Possible foot injury

Hey,

After nearly 6 weeks of training in ninjutsu, I haven't been able to get rid of this constant ... discomfort (?) on the top of both of my feet. It feels sore and bruised but there is no swelling, inflammation or visible bruising. We always stretch thoroughly at the start of every class including ankle and foot rotations but when we sit in seiza position, your feet are tucked under you with the top of your feet faced down and your toes faced somewhat inward. This is the traditional stance when sitting down. We have the option of positioning our feet differently if we feel too much discomfort but I personally like it. After a few minutes, my feet tend to numb up and oddly, I enjoy the sensation.



However, every time I rotate my feet and my ankles for the past several weeks, I feel some discomfort at the top of my feet as if they're constantly sore yet only feel it when I sit in seiza or do ankle rotations. I am fairly confident it's either the tendons or ligament and not the bone, muscle or nerves since the pain doesn't shoot up and I know what it feels like to have broken bones. While it's not bad enough that I take pain killers for it, I am worried that I may injure it if I continue to apply the same pressure to it.



Is the pain simply just my feet getting used to sitting a certain way and stretching my feet in an odd way or is the discomfort something I should take more seriously? I also don't have health insurance at the moment so I'd like to be a bit more cautious than normal.

I'm only 28 and my bones are pretty tough so it's not arthritic in nature. I attend class 3 times a week. Has anyone else experienced this? Please provide some insight.

 

Seiza, kiza, tatehiza etc can take some getting used to but it is probably best to get it checked out by a Dr, if circumstances permit of course.

 

Hey, Dean. Thanks for the input. I don't suppose you have experienced the same problem in the past?

 

Only soreness similar to bruising, nothing more.

 

Perhaps I didn't describe myself properly, but yes that is precisely the feeling I've been having. Just that it has never gone away for weeks now which has gotten me a bit worried. I actually just edited my OP to mention that.

 

Are you training on a wooden floor?

 

No, we are training on about 3" thick mats.

 

And you are still suffering?

 

If the pain is across the top of your foot, but only when you twist/rotate the foot, you may have stretched the ligament. I did exactly that a few weeks ago, but thankfully was at a tournament the next day and had one of the first-aiders (who is also a physio) take a look at it. He taped it with Kinesio Gold tape and told me to leave it on for 2-3 days, and to rest the foot for a week or so (no seiza!!!) or run the risk of snapping the ligament. I did what I was told (for once) and it's fine now.

The pain was only bad if I rotated my foot or stood up and then tried to pivot on that foot - just plain standing and putting weight on it didn't trigger the pain.

Get it looked at - your feet may just be bruised, but better safe than sorry........

 

haha yeah, I never thought I was that uh, delicate? I used to do pushups bare knuckled on grainy concrete floors but I guess my feet just never had that kind of exercise. As Lorelei mentioned, I think I may have just stretched them and never allowed them proper time to rest.

Well, it's not that bad that I would consider it pain but definitly feels bruised. I'm convinced. I'll get it checked out.

Thanks guys.

 

Don't worry.

It took my toes ages to get used to kiza, I used to sit in kiza and watch tv for twenty minutes every night to get used to it.

 

Awesome. If you don't mind me asking, what was your age at the time? I only ask because our bones tend to get more sensitive as we get a bit older.

 

It was back when I left the Bujinkan and started koryu jujutsu so my early 30's, back in 2009.

 

Oh wow okay, so not like you had to worry about issues like what I mentioned then. Hmm, good advice then, thank you. Good to know I'm not doing something outright irresponsible at least.

 

If it hurts too much, the use of knee padscan take the strain of the ankle joint.

 

I would stop sitting on the tops of your feet immediately to give them time to rest if you decide to postpone getting them checked out for financial reasons. You probably didn't end up on a website asking about pain advice because your body wasn't sending you a pretty clear message it needed something from you. Gentle stretching and massaging of the tendons and small muscles in a bath as hot as I can tolerate it sprinkled liberally with Epsom salt does wonders for short-term therapy in tendon muscle/damage for me.

And you know it's very unwise to train in MA without medical insurance, right? I understand that you might feel you have little alternative, but it's pretty easy to get injured at many ninjutsu schools, contrary to popular opinion on the arts.

 

I understand and appreciate your concern about my lack of insurance, and I do thank you for that. Hopefully I will have it soon and then I'll feel comfortable with pushing myself a bit harder.

As for the foot, to be honest, I really only came on and wrote about it as a precaution. I don't want to make the same mistake I made when I fractured my pinky finger during a boxing class. I didn't realize that I had broken it until much, much later, which by then, the bone had already reformed improperly. The pain really isn't bad but it's the consistency of the slight discomfort that compelled me to ask about it.

I ended up speaking with some others in my class and believe it's just that my foot is not used to being stretched that way. If it continues for another couple weeks to a month, I'm going to stop immediately and get it checked. I am fairly confident it's just my foot learning to stretch that way since I never did exercises to stretch my foot like that.

 

If something causes pain, stop doing it. sit differently

 

If there is no swelling and any inflammation and you feel pain then surly there will be some internal injury and you need to take rest and take some good analgesic.You should go for the regular checkup with your GP.I think that damaged muscles do not get recovered very well.Avoid fatigue and take rest.

 

I too struggle with seiza (only just found it out it was called that, but upon googling the terms used earlier, there is a chance I was in the wrong position, I shall try the correct position tonight and see if it helps, if not is it just a case of doing it a bit every day to help stretch the feet to become accustomed to the position?