I've been receiving quiet a few injuries during the past few month of training and I am a bit concerned with injuries around the joints.
I've received in the past weeks injuries to my elbow when i stuck it out to break my fall after getting thrown and from an arm lock, which caused quiet a bit of inflammation.

I was wondering if repetitive injuries to the ligaments and tendons (joint locks) that cause inflammation will have a permanent effect on your body, or is it 100% recoverable.

Thanks!

short answer: yes.

Slightly longer answer from somebody who's not a doctor: yes, but if you quit trying to force things and learn how to fall correctly, you won't have to worry about repeated injury.

anecdotal answer from somebody who's not a doctor: yes, it took me 13 years of competitive swimming to fry both my rotator cuffs. Also took out some of the ligaments in my knees the same way. Repetitive injuries can result in things like tennis elbow, etc. We're not talking about breaking stuff, we're talking about inflammations caused by stress, strains, and minor sprains. This can cause inflammation to a variety of structures including but not limited to tendons, ligaments, bursa, etc. Generally, though, it takes a lot of repetitive use to get there, which is why they are more common in tennis, where you swing a racket the same way hundreds of times in one game, swimming where you wing your arms around hundreds of times in one race, golf, computers (carpal tunnel syndrome), etc.

Commentary: use what's hurting to teach yourself what you're doing wrong and correct it. There is no reason you should be suffering repetitive injury to the point that it becomes incapacitating. One, sudden, acute injury, however, is a completely different beasty.

I'm not a doctor, but I've watched Benny Hill and I like sexy nurses

Sort answer: yes. Longer anwser: maybe, if untreated.

Longest answer -

Usually, the inflammation you mention is an indication of trauma. Trauma leads to scar tissue. Untreated trauma leads to the proliferation of irregular collagen meshworks. Sure, technically the new scar tissue is stronger than the original tissue but it comes at a price.

The price being: reduced range of motion, pain, pain referral/altered sensation...and lots of other fun things.

So yes - inflammation, as a result of trauma leads to damage, if allowed to 'roam chaotic'.

(This is one of the reasons why RICER is so strongly recommended initially: you're doing everything mechanically possible (short of traction) to ensure regular collagen proliferation.

This is also why ROM exercise and stretching is recommended soon thereafter: The initial damage over, excess metabolite (which cause damage) need to be removed. Plus, most synovial joints / ligaments are conisdered virtually avascular, yet thixotropic (flow improves upon movement).

You *want* to remove deterious and bathe the new collagen with fluid, whilst the stretching is thought to encourage orderly layout.

Kind of a wierd catch 22: you want inflimation, but not too much and only after a certain period. There's actually even some debate as to when that period is - some say 48hrs, others longer or shorter).

In other words: if you injure yourself (inflamation), ignore it (scar tissue), then injure it again (more scar tissue)...which leads to altered sensation...you can see where this ends up.

Now, if we're talking about pain (vs actual physical damage)...well...that's much more complicated. Sometimes you can be an anatomical wreck and have zero pain. Other times, there can appear to be nothing wrong physically yet you are in constant agony (fibromyalgia comes to mind)

Beyond suggesting the following -
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I'll leave someone else to comment on pain phenomena

HTH

BTW

There is one unusual corollary to all this that I discovered today: apparently at altitude, the synovial joint capsule elongates, slightly gapping the surfaces between two joints. Good news I suppose if you have bone on bone grinding / inflammation. ("Hypo-baric" chamber, anyone?) Bad news because I'd imagine that the muscles would have to take up the extra slack in order to stabilize the joint - meaning, movement would be somewhat more energy demanding (due to phasic muscles being forced to act somewhat as tonic muscles).

I wonder if this explains why poor weather causes old joint injuries to ache: bad weather, high pressure system, joints compressed?

(Not sure if bad weather correlates to high atmo pressure....just chewing the fat)

I wonder what the judo is like in Mexico City?