Making your hands and arms more shock-resistant.

Last night, I miss-timed a breakfall and landed on the palm of my hand instead of the usual mat-slap. This hurt and hurts like buggery but nothing is broken and I can still function. (Indeed I'm typing with this hand right now.)

U need MOAR breakfall practice, N00b!!! you will doubtless say at this point. Well durr. But that's not my question.

Still, it made me wonder. Given that I'll be doing lots of mae ukemi during my Judo career, being able to strengthen the palms, wrists and forearms to absorb impacts (by accident or design) would be really useful. Does anyone have any tips on this one?

 

More musckels. Stop being such a chub chub and get some man meat one ye.

 

Yes that'll help - Get you used to impact.

You can
A) Slap your own body parts hard...

B) Get some Thai Pads and beat yourself senseless with them

C) Pick up and drop a hefty punchbag on different raised limbs etc. This'll get you used to impact

D) You can also use a hefty medicine ball and blam that into you too

E) Learn some Systema to enhance your Judo - Their breakfall, rolling and 'coping with floor' drills are pretty mega as they don't train on mats

Just some ideas. There's more but any or some of these may help...Oh and doing more Breakfalls too :hat:

Good Luck

 

You are never going to be able to strengthen your bones, particularly those in the arm enough to avoid injury as a result of falling badly and breakfalling poorly.

So yes, more breakfalls and better breakfalls are your only option.

What you can also train in proprioception in terms of falling. This is just fancy talk for learning how to unconsciously move your body into a position when falling that enables you to breakfall properly or at least avoid injury as much as possible.

 

Theres 3 things that will help -

breakfall practise, lift weights, More breakfall practise.

 

The more you breakfall the less you break on a fall

 

Thanks for (most of) the replies so far.

Just to clarify, obviously being able to breakfall is the ideal, but we all flubb once in a while. As such, I'm interested in strengthening my forearms, wrists etc. as an extra level of protection.

Given the senior ranks in my club who go around with limps and injured arms, legs etc., I'm inclined to think that toughening these areas in and of themselves would be helpful.

 

Cool clip, Simon Not seen that before!

 

Breakfall practice to improve your falling, good diet and weightlifting to reduce your risk of injury if/when you get it wrong.

 

Thanks! Duly noted.

Well, it depends on what training we're talking about. Having done some BJJ and Judo, as well as known a few Tomiki Akidoka, I know the Randori will always be unpredictable and injuries will happen. I'm always a bit bruised and scuffed after a session. Resisting opponents can and do throw you about a lot.

It would be much worse, of course, without the breakfalls and mats.

 

Out of interest, what sort of diet do you recommend?

 

It does depend on what training you are doing: intensity, frequency, your age etc.

In summary though you should be looking at the very least to be getting RDA of vitamins, minerals, essential fats and proteins along with enough carbohydrate to keep you feeling okay - preferably from home prepared meals using fresh ingredients.

Your bone density will vary according to your genetics, your sex, your age, and the weight loading you put upon it. Weight lifting improves bone density and strengthens surrounding tissue, and the body heals better from this and other exercise if it is given the right building blocks. This will reduce the likelihood of injury.

 

For me the best method to avoid inury when falling is learning to blend as much as possible with the floor - that's more about being soft and supple than tough. I've done a lot of arm conditioning in the past, I never found it that helpful in falling. This clip is more about rolling, but that's the foundation of a lot of falling work, I hope you find a couple of useful ideas in it, there are some other good clips around too

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlft3bXyRQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIlft3bXyRQ[/ame]

 

We weren't made to absorb falls and shocks all the time. You will get use to it, and ofcourse proper technique helps a lot.
One thing I dislike about Judo, too much impact on my body, ugh/...

 

After awhile, you get used to the impact. With time and more experience, the degree of impact is lessened

 

That's essentially what I said.

 

Hmmmn, you were stating that you dislike Judo for having too much impact.

I was stating in support of Judo