About two weeks ago i sustained an injury to my neck after being dropped on it during standup. I went to the doctors the next day and he advised me to take a few weeks off and to avoid excessive strain, the problem was the levator scapulae and longus capitas muscles. He went on to explain these injuries were most like whiplash and limited rotation. I have better movement in my neck now but am concerned about getting back into hard rolling if it gets worse. Are there any exercises to help strengthen the neck muscles and help prevent further potential serious injury?
To me, stretching and good warmup are key. Whatever the scientific name for those muscles are along your neck, spine and lower back, mine get strained from time to time. A heat pad, hot showers, rest, stretching and ibprofin tend to help me. When mine get strained I usually feel it for a couple of weeks but less and less until it is gone. I know it is against good sense but I normally do not take too many days off, if my neck is tweaked for example I just tell my training partners and have at it. I am sure rest is better, but I’m a bit hard headed.
There are definetly some excersises you can do to strengthen your neck.
I would get a resistance band, wrap it around your head and do 3 or 4 sets of 15-20 reps going forward, and to each side with the band.
I pulled something in my neck, not nearly as bad as yours sounds, but I can't really look to my right. It happened a couple days ago and the day after I was worried I was gonna make it a lot worse, but I just told my training partners like Victor said and take it easy. If it starts to get tweaked just tap even if you're not actually in a submission. The idea is to train as much as you can while still letting it heal so yeah... Hopefully your partners will be easy with you.
Thats a very good point. Just let you partners know if you have sort of an injury and they should be able to avoid it. Its very important to be able to train as much as you can, but in a healthy and safe manner. I mean what good is getting to Blue belt, if your totally mangled by the time you get there. BJJ is about inhanceing your lifestyle, not the other way around.
Thanks for the advice guys, ill defo look at the resistance band. I think it doesnt help that due to work and other commitments i can only get to class twice a week.
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