I hit 79 kilos this morning already. What a difference it makes to have access to a good rythm of food and training facilities.