Indeed, sport is adventurous, fun, and great for treating anxiety and mental stress. But do you know that it can lead to deadly injuries, sometimes? Yes, it can and the same is the case with mixed martial arts. Do you know some mixed martial arts injuries?
Mixed martial art is one of the great techniques for self-defense but mixed martial arts injuries might make you not fit for any kind of training. There’s always a chance of injury in sports and martial arts. Injuries are common during MMA fights and training sessions as well.
It’s surely an unavoidable part of mixed martial arts. However, there are a few precautions every martial arts practitioner must know and follow to avoid injuries in mixed martial arts.
At the end of this blog post, you’ll be able to know tips to avoid mixed martial arts injuries, treatment of MMA injuries, and some deadly injuries that happened in the past.
Common Mixed Martial Arts Injuries
Mixed Martial arts is a kind of sport that requires the involvement of the whole body. That’s why practitioners get injured rather often. A lot of people assume that MMA is comparatively safer than other fighting techniques.
Let me break your bubble that it’s certainly not. Because muscle, ligament, tendon, and bone injuries are common in mixed martial arts. It’s important to know the potential mixed martial arts injuries.
Let’s check our few common and mostly-happened injuries.
- Fractures of hand and feet bones can happen in MMA when artists use a massive amount of force while hitting someone.
- Cuts and Bruises are other common injuries in MMA. This can happen when someone has punched you so hard. Additionally, there are other reasons as well.
- Injuries such as neck Injuries dislocated joints, and concussions can also occur during heated fights if there’s no use of protective gear.
- Muscle sprain is one of the most seen injuries in mixed martial arts.
- Not to forget, MMA eye injuries are not only scary but can cause blindness as well.
10 Tips to Avoid Mixed Martial Arts Injuries
Although injuries go parallel to sports, there are still a few tips or precautions every artist should know and must follow. The following tips are going to give deep insight into reducing the injury risk while MMA fighting.
Be in Good Shape
Unbalanced posture and an unfit body are obvious reasons for slipping while fighting which can lead to serious injury. Keeping your body fit and active can help you avoid injuries as constant workouts will make your body strong and well-balanced.
Sloppy body movements and a less flexible body won’t help you in mixed martial arts and can lead to serious injury as well. Emphasis on building body strength so that the body can tolerate high MMA conditioning.
Weight Training
Weight training is another way to avoid tissue and muscle injuries. Being a martial arts trainee, it’s great to consider weight lifting and intense weight training. It’ll help you gain enough muscle mobility, thick tendons, improved bone density, and strong ligaments.
Must consider weight training, if you want to minimize the risk of soft tissue injuries.
Get Supervised
Have you been watching your favorite MMA artist and trying to train yourself to watch him? That’s where you’re going to hurt yourself. The idea of training alone or without any supervisor or expert is not going to help you in MMA techniques.
No supervision means maximum mixed martial arts injuries. So, get trained while being supervised to avoid fatal injuries. A supervisor will certainly allow you to understand difficult techniques.
Additionally, having a supervisor not only helps you with avoiding injuries but also being able to stop the match if things get heated up.
Avoid Immense Force
Are you trying to put too much force in your strikes? If so, then you should stop doing it right now. Why? Because using too much force than the capacity of an artist can cause damage to MMA practitioners.
To avoid potential injuries during a fight, it is important to have a controlled level of force behind the strikes. Controlled and appropriate force is the key to acing the mixed martial arts game.
Protective Gear
Do you get fascinated by watching your favorite MMA artist who fights without any protective gear? If you’re thinking to do the same then there’s a strong chance that you can injure yourself badly.
Fighting without any protection doesn’t mean that you’re strong enough. Rather it means that you’re more susceptible to injuries and getting hurt. You must have the following protective equipment before getting into MMA fights to avoid mixed martial arts injuries.
- Fingerless Gloves
- Padded Headgear
- Resilient Mouth Guard
- Shin Guards
If you don’t know where to buy a mouth guard and shin guard, here are the guides that can help you.
Stretching
Stretching is one of the most important tips to avoid injuries. It’s a great idea to consider stretching before starting an intense fight with your opponent. The flexibility of muscles comes with stretching and it greatly helps in body posture.
Eventually, it can help in avoiding potential MMA injuries. Must consider including a few stretching exercises in your workout routine which target muscle areas. Such as the chest, arms, legs, back, hips, and neck as well.
Diet
Do you think a chubby and fatty body can help you in avoiding MMA injuries? If you do, then you’re living in a false paradise. To be the best in techniques, it’s mandatory to shed extra kilos from your body.
Having a good diet is one of the most important aspects of an MMA fighter’s life. So, hiring a dietitian can never go wrong. Other than that, if you don’t want to hire a dietitian, then make a diet plan that contains protein portions, carbs portions, and all important nutrients.
Right Mental State
The right emotional and mental state is as important as a stable body. Without a relaxed state of mind, a fighter can’t perform well inside the ring. This can increase the risk of severe injury during a fight.
Don’t get into a fight, if you’re having a hard time dealing with your mental state. Furthermore, consider meditation and yoga to reduce mental suffocation and minimize stress and anxiety.
Build Stamina
Muscle stamina is another yet important part of mixed martial arts. Great stamina helps in avoiding mixed martial arts injuries as it makes your body stronger and more resilient than ever. It also helps in bearing maximum punishment during a fight without getting collapsed.
Avoid New Techniques
Trying a new mixed martial arts technique is certainly tempting but it can become fatal if you’re not an expert in the technique. So, it’s good to learn a certain technique. Otherwise, you might end up getting injured.
How to Treat MMA Injuries?
Treating the MMA injuries depends on the type of injury a fighter is experiencing. It is easy to treat smaller wounds by seeking medical help. You must sanitize the wound area and cover it with a bandage.
On the contrary, seeking immediate medical attention is the best option for injuries such as bone fractures, concussion, deep lacerations, cuts near the eyes, and blurred vision as well.
Following is the procedure to treat minor injuries or bruises:
- First of all, you need to relax and take a deep breath.
- Get your first aid kit, and take the required medical equipment out.
- After that, sanitize the bruising. Then apply bruise treatment cream.
- Then, cover the wound with the help of a bandage.
- Keep refreshing the bandage until the bruise gets healed properly.
- For swelling, consider cold therapy to treat the swelling area. On the other hand, you can treat muscle aches and strains with hot therapy.
Few Deadly Injuries During Fight
History is full of deadly mixed martial arts injuries that can surely leave you scared. We are going to share a few in the coming section.
MMA Eye Injuries
One of the worst eye injuries that I have seen in the past is the eye poke of Matt Mitrione, back in 2016. During the third round of their bout back, the opponent, Travis Browne punched them in the eye of Matt which caused a fatal-looking eye poke. This incident left the audience scared the most.
MMA Fractured Skull
What can be worse than a broken skull? Nothing! Evangelista Santos experienced the worst injury in his MMA career. In 2016, Michael Venom Page got heated up and smashed Santos, eventually causing his skull to break.
Imagine the pain Santos has gone through. How Devastating and Painful! It must be.
MMA Broken Leg
A broken leg is one of the mixed martial arts injuries that happened to popular MMA fighters. Anderson Silva is one of those fighters who encountered a devastating broken leg. During a fight, Silva and Chris Weidman had an intense match.
Silva’s leg got wrapped around Weidman’s, we can say. Suddenly, everybody heard a snapping sound. It was Silva’s leg, for sure. We can’t imagine the damage it has done to Silva.
There are a lot more deadly injuries that occurred in UFC history. But let’s leave it here.
Conclusion
Mixed martial arts isn’t as safe as a lot of people assume. Not to forget that it’s one of the most deadly martial arts that can cause serious injuries to fighters. It’s recommended to take precautionary measures to avoid mixed martial arts injuries.
Having a good diet, constant weight-lifting training, wearing protective gear, stretching and all the above-mentioned tips will surely help you in this regard.
I hope this blog post has given you great and in-depth insight into UFC injuries, and tips to avoid such injuries. An injury won’t leave the same impactful fighter. Remember that!
