162 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Rebuilding Trust in Your Body
Release Date: 03/05/2026
166 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Sustaining Motivation and Energy During Recovery
The Injured Athletes Club
“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—is where the real work begins in terms of strengthening and getting back to where I was before, and hopefully stronger. So I’m wondering if you have guidance on keeping...
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165 | Author and Athlete Chelsey Klein on Grace, Survival, and Letting Go
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 to injury, which ended both her pursuit of gymnastics as a child and her collegiate volleyball career. But during the summer of 2020, during the height of the pandemic, she faced a...
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164 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question on Balancing Healing and Life Goals
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 degree I’m going into. I feel like this injury has just ruined me, and I’m not sure what to do.” —Rylie Injuries can be devastating at any stage and time. But in some cases,...
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163 | Marathoner Leanna Scaglione on Running Through Life's Challenges
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 aspiring ballerina thought was an injury from dancing turned into something she never could have imagined—surgery to remove a spinal tumor that left her temporarily unable to walk. Soon...
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162 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Rebuilding Trust in Your Body
The Injured Athletes Club
“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 mental skills is so important!). Phantom pains and fears of re-injury are totally normal after a bone stress injury, she points out. To reset your nervous system and...
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161 | Triathlete and Author Roderick Sewell on Defying Odds and Creating a Legacy Beyond Sports
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 the two-hour barrier in the marathon distance. The next day, his compatriot Brigid Kosgei the official women’s marathon world record, running 2:14:04 in Chicago. Between the two, another...
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160 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: Handling Unwanted Advice
The Injured Athletes Club
“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 Joe who doesn’t lift weights but got a knee replacement. Please help me how to deal with those two! I just hate it when people in general give me unsolicited advice.” —Nicole ...
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159 | Paralympic Athlete and Mental Coach Lacey Jai Henderson on Grief, Retirement, and Growth
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 relationship with it changes.” For years, Lacey Jai Henderson found joy and purpose in sport. Not long after losing her leg to cancer at age 9, she was enthralled by the movie Bring...
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158 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question: In It for the Long Haul
The Injured Athletes Club
“ 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 relentlessly positive. You’ll have ups and downs, and times when you have to come to a newfound acceptance of the process. Luckily, she has tools for doing so,...
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157 | Coach and Elite Runner Laura Thweatt on Rebuilding and Reinvention
The Injured Athletes Club
“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 never addressed my entire career, coming off of that gave me longevity.” Elite runner Laura Thweatt had a lengthy career at the top level of the sport—while running for Saucony for more...
info_outline“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 mental skills is so important!).
Phantom pains and fears of re-injury are totally normal after a bone stress injury, she points out. To reset your nervous system and ease excessive fears, she recommends focusing on breathing.
You can also coach yourself through in the second person, telling yourself you’re safe and strong. Or, you might try experimenting with naming your injury, creating a bit of psychological distance that turns an anxiety-provoking moment into a thoughtful conversation with your body.
Resources/links:
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DISCLAIMER: This content is for educational & informational use only and & does not constitute medical advice. Do not disregard, avoid or delay obtaining medical or health related advice from your health-care professional because of something you may have heard in an episode of this podcast. You should not rely on this information as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Please consult with a qualified medical professional for proper evaluation & treatment. Guests who speak on this podcast express their own opinions, experiences, and conclusions, and The Injured Athletes Club podcast hosts nor any company providing financial support endorses or opposes any particular treatment option discussed in the episodes of this podcast and are not responsible for any actions or inactions of listeners based on the information presented. The use of any information provided is solely at your own risk.