I don’t think any martial artists will disagree that there is nothing more irritating and frustrating during during training, or a fight camp, than joint injuries. Oftentimes the pain isn’t extreme, instead it is nagging and persistent, but somehow this makes it worse, as we’re given the cruel choice between taking time off for it to heal, or gritting our teeth and training through it.

While injuries will always be part of the game, regardless of which martial art you train and compete in, there is a way to help prevent them. Everyone knows that every training session should start with a solid warm-up and dynamic stretches and end with a good cooldown (not that we ever actually do the cooldown), but these aren’t the only methods of injury prevention.

The following exercises are excellent methods of “bullet-proofing” your joints, strengthening the tendons and smaller muscles inside the joints and drastically lowering your chance of injury and chronic pain. There are many exercises that are great for strengthening your joints, the following five are just our favourites and a blueprint for the type of exercises you should be including in your S&C sessions.

Neck: Isometric Holds

The neck is simultaneously the most important, and most fragile, part of our skeletal system, as a result, it is vital that we strengthen the muscles around it to prevent injury. Neck strengthening has different applications depending on your martial art, for striking arts like boxing and muay thai, a strong neck helps to mitigate spinal damage and allow you to absorb as much force in your muscular system, minimising the damage to your brain when hit with punches and kicks. For grapplers, a strong neck has multiple applications, it can help your defence against chokes, it supports the spinal system when inverting and rolling, and it helps keep your structure strong when shooting for takedowns.

There are numerous exercises for neck strengthening, and many of them have specific benefits for certain martial arts. The exercise that we recommend, with the most unilateral benefits, are isometric holds against a wall.

How to Perform:

• Find a solid, flat wall, and stand sideways with one shoulder half a foot away from it.
• Lean so your shoulder is resting against the wall, then place the side of your head against the wall as comfortably as possible.
• Brace the muscles in your neck and slowly lift your shoulder off the wall.
• Repeat on the other side, as well as facing the wall and facing away from it.
• If the exercise feels too easy, take gradual steps away from the wall, if it is too hard, step closer to the wall.

Shoulders: Scapula Pulls

Shoulders probably receive the most muscular stress, regardless of your martial art, whether it’s framing and sprawling in BJJ and wrestling, or throwing punches in striking arts. As a result, shoulder injuries tend to be the least common – at least compared to the other joints – but that doesn’t mean you should neglect strengthening the joint during your S&C session.

For your shoulders we recommend Scapula Pulls as the best all-round exercise. Many see Scapula Raises as a back exercise, but they are also tremendously beneficial for your shoulder joints as they target the remedial head of the deltoid, an often neglected muscle which is vital for shoulder support.

How to Perform:

• Place your hands in a pull-up position on a sturdy pull-up bar and hang, letting your shoulders and back relax.
• Brace your core and grip the bar tightly.
• Keeping your head and shoulders still, raise your chest and back up to the bar until they are inline with your shoulders – they will only move a few inches.
• Slowly descend back to a relaxed position.

Elbows: Wrist Curls/Extensions

Aside from knees, elbows are perhaps the most common injury martial artists and fighters will deal with throughout their careers and training. There are numerous potential causes for elbow injuries, some muscular, others a result of the full-contact nature of martial arts. As previously stated in our disclaimer, if you do have a serious/ongoing injury, always trust your doctor more than the internet.

One of the most common causes of injury in the elbow is actually a result of weak forearm muscles, more specifically the flexors and extenders which connect to the elbow joint. Luckily, this is easy to rectify with a simple exercise… Wrist Curls/Extensions.

How to Perform:

• With a light dumbbell in your hand, rest your forearm flat on a bench with your wrist and hand hanging over the edge, palm facing upwards.
• Slowly control the weight downwards with your wrist.
• Pause at the bottom then curl the weight towards the ceiling, much like a bicep curl.
• Once you have finished your set, turn your hand over so your palm faces the floor.
• Then reverse the movement, bringing the weight upwards using your wrist, and controlling it as it moves downwards, much like a lateral raise.

Incorporating both Wrist Curls and Extensions is a great way to strengthen and solidify your flexors and extenders, reducing your chance of injury.

Hips: 90/90s

Hip injuries tend to be specific to certain sports, boxers are less likely to injure their hips as they are only used for balance when implementing footwork and rotating on punches. Fighters competing in striking arts like kickboxing and taekwondo are more likely to experience hip injuries as a result of the sport specific movements like throwing head kicks. Grapplers are also likely to experience some hip injuries, especially those who like to play guards like butterfly and rubber guard, or as the result of strange submissions like the banana split (if you’re ever unfortunate enough to be caught in one).

Most compound exercises involving your legs, like squats and deadlifts with have secondary benefits for the smaller muscles in your hips, but to specifically target these muscles, and loosen the hip rotators, we recommend 90/90s.

How to Perform:

• Sit on a comfortable mat with your feat flat on the floor about a shoulder width apart in front of your, with a bend in your knees. Place your hands behind you for support if you need to.
• Keeping your feet in place, slowly tilt both of your knees, and by extension your hips, to the right until your knees are flat on the floor.
• Then slowly repeat the movement to your left.
• Try and keep your upper body and core as still as possible during the movement.
• If this is two easy, remove your hands from the floor.
• If that is still too easy, once your knees are on the floor on one side, use your core to raise your butt of the matt over the same knee to the side you have twisted to. Then steadily lower yourself and repeat on the other side.

Knees: Sissy Squats

Easily the most aggravating injury for any martial artist, regardless of discipline is knee injuries. There are dozens upon dozens of factors that can result in injured knees, and it is vital that you see a doctor if knee pains are giving you issues in your day to day life. Much like your hip flexors, your knees also receive secondary benefits from lower body exercises like squats and deadlifts, but there are exercises you can do which have greater benefits for the muscles within the knee joint. Our pick is the Sissy Squat. Don’t let the unfortunate name fool you, these squats are hard.

How to Perform:

• Stand with your feet shoulder width apart, as you would for a normal squat. You may want a bar or RTX cable to hold on to for balance.
• Slowly bring your knees over your toes and your heels off the ground so you are balancing on your tiptoes.
• Leaning back for balance, slowly move your knees forward and down until they are nearing the floor.
• Then gradually bring yourself back to the neutral position.