Problems with left kicks in Muay Thai training after lower back injury( kinda long)

[P-Town BeatDown]

Hey all. I posted this exact thread in the stand-up forum but have not had any responses. It might belong in this forum anyway though....

About 7 months ago I suffered a herniated disk (S1 left side) while training that impinged on my sciatic nerve, which caused massive pain (and sometimes numbness) all the way down my left leg. Because my insurance company blows, I had to jump through hoops (pills and PT) before they would pay for a cortizone shot. Long story short, as I was waiting for them to get off their ass a flip the bill, I was almost completely inactive. Before seven months ago, I was training MMA pretty regular (TQFC), so I have some knowlege and skills.

Anyways, I got the shot and am feeling 99.9% better. Since a) I didn't want to push it lifting guys up everyday and b) I have always wanted to concentrate on Muay Thai exclusively, I took the oppurtunity and joined up with a local MT school. I started training again 3 weeks ago.

My problem is that now, all of the sudden, I can't throw a left kick to save my life. I spent the last 3 workouts with a pretty experienced guy at the gym (Kru is out of town), and we broke it down to the point where it became obvious that it is not my form as much as that I just can't do it physically. I think it is a flexibility issue, but my right is just as "inflexible" at the moment and my RHKs are better than ever. In fact, my boxing and right kick are the only things that saved me from everyone I train with thinking I am full of shit when I say I trained before.

I am at a complete loss as to what it might be exactly that is hindering my left leg from listening to my brain. The best I can figure is it is a flexibility issue in the hips or butt that keeps my leg from rotating during the kick. I guess its possible that the pain in these areas made the muscles tighten up even more than normal.

Has anyone gone through anything similar? Anyone have any good stretches/exercise other than the norms that might help? Sorry for the length of the post, I just wanted to be sure to get as much detail in as I could in case someone who recognizes this problem has some ideas that might help.

Any help would be appreciated. You can only live on leg kicks so long. . Thanks.

 

[ahheadlock]

I've found out the hard way that after a herniated disc, kicking is a big problem (i've re-injured my back a couple times doing it).

Do you still have any remaining numbness, tingling, etc. in your leg? If so - its probably still injured. Also probably you have lost strength in some muscles which is affecting your kick. Could be either your nerve is still impinged (cortizon is an anti-inflamatory, it'll kill the inflamation but that doesn't mean it'll fix the problem) or your nerve is damaged. Nerves take a LONG time to heal, a physio told me up to 12 months depending on what injury and where. If your nerve is damaged or still compressed in any way, you'll get that muscle weakness. Do some balance and flexibility exercises and see if you have any problems with your left that you dont with your right. See a doctor and get them to do some nerve response tests.

In terms of sorting it out, Yoga and pilates are good. Work on your flexibility. Do heaps of core work too. Do some flexibility stuff and massage for your back (a tennis ball is good) to break up any scar tissue that might be in there - the scar tissue can irritate your nerve.

Take it very easy with the kicks, you dont want to re-injure yourself.

 

[P-Town BeatDown]

I've found out the hard way that after a herniated disc, kicking is a big problem (i've re-injured my back a couple times doing it).

Do you still have any remaining numbness, tingling, etc. in your leg? If so - its probably still injured. Also probably you have lost strength in some muscles which is affecting your kick. Could be either your nerve is still impinged (cortizon is an anti-inflamatory, it'll kill the inflamation but that doesn't mean it'll fix the problem) or your nerve is damaged. Nerves take a LONG time to heal, a physio told me up to 12 months depending on what injury and where. If your nerve is damaged or still compressed in any way, you'll get that muscle weakness. Do some balance and flexibility exercises and see if you have any problems with your left that you dont with your right. See a doctor and get them to do some nerve response tests.

In terms of sorting it out, Yoga and pilates are good. Work on your flexibility. Do heaps of core work too. Do some flexibility stuff and massage for your back (a tennis ball is good) to break up any scar tissue that might be in there - the scar tissue can irritate your nerve.

Take it very easy with the kicks, you dont want to re-injure yourself.

Pretty much all the pain and numbness is gone except a slight twinge when I begin to stretch my left hamstring. Its actually so slight at this point that I have convinced myself that it is a phantom pain, caused by the fact that I had the pain for so long that my brain is just expecting it after certain movements. All my nerve response tests came back good as well (2 weeks post-shot).

I definitely think you are right about the flexibility thing though. I did some "flexibility tests" an hour ago (on your advice) and it seems that most of the problem is originating from the left hip area. Take a bent-knee inside crescent kick (TKD warm-up exercise) for example. My left hip is very stiff and feels like it takes a substantially larger effort to perform with my left than my right.

Maybe some exercises / stretches designed to improve the inside crescent kick would help. You know any by some chance?

I will definately be taking your other advice as well. Especially the tennis ball thing. Hadn't thought of that.

Thanks for the help.

 

[ahheadlock]

good to hear that your nerve responses are good, mine are still shot

It'd be a good idea to speak to your physio about specific exercises to do, but just as a suggestion, when you stretch - spend more time on your left than right. Thats not to say you should neglect your right, but perhaps go left, right, left - so you repeat it for your tighter side - that sort of thing. Try doing some dynamic stretching in the morning every day as well - i found that really improved my flexibility pretty quickly (in conjunction with the usual routine @ training).

regarding the tennis ball thing, check this thread out. Some good links in it. You can use a foam roll, or a tennis ball.
http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=496333

Hip and core strength exercises are an absolute must also IMO. After a back injury you really need to focus on having a strong core, or you stand the risk of injuring yourself again. Just be careful with lifting weights though.

 

[king-tony]

Sorry to hear. this I had to have surgery last year to take care of mine. Much like you, I have struggled with left high kicks. I have horrible flexibilty and do very little to improve it. That being said, I have made some progress and to do it I had to give up on form for a while to get my brain and my left leg on the same page.

I started by simply working very hard on my left low kicks. In a typical session I throw 5 left low kicks for every right kick. I did not even try to throw them at body height. I did this for 3 or 4 weeks straight until I did not have to think through them anymore.

Now here is where it will start to sound screwy, but this is how I got through it....

When I started throwing body and head kicks with my left, not only did I have a hard time getting my leg above my waist, I had no power at all. To get over this I told myself that I would focus on hitting the bag as hard as I could and not worry about where I hit the bag. So, I turned my shoulders perpendicular (almost) to the bag (left foot back in the power position). I would take a very short step with my right foot, but not directly at the target (in my case the bag), but slightly to the right with my toe pointing perfectly in the direction of my step and tried to kick through the bag. It did not take long at all for me to generate power as my hips seemed much to be much more free and my body rotation much looser. The thing I did not expect was that head kicks became much easier and body kicks were not a problem at all. I did this for a week or so and then began opening my stance a little more each session. Today, I kick as well with my left as my right.

I know this sounds somewhat odd, but it worked for me. I'm not sure if it was retraining my nerve paths or what, but it is now second nature. I was injured for 3 months before the surgery and spent another 4 or so before I really became active again.

Good luck and I hope you find something that works for you.

 

[king-tony]

One other thing I remembered, while I was doing this, I was also working a lot of left leg push kicks at different heights...I started at abdomin height and tried to pick a slightly higher spot on the bag the next session.