First some background before my stupidity is revealed. I usually don’t injure myself with all that I do at Basches Martial Arts and Spiece Fitness.  I’m sore a lot, but rarely injured where tissue is damaged. A little over two weeks ago I got six stitches in my foot due to a Jiu-Jitsu injury at Basches. The joint between my little toe and the next toe got torn. No broken bones, torn ligaments or anything serious – just torn skin.  My foot healed well and the stitches were removed last week. I laid off my workouts a while per the Doctor’s suggestion.  I started back lightly with Taekwondo and Jiu-jitsu at Basches and exercising at Spiece nine days after the injury. The foot was sore but fully functional again. Medical tape was used to keep the little toe secured to the adjacent toe so it didn’t get caught and tear again while I was barefoot doing martial arts.

Last Thursday I even did Jiu-Jitsu and Taekwondo at Basches in the morning and the day before I did Group Blast at Spiece which is mostly on your feet.  Medical tape was used again and the toe was fine.  Yesterday I took Group Blast, Zumba and Centergy at Spiece and I got through it and my lower body felt it, but the toe was fine. Afterwards, I wanted to practice some punching and kicking on the heavy bag and like I always do I removed my shoes and socks.  Well I was in a hurry and did not tape my toes together because I reasoned it couldn’t happen twice! On an off-centered front kick, the little toe caught the edge of the bag and it hurt worse than the first time. I immediately knew it was torn and the blood confirmed it. I was so mad I didn’t tape my toes again or wear socks and shoes. I think I learned my lesson this time and will be taping my toes for a long time to come before any barefoot workouts.

Wish me luck as I start a second recovery from the same injury and if you know any place to buy inexpensive medical tape, let me know!