On the Mat Day 515: Dealing with An Injury

I've taken 3 weeks off training to heal this chronic groin strain I have. The pain emanates right where the inside of my leg meets the bone of my pelvis. It is also painful at the bottom part of my abdominal muscles and my physiotherapist confirmed that the lowest part of my abdominal muscle wall is tight probably from overuse.

I've been regularly foam stretching on a rumble roller which I purchased a month ago and going to the physiotherapist where he worked on my piriformis, hamstrings and into the groin area. The pin-point massage techniques he use can be very painful. I've also been icing it and occasionally taking ibuprofen.

Last night my groin felt OK but I still have very little power in moving my left leg laterally in towards my body as though trying for a kouchi gari. There was just a very small amount of pain when lifting the leg at a certain angle. So I went ahead and traveled to class for the first time in 3 weeks. This is the longest time since breaking my foot that I have been absent from training so I felt a little rusty but not as much as I thought I would be. We learnt a lot of back take versus turtle which was good because it is an area I need to work on. I had the goal of sparring a couple of times then leaving early, which I did. However, it is impossible not to engage the groin muscles during sparring in BJJ. You need your legs for everything and I found myself wincing a couple of times whenever I put too much force into my leg muscles. It's particularly rough when the other guy plays de la Riva and uses one leg to push my leg with the injured groin.

I still had some fun sparring and got to go against Tsuzuki. It's been over a year since he used to destroy me in training. I did fairly well against him. We got a takedown on each other, I got out of his closed guard, almost got side control on him, escaped his side control, escaped his armlock, etc. I need to work on de la Riva passes more and staying heavy when in side control. I tend to get excited versus higher belts and tense my body instead of relaxing it for added pressure. I also need to counter kouchi-gari because it is so often used at our club.

I was in a lot of pain last night after class even after taking it easy. My groin still hurts this morning and I know I should have probably waited 4 weeks to rest but not doing BJJ was turning me into a crazy person. I was shouting at my kids, angry when driving, etc. I will attend the Thursday and Sunday morning lessons only for a couple of weeks. These are non-sparring lessons so I will not be tempted to jump in for a roll.

P.S. I only have 3 weeks to complete P90X2. I am fit and strong from it. Tire out less at BJJ but have had to modify some of the workouts to get around my groin injury.