Bruises
 

http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...ilies/hurt.gif

I think I am being a bit unlucky for the last couple of months but every time I come home from training I have a new bad bruise (mostly on my right hand, elbow and forearm), is not a reflection on my dojo mates by the way, is probably to do with my poor debana waza. The missus use to nurse me, now she just rolls hers eyes and tells me I am an idiot.

Does anyone have any advice on remedies to reduce the bruising and swelling?

As a matter of curiosity, how often do you get a bad bruise in training?

http://www.kendo.uclu.org/pmwiki/pmw....BruiseGallery

er, this often?

Your Gibbness,

I am not worthy

F. hell!, How the hell did you manage to get that one on the neck?

http://www.kendo.uclu.org/pmwiki/pmw...=bruise121.jpg

Btw, I hope it wasn't a 'shower wrestling' accident, the profile is uncanny

Looks like a love bite (hickey to our American friends) from a women (I'm making an assumption) with very wide lips!

I just seem to get small cuts and scrapes on my hands. From a bokken!

missed tsuki? Ive seen that exact same bruise on other people before
http://img487.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bruisejh3.jpg

You shower wrestle too?

Weekly.

A certain dojo member split my knuckle last night - I think I need a bigger tsuba.

Paikea - still waiting...! http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif

Almost Weekly and Ice works well for the bad ones. The normal bruises I just leave alone.

I only ever seem to get the zen kind. Very irritating.

This is the one(s) from last night, doesn't look half as bad on the picture for some reason. Is now starting to go blue (just past the baboon's arse stage)

Ouch!

Do you block a lot?

The bruise is on the underside of your arm. I'm assuming your arms were above your head when you got clobered, Either that or you were hit as the other person was rolling off the floor during their super special NINJA (lets all hear sing the secret ninja song...) roll and hit.

That was a tall bald swiss bloke who posts on here......

Actually, of late, I block very little (more suriage). I was actually coming out of a hiki-men in Jodan. It was my aite's first time in armour, so all is forgiven http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/smile.gif. I reckon he was trying for men or kote

Sorry guys, back to the topic. Does anyone use bruise or swelling remedies other than (as mentioned above) ice?

Don't be afraid to get hit. Stop blocking do by dropping your arm...its only practice...so let them land the strike on your do --not your elbow. Of course a clean doh wouldn't hit your elbow due to its speed and impact--but most of us are horrible and slow at do-- just let it land.

A lot of our students wear children's soccer (football) knee pads under their kote to help the impact.

My wife used to nurse me too....now she just laughs and says..."oh poor baby! suck it up."

So my advice-- Oh poor baby---suck it up.

There is a cream called Arnican which helps, although I don't bother to use it.

Aahhh, female wisdom. nothing like it

You can add extra padding on the wrist. or follow through on an attack. I get bruises mostly on the right arm and on the head. I tryto evade getting hit in the head so that's why I get the bruises. the right arm gets hit alot because they go for the wrists and some times miss.
I had a bruise on the right hand but it wasn't too bad. I think I may be one of those types that take pain well. I just don't like getting hit. It stings everytime I get hit in the wrist too.

In my experience, Arnica cream has significantly accelerated the healing of bruises. When I've applied it within 1-2 hours of injury (and continued to periodically apply it), I've found that bruises progress rapidly through the healing stages (blue/purple -> brown -> yellow), sometimes in as short as 48 hours. When I've initially applied it 24 hours or more after the injury, the response has been slower and less pronounced.

Arnica is found in homeopathic remedies and can be purchased at a local health food store. For the skeptical reader, a quick scan of the web yielded the following links on Arnica:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnica
http://www.pdrhealth.com/drug_info/n...arn_0025.shtml
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/homeopathy/

The PDR and NIH links reference several papers that carried double blind studies on the efficacy of arnica. Basically, all of the papers found that arnica was not better than placebo. I don't have direct access to the journals to ascertain if the studies were specifically on the effect of arnica on bruises. If they were, I can only reconcile my personal experience with the published research by presuming that activating my placebo effect accelerates the healing of bruises. http://www.discussworldissues.com/fo...lies/wink2.gif We now return you to your regularly scheduled icing.

HTH,

Michael