The Injured Athletes Club

"  You already got hit with an arrow, right? You got hit with the first arrow. Don't hit yourself with another arrow. Don't contribute to your suffering by judging yourself and being mean to yourself and creating narratives that are unhelpful."   We're wrapping up our ninth season, after 7.5 years of podcasting. Don't worry—the Injured Athletes Club isn't going anywhere.   But we are taking our re...

"It's so important to pay attention to how you are talking to yourself, because your words influence everything. So you really need to understand your self-talk and start to dive into it a little bit and know, OK, is the way I'm talking to myself right now—is that helping me or is that actually hurting me?" Imagine you're walking past two sets of coaches and athletes on the tennis court, track, or...

"How do you date as an injured athlete when you identify strongly with specific sports and are drawn to others who also do those things … but you can't do them at this time? It becomes a source of anxiety and insecurity. Like, who would want to date a fellow runner who can no longer run? Or someone who seems to be perpetually in physical rehab?"—Evan   Navigating relationships can feel difficult a...

"  I got to the bottom after that jump and I started having thoughts of—'I've come this far, it's all gonna slip away if I can't compete and do well in this competition.' And as I walked across to the bottom of the jump to go back up the stairs, I basically said, 'I'm not gonna let that happen.'"   The first formative moment of Matt Petri's ski jumping career was probably when a coach convinced hi...

"How do I adjust my training mindset now that I'm a masters athlete? I have a hard time accepting that my body is no longer 20. I'm 35, about to turn 36." —Kelly   Society often tells us that getting older is something to be feared and refused—think about the concept of anti-aging. For athletes, there's an added layer of performance changes as we move into the masters categories.    The problem, C...

"One thing that helped me—and I don't know if I really thought about doing this, I think I just did it when I was in the hospital—was just taking it a day at a time. Taking the day for what it is, not trying to look too far ahead. Obviously, you want to hit that goal of getting better, but take the day for what it is and what you can do that day."   As one of the world's most accomplished equipped...

"I'm feeling left out, although I know it's not intentional. I joined a racing team this year, but have had to withdraw from several races already due to recovering from a bone stress injury. I did too much, too soon last year, and it finally caught me right after team training started—go figure!   There's another race this weekend that most of the team is running, and I'm always happy to support...

" It's not going to be a linear journey, which is something that's been hard for me to wrap my head around. I have bad days and I have good days … I've had to learn that sometimes it's two steps forward, one step back."   Lyn Jutronich has been swimming since she was a child in the Chicago suburbs, and as an adult living near San Diego, she fell in love with the open water. But in November 2022, s...

"I am nearly 8 months post-op after a femoral osteotomy to correct my knee. One of my biggest challenges is trying to figure out if my knee hurts because it 'should' as part of my recovery—or if it hurts because my body isn't used to this level of training after 7 months of not doing much. Can you help?"—Aaron   Sometimes, pain sends a clear signal to your brain that there's tissue damage or dange...

" You don't want to think about a friend dying or going through a divorce or anything like that—you kind of don't want to even put that energy in the world. Same thing with running. You don't want to think about what it looks like, but the reality is, most of us are going to have to think about that. Not everyone can stand on the podium at age 70."   Dimity McDowell was first on our show back in 2...

" How do I cope with knowing that I may never get back to where I was—that this might be a permanent change for me?" —Emily   Many athletes—whether they're professionals or amateurs—have a strong athletic identity. When that's threatened by injury, especially if it's a permanent shift, it's normal to feel frightened and unmoored, Coach Carrie shares in this week's listener Q&A episode.   Whether y...

"If I had to choose one injury or obstacle as the most difficult, it's really hard for me to do that because each one was very different in and of itself. I look back at them, and I'm honestly quite grateful I've been through it all, because it's changed who I am and it's made me who I am. You learn a lot when you're down and out."   Angela Naeth has been racing as a pro triathlete since 2008, and...

" My surgery was a success, and my doctors have given me the go-ahead to play again next season, but it's been over a decade since my initial injury, and I needed to hang up my skates. I've been sidelined for about 11 years.  I was always a really aggressive player, and I've never been one to shy away from a confrontational situation on the ice. But after my injury, I'm worried that I'll be too ne...

" When you take a moment to pause and label the emotion you're feeling, you're asking your prefrontal cortex to get involved, which pulls the activation out of the amygdala where your brain is processing threat or no threat. Instead of being overwhelmed by the physiological experience of the emotion. It creates psychological distance so you can experience it from a less threatening vantage point."...

"I just had my 12-week post-op follow-up with my doctor. It was a good appointment and things are pretty much where they are supposed to be at this stage. But I've been hitting a wall in my PT in terms of fatigue and overall enthusiasm. Most days, my energy is very low, and I'm trying to incorporate more rest and sleep in as much as possible.    The doctor said at this stage—between month 3 and 12...

" I've had to learn how to ask for help. I am grateful for my independence. I'm grateful for the fact that if I want something, I go get it. And my work ethic—I work in sales and my success of being an athlete, I owe it to that. But at the end of the day, there is that understanding of there's a difference between giving up and surrendering."   Chelsey Klein is a lifelong athlete—and no stranger t...

" I'm feeling like my injury has really held me back in life. My first two years of college, I was trying to survive school while recovering from a car accident. I've needed every extension and have had many surgeries after that, which have affected my schooling and life in general. Now I'm ready to transfer from my community college to a university, and I don't have all the right classes for the...

" Whatever you're feeling, whether it be anger, hatred, sadness, disappointment—it's okay. You're allowed to feel those things. That is valid. But just know that this situation— yes, NF is a lifelong diagnosis, and not having a cure, it does change your life trajectory a little bit. But it doesn't dictate how you have to live your life."   Leanna Scaglione was just 16 years old when what the aspir...

"How do you navigate phantom pains and constant re-injury fears after recovering from a bone stress injury?" —Marija   Fear is one of the brain's ways of protecting the body when it's injured. But often, our anxiety lingers long after it's useful. Our bodies and minds don't always recover at the same rate, Coach Carrie explains in this week's listener Q&A (that's why deliberately working on your m...

" Representation does matter. Because I've been to Zambia, Ethiopia, and Kenya with this same team, and when they see somebody who looks like them and is also walking on prosthetics … this child might be 18 and has never had a prosthetic. Now they're like, 'Oh, I have the motivation to not only try it, but know that I can live a normal life."   On Oct. 12, 2019, marathoner Eliud Kipchoge broke the...

"The most frustrating thing is when older women in their 70s and 80s keep pestering me when I'm injured. I call them the 'I-told-you-so ladies.' I feel like they're giving me unsolicited advice and discouraging me to go back to lifting. Sometimes their comments hurt. One lady is a retired bodybuilder and a personal trainer in her 80s who had a hip replacement and the other lady is just an average...

" I think this is also what helps with the athlete transition—and even when you're dealing with injury and you're going to recover—is your relationship to the sport. Because that's what I realized: There's this feeling of loss and grief, and it's like somebody died, but at the same time, it doesn't really actually have to be like that. I've learned that sport's always gonna be in my life … but my...

" How can I be resilient in a long-term recovery program?" —Kim   Recovery always takes longer than you want it to, because you don't want to be hurt in the first place. But some rehab periods are lengthier than others, and that can be physically and mentally exhausting.    To cope, Coach Carrie stresses in this week's listener Q&A, remember that staying resilient isn't the same as being relentles...

"That injury was one of the most psychologically harrowing experiences of my career, just figuring out how to navigate that space, how to eventually see it as a superpower … if I hadn't gotten that injury, I wouldn't have been able to rebuild my body in a way that allowed me to come back a completely different athlete. I think because of all the work I had to do in the gym to address things I had...

" How do I deal with expectations around timelines?" —Every injured athlete, ever   In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other week about the mental side of overcoming injuries. And for our season finale, she tackles an issue that's come up from more than one person: how to manage when recovery takes longer than you'd like.  ...