Is this pain normal, or should I switch styles?

[Little_Shoto]

First off, I've only been training in Shotokan Karate for a few months.

I am overall in good shape. I'm 31 years old, 6'2" and weight 220 lbs.

Since I began training in Shotokan, my feet have had been in constant pain, even days after training. At the 2 week point, my knees started hurting constantly. We just began training in the horsestance and now my right hip is extremely sore.

When I walk into the dojo, instead of walking in, I waddle. I asked my instructor about the pains I am having, but he just tells me that it's just my body getting used to the stress on it.

At first I beleived it, then I remembered back to when I practiced TKD and when I joined the Marine Corps ...I never had this constant pain.

What do you guys/gals think?

:(

[hand2handCombat]

thats an unusual pain which i never heard of. maybe your form wrong and putting stress on certain parts of your body. my Muay Thai training didnt make me sour on my first week, neither did anyof my other arts. does anyone else in your dojo experience these pains?

[Little_Shoto]

Not that I am aware of. They have just complained of normal aches and pains, especially after learning a new stance.

[Bob Hubbard]

How do you train? Do you 'dry fire' full force? (Thats punch/kick air at full intensity so that you over stress your joints) Is the floor padded or hard, do you train barefoot or in shoes.

Do you have any flexibility issues?

Suggestion - See a good chiropractor and have them check out your joints for notts, etc. Be worth the 15-50 to be sure. Also, make sure you warm up correctly..I've found very few schools do enough warmup or correct warm ups...over stretching seems to be common. I had the same problems when I started Kenpo.

On the other side of things, does your day-job keep you in a chair all day? is it a good chair, or the $39 secretarys job (ie cheep, poor padding and bad back support.) I spent $200 and bought a -good- chair..its helped incredibly.

:asian:

[Little_Shoto]

The class is held at a local community center. The floor is hard wood.

I generally get to class 10-15 minutes early to do a proper warm up since the 5 minute regular warm up isn't enough for my old muscles and joints. :P

As far as the chair goes ...I am the facilites manager here ...one of the hats I wear is the ergonomic safety manger ...so our chairs are very good ...they cost approx. $350 each. I am away from my desk aprox 60-70% of my day.

As far as flexibility, I think I'm a bit more flexible then most people my age. I have been a regular gym member for the past 10 years and always do 15-20 minutes of stretching before and after my workouts, which consist mostly of cardio and light resistance training.

I suppose I will make an appointment with a chiropractor to have them take a look.

Thanks for the advice.

:asian:

[Little_Shoto]

I forgot to post about the training ...yes, we do dry fire ...lot's of snap-back ...very little kime.

[Wertle]

This might be just a shot in the dark regarding your hip, but do you keep a wallet in your back pocket? I know many people who have had chronic pain in one hip, only to find it comes from sitting unevenly due to a back-pocket wallet (mostly people with office jobs, who sat most of the day). It's a small, easily overlooked thing, but maybe something to keep in mind for that. It could also be entirely unrelated ^_^

[Little_Shoto]

Actually, I don't carry my wallet ..unless I am going shopping. I carry a money clip with my drivers license and one credit card in my front pocket.

The hip problem with new ...mainly because we just started doing the horse stance. The left side is fine, but the right side hurts a lot and and I can't get an speed or power when doing a side snap or thrust kick.

[Nightingale]

that is not normal.

when muscles get sore because of a new activity, its due to the tearing down and building up of muscle fibers. once the initial pain goes away, it doesn't come back unless you either step up your training or stop training for a while and then go back to it.

[Little_Shoto]

I knew this to be true because I was very active in my previous life.

Being the noobie martial artist, I relied on my sensei's experience to diagnose my situation.So my instructor is full of doo-doo I guess ..and since I listened to him, I guess I am too :mad:

[arnisador]

Your pain does sound atypical for starting horse stance training. Several high-profile kickers have had hip replacements--you may want to consider what the right art for you is. It's hard to say whether or not you should think of switching yet!

[Shinzu]

perhaps you are putting too much strain on your stances. try not to go so low if possible.

if infact it is just sore muscles, you might want to try rubbing sports cream on before bed and taking warm bath soaks with epsom salt.

i know when i started MA my bones and muscles ached alot. especially when i was training more than once a week.

[Nightingale]

try tiger liniment. its like tigerbalm or icy hot, but much better.

you can order it here.

http://www.painreliever.com/liniment.html

it works wonders.

[Felix]

Go the doctor! Get some real medical advice from someone qualified to give it!

Felix

[Chiduce]

The pain that you describe although for a regular joe dounut on the streets is unusual; for you it sounds typical. I'am no doctor for that matter, but i have experienced the same types of pain and a little more in my training. My sifu's teacher states that if you are training and there is no pain afterwards, then your training is of no value. The old no pain, no gain addage. Durin my first year of splitting my legs shook a night until i feel asleep at night. in the mornings i also would waddle for about 2 hours and then the pain would come in streaks for the remainder of the day. Not to mention the other little shears which would come unexpectedly at any time. I would still see a doctor to be safe though.
Semper Fidelis!
Sincerely, In Humility;
Chiduce!

[hand2handCombat]

dont snap your joints when you kick or punch. sometimes too much momentum causes that to happen

[artful dodger]

I had those sort of problems when I first started TKD, mostly lower back pain. I went to a physio who advised me to stop training, but being as adicted as I was, I couldn't stop. Six months down the track the pain stopped and has never returned. Doctors and physios often make assumptions on your injury based on what they THINK you are doing but you know as well as we all do that it takes months of training to even realise what muscles to use half the time, so how are they going to figure it my just discussion. My physio and doctor had it all wrong.

[Little_Shoto]

I have an appointment with an accupuncture clinic later on today that a friend of mine who studies with Cung Le recommened.

Hopefully they will stick a needle in my eyeball that will make my feet, knees and hip feel better. :)

[MartialArtist]

Go to a doctor. If it's temporary and nothing serious, then lay off a while and go back again. If it isn't, find out what the real cause is because I think you might have had a previous condition or something that triggered that pain.

[Nightingale]

go to a doctor trained in sports medicine. a regular internist may not be able to figure out if your pain is from a training injury or something else.

[Carbon]

What is splitting?

[sweeper]

well besides over exerting my muscles the only real pain I have experiemced in MA was from Judo, from being on my knees all the time my knee caps would kill me (actualy the conective tissue just beloq the "cap") I would go twice a week with the longest break being from thursday to tuesday.. I quit because I knew it wasn't something that would go away, actualy I talked to my instructor and he told me that alot of judo guys have problems with their knees or eventualy develop problems with their knees from the style of ground fighting.. what you are describing sounds like it's more of a conective tissue pain than a muscle pain? I don't know cause I'm not you :-p. A muscle strain is obvious, your muscle will hurt, it's somethimes hard to pinpoint a conective tissue injury, in my experience (and I have had alot of sprains and pulled tendons) 90% of the time a doctor will tell you something that would be common sence, and that other ten percent they will tell you something that will prevent a life long injury, that ten percent makes going tot he doctor well worth it. as to the pain being normal? it could simply have tight ligaments, or your connectivetissue could be week. if you have tight ligaments it's not gona get better, if your tendons simply are a little week maybe you should lay off a little to let them recover and ease into it.. but that's something you have to judge for yourself, I don't know how you train and how you have trained in the past and I'm not even close to being a medical doctor..