i just joined this forum. i got introduced to jiu jitsu by a friend like 5 months ago. i got really interested in it. my interest changed from jiu jitsu to submission grappling in mma. anyways 2-3 months in, i was working w/ a new guy. he was pretty big and strong, and had a TKD background. i was kind of letting him get submissions on me so he could get used to it, but i noticed his armbar wasnt very tight. i gave him some pointers "pull in my arm as close as u can. squeeze ur knees together tight as u can." etc than at the end i said "bridge" but he must have heard "bridge as hard as u can"... we heard a big POP! sound. the next day my arm was sore as **** so i went to get it checked at the hospital. they x rayed my arm wrong and told me it wasnt broken. they said it was some tendon thing and gave me stretches to do. these stretches hurt like ****. but after 2 months my arm felt better, and i went back to training. i had 2 or 3 days w/out my arm giving me any probs at all, thought it was great. then resisting an armbar, i had grabbed my hands together and wiggled my head from under his leg to come up it his guard. right as i thought i was safe, another POP! this time he didnt even get the armbar. i went to the hospital the next day, and they x rayed it and saw my forearm was broken. i tried to explain to the doctor what happened, but he had no idea what jiu jitsu was. they looked at my file and saw the first x ray was the wrong part of my arm. its funny cuz i told them "its more here than the elbow" and they said the x ray will cover my whole arm. anyways the doctor was convinced i broke it blocking a kick, after i kept telling him what happened. so now im sitting here w/ a cast from above my elbow to below my wrist. i missd 2 months so every1 is 2 months ahead of me, than i go back for a few days get my ass kicked, and now im missing more time :bang: so, would the reason my arm rebroke so easily because i had no cast on before?? will this arm be weaker now? and now im scared of armbars. also, any tips to help it heal better?? i have been drinking lots of milk i heard thats good for bones.
Matt, Welcome to the forums, sorry to hear about your bad exp. It is hard to say why your arm "rebroke" especially with the first xrays being inaccurate. It is possible you could have had a crack in the bone (Btw is it the ulna or radius) and the last armbar was what made it break thoroughly. The good news with this is, if it was just cracked before, chances are they would have told you what they have told me: "well we can tell you to either quit doing X because the bone will break. Or we can tell you to keep doing X till it breaks and we cast it. Or we can break it for you. Or you can just let it heal." Great answer doc! Also your arm will not generally being weaker, providing the bones heal together properly and there are no complications there. The bones will actually form (if I remember right) a osteoblast, or a larger cluster of a bone structure around the area actually making it stronger. Your main problem right now will be muscle and tendon atrophy. Especially if you have been casted for 2 months. Btw are you still in the cast? If not, Physical therapy will help, though they may or may not offer it to you. If this is the case, start out slow with gripping exercises of the hand, wrist rotations etc. I have found to do a light workout and rebuild weak muscles of the forearms get the Chinese Qigong workout balls and start with those. If you can find a small size and work up to a larger weighted size this will be great. Also keep in mind that if your bone slipped even a little this may cause a stretching in the tendons around the wrist causing the wrist to be tighter at first. So long as you have been good in the cast don't worry so much about the bones, the muscles are your biggest problem. I personally suggest staying away from "aggressive" armbars for a short while b/c of this muscle weakness at least until you are back to fighting strength with this muscle. Die da jow, a chinese muscle oil will work well here also. Hope it helps.
ty for the info/advice. i am still in the cast now. i am going in for another x ray in a week from today to see if i will need to keep a cast on for another 3 weeks. i dont know the name of the bone, but its the sharp one on the side of the pinky finger. is one of these more damaging to have broke than the other??
Just want to clarify then: Is it broken in the hand, or the long bone of the forearm on the side that is the pinky?
Osteoblasts are in your bone all the time. You bones are constantly regenerating adjusting for new or different weight loads over time. If the bone was just cracked, it should heal with very little degradation in strength. If it is fully broken, it will never quite heal up to 100% But with some good physio it should be 95-98%. Eating extra calcium will not help it heal stronger. Although calcium is good for bones, it plays little part in the healing process. Weight bearing exercise has more effect on the strength of bones and will do more to help recovery of the broken part (when its ready to take weight of course). So in your recovery, make sure you see a good physio for some arm exercise that involve some load bearing.
yeah the doctor gave me a thing to goto some physio tharipy at the sports centre. its broken close to my elbow, but on that side.
Thanks Garrett for the correction, and I agree exactly, though with the break being close to a joint you will have to be careful and make sure you do you physio exactly as they say. Through personal exp. with injuries it only takes longer when some people go out and do more than what they are told. Thinking the old addage "if a little is good a lot must be better." Just listen to the doc for now and when you get out of the cast see about some Die da jow (Dit da Jow) this will help the muscles and ligaments. If you have three weeks to get out of the cast see about getting some TENS work done or electroacupuncture as both these can increase the blood flow under the cast and improve recovery time.
