On the Mat Day 625: First day back after 2 weeks

I've taken a full two weeks off training to heal my neck. I've been to a physio for about 4 sessions

Do Cardassians get neck pain I wonder?

so far and it has helped. He told me that the pain in the areas of my neck and back are the same as for whiplash. He basically just massaged pinpoint areas of my back and neck. Weird things start to happen when the knots unravel. For example, the pain on the right side of my neck moved to the left side and then back again as surrounding muscle tissue relaxed from the massage. He told me that if I had continued to train, I would probably end up with a hernia which can lead to weakening in the muscles of the neck. It was the right decision to stop training altogether.

I attended class today just for drilling purposes and to catch up on what was going on. I just drilled some things with K-sensei and asked him a few questions. Matt turned up a little later on and we finished the lesson without sparring since K-sensei has a bad case of asthma right now (although he looked fine). I was tempted to do positional sparring but glad I didn't because I could feel a lot of tension in my neck by the end of the lesson. It would have been much worse if I had sparred. You hardly realize how much tension stays in the neck while doing BJJ until you actually injure it. Not to mention it has to hold up a fairly heavy skull and brain. I plan to stick to drilling for the next 2 weeks then begin strengthening it.