Joint Issues and Martial Arts (Karate)

I believe, no medical evidence or research here, that any injuries in the practice of the martial arts comes from either accidents or the lack of understanding or principles such as the physiokinetic and technique principles. 

If your sensei understands the principles and adheres to them in teaching, practice and training then the possibilities of joint issues or other such injuries are minimized. There are no guarantees that one who participates in a discipline that has physical contact between participants but when it comes to solo practice and joint issues or injuries then it is pretty much up to the practitioner. 

I had a senior black belt who always had to ice his elbow after a demonstration at seminars. This has gone on almost his entire career and as he aged he found that this ongoing thing is resulting in less mobility, etc. in that arm and elbow. I watched his demonstration with an eye on that joint only to quickly discover he was constantly violating the physiokinetic sub-principle of Structure and alignment along with the technique sub-principle of techniques, positioning, and natural and unnatural motion. 

Basically when performing the punches he would allow his elbow to extend outward from being aligned behind the forearm, wrist and fist. It was his effort to achieve a lot of power in the punch. This also spoke to the other principle of “active movement“ that speaks to speed and power achievement, i.e. real power comes from effortlessness. The “motion (sup-principle of natural and unnatural motion)” used was unnatural to the joint used, which is a hinge joint. If the joint had been a ball and socket or rotation type joint then it may have been all right depending on the technique and application applied. The hinge joint of the arm should adhere to its movement according to structure and alignment with deviations causing stresses that injure. It can be said that he violated the principles and demonstrated how a joint manipulation of a hinge joint can control, cause pain and lead to injuries. 

So, if my belief is accurate, adhering to principles of martial systems works to achieve maximum proficiency, efficiency, etc. along with reduction of injury, etc. This makes sense as after thirty-seven years of practice, training and twenty years of teaching I have not experienced any discomfort in joints, etc. except when I exceeded my bodies abilities or violated principles in execution or both. 

As to the example karate-ka, he still has to ice his elbow after practice and I don’t expect he will ever change or not experience his discomfort. He also has some issues with his feet and/or legs for the same reasons. 

In other words, when someone states that a certain activity will result in damage, injury and other medical issues as they age may be suffering from a lack of knowledge as to proper principles applied to their discipline of practice. Granted, there are some issues that will arise as we age that may or may not result from what we do or did in life, they may be genetic or something similar but in a lot of cased I believe that violation of the physiokinetic principles or body mechanics are the culprit.