Best tips you can use to avoid injury in Martial Arts
Monday 01 December 2025
As we fully enter winter and Christmas becomes less far away (already, we know time flies) you undoubtedly will start to feel more of a chill in the air. If you are a martial arts enthusiast (we assume you are if you’re reading this) then this might lead to potentially more injuries as cold weather can make the joints and tendons a little stiffer, making some of the more explosive techniques more tricky to perform.
But regardless of the weather, we are sure that you would like to not get injured whilst performing martial arts. Sometimes, it’s hard to avoid, but through our experience, there are many simple things that you can do to help you mitigate injuries.
You will undoubtedly not be surprised to learn that our first tip on this list is
Stretching
It kind of goes without saying, If you are going to have a martial arts lesson, which will involve kicking, punching, grappling and other rapid movements, your body is going to be moving around often. This increases the risk of pulling a muscle or straining a joint. The best way to not do this is properly stretching.
Fortunately, our senseis will be able to give you instructions where you and a partner can stretch each other through resistance. This is the best way to ensure to get a proper good stretch – trust us you will thank your partner.
But, we also recommend doing stretching outside of the dojo, which is why we have attached this stretching chart to this piece (which you will see at the end of this blog post).
We would also highly recommend doing cool-down static stretches straight after a session as this will help prevent any muscle stiffness that you might be feeling.
Listen to your instructor and ask for feedback
“What but I do this all the time”- might well be your initial thought. But there is more to knowing a technique than just for you to grade for your next belt. Absorbing and observing everything that your sensei asks is essential in doing a technique correctly.
It can be so easy to perform a technique incorrectly and suffer an injury as a consequence – we all do it from time to time. But the more you focus on exactly what your sensei or coach is showing you the less likely it is you will perform a technique in a way that might make you feel uncomfortable.
And if in any doubt then you can always ask them if you are performing it correctly. They will only be too happy to watch what you are doing and correct you if necessary.
Make sure your breathing is on point
Having focussed breath is key in any type of martial arts. It is vital in ensuring that you don’t get fatigued too quickly and that you are able to maintain endurance, which is key for something as physically demanding as martial arts.
But from an injury perspective controlled breath can be important because if you are less tired and fatigued the less likely you are to hurt yourself. Controlled breathing also ensures that muscles can receive enough oxygen, which is crucial in ensuring that muscles can function properly.
Wear appropriate protection
Now this will vary depending on the discipline that you are doing. For example kickboxing requires gloves and boots, but Krav Maga and Jiu Jitsu don’t. But it is important for you to make sure that whatever you are doing that you are wearing the necessary equipment to keep you protected.
For example if you are sparring in kick-boxing it’s important that you have adequate gear on such as knee pads as well as groin and mouth guard. It is so easy to get injured unnecessarily because you decided to not properly protect yourself whilst sparring. So make sure that you don’t end up putting yourself in harm’s way and make sure you have the right gear for all scenarios you might encounter in a martial arts class.
And remember always to ….
Take a break
Just for clarity we don’t mean take breaks during class, your instructor will tell you when it is okay to do this. No, what we mean here is don’t over train. We would certainly recommend having martial arts sessions with us a few times a week to feel the benefits.
You should absolutely be taking some days off not just from martial arts but exercise entirely during the week to let your muscles take a break and repair. You can do all of the above suggestions, but if you overtrain especially in martial arts, you are leaving yourself very open to injuring yourself – trust us we know from our own mistakes. So sometimes sitting back and doing nothing is the best thing you can do for your training.