Prior to leaving for Italy, I suffered a minor setback by fracturing my left index finger while training in BJJ. It was just a freak accident. We weren’t going hard. We weren’t uncontrolled. I just planted my hand, shifted my weight, and felt a ‘pop’ in my hand.
Since I was still able to flex it, I simply taped it up and continued to train. I knew something was wrong when my hand didn’t have any strength and I couldn’t grip anything with vigor. I thought, at worst it was just a sprained ligament or strained tendon, but later on in the day it swelled up massively and I couldn’t move it at all.
When I saw the hand surgeon I learned that on the bright side, surgery wasn’t needed, but this would require 6 weeks to heal… meaning a hiatus from BJJ and Crossfit.
In my picture at the Tower of Pisa, you can actually see the brace I’m using.
At the time of this writing, I’m 3 weeks in with 3 weeks to go.
The swelling has gone down and I have improved range of motion, though only aobut 50% of normal, and it still gets exquisitely tender when I accidentaly touch it the wrong way.
No BJJ thus far… but I have been able to go to the weight room. I can back squat, bench press, and row normally. In order to deadlift I simply have to use a reverse grip with my left hand.
Thus I can do a full body work out despite this injury which makes me happy.
For BJJ I guess it will just be dvds and youtubes for now to keep my mind active.