My husband has been doing karate on and off for about two years, did TKD for about seven months or so and is now training in karate again with me.

Since recommencing karate training he has been complaining that his lower back and hips suffer from the training. He has pretty bad knees, with hardly any movement beyond a ninety degree bend, so cannot hold or move in a very low stance. The training he has been doing has been fairly light basics and kata. He is otherwise a very fit man who runs and does kettelbell training without the same back/hip complaints.

He is a typical mid grade in that he is learning to manage his tension better, but is still quite tense in a lot of his movements so I am not sure if that is causing the stiff back/hips. He uses his hips quite well in training, so I don't think its caused by being overly tense in the hip area. Interestingly, he didn't have the same problem when training in TKD.

Any suggestions as to what might cause back/hip problems or what I can look out for that he may be doing wrong?

Kim

I have similar problems with my knees and lower back. The problem with my lower back is due to an accident in my 20’s. It never bothered me much until about 3 – 4 years ago but it’s now giving me trouble. Not sure what caused the knees to trouble me but now I get a sharp stabbing pain on occasions and I know that one day I will end up flat on my face when going through stances. I stopped the infernal bouncing in sparing and the running for a warm up. To reduce the chance of further injury I do a lot of slow stretches and gradually stretch to my maximum range. Other than that, old age does that to you