Dealing with Sore Joints and Joint Pain

Training capoeira can be really fun and exhilarating, but sore joints and pain can really take away from that experience.

With joint pain, instead of looking forward to training, it’s easy to find yourself dreading it!

In an effort to avoid and reduce these effects, below are some tips I personally use to keep my joints relatively pain free. Keep in mind that I am not a doctor, just a guy sharing what works for me. Use your own judgment in trying these various tips.

Preventing Sore Joints

When it comes to your joints, your best bet is not to get them sore in the first place!

That makes it essential to take the proper steps before, during and after training to reduce the chance of getting sore or pained joints.

Here are simple actions and things I keep in mind while training to stay pain free…

• Warm-up/Stretching – Making sure to warm up and stretch before training is extremely important, especially if you train in colder climates like me. Warming up followed by stretching loosens up the muscles and joints in your body making it easier and safer to train.
• Correct technique – While training, getting the technique right is the key to not hurting yourself. As I learned from my mestre, if it hurts to do a technique, you’re probably doing it wrong. The littlest detail, such as where you shift your weight makes a huge impact on how a move can affect you, especially your joints. So pay attention!
• Rest – It’s important to have quality rest for your body if you train frequently. Otherwise you really don’t get a chance to recover from the workout. This doesn’t mean you have to stay in bed all day, but make sure to pay attention to your body and let it recover from training.

Coping with Sore Joints

Eventually, if you train frequently enough, you’ll get some soreness or pain in your joints. It’s happened to me a lot, especially when I’m training 5 times a week.

In this situation, I use the following tips to reduce the soreness and get my joints in shape to train some more.

• Perform alternate movements – If the soreness or pain is really noticeable, it’s probably a safe bet to stop straining the joint with certain movements. Try instead to work on other techniques to give that part of your body a chance to rest and recover. Continuing to strain it will only magnify the problems.
• Joint Supplements – Remember, I’m not a doctor, I’m just relating my experience. When I had extreme knee pain from training, a friend gave me the advice to take glucosamine supplements daily. These are normally used by people with arthritis to rebuild joint tissue.

  I took her advice and after a week my knees felt much better. I definitely recommend trying it out for yourself, but check with your doctor first to see if it’s ok.

• Icing joints – I’ve heard this tip from a number of people. Using ice or cold packs on sore or pained joints works really well. The ice reduces any swelling or inflammation in the area and decreases pain.
• Hot water soak – If I feel stiff and sore, I personally like to soak in hot water. Taking a hot bath or going to a hot tub or Jacuzzi is an awesome way to relax the sore area and reduce stiffness and pain.

These tips have helped me to train continuously while staying relatively pain free. Experiment with these tips yourself. All of them may not work for you, but if one thing does, you’re better off than you were without it ;)

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