131 | Coach Carrie Answers (More of) Your Questions on Recovery, Cross-Training, and Moving On
Release Date: 06/13/2024
153 | Elite Runner and Coach Becki Spellman: Embracing Your Best Each Day
The Injured Athletes Club
“ It really helped me as a coach to be able to look at my athletes and remind them, it doesn't have to be about a PR, doesn't have to be about the best day you wanted, but it can be—if you're healthy—about the best day you have that day. And that can be celebrated, that can be fun, even if it isn't the outcome you would've ideally written in your book.” Becki Spellman has had a long, successful career in distance running—she qualified for her first Olympic Marathon Trials in 2008 and her fourth in 2020. In that time, she’s dealt with her fair share of setbacks, including...
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152 | Coach Carrie Answers Two Questions: Don’t Play the Self-Blame Game
The Injured Athletes Club
“With overuse injuries especially, how do you help injured athletes recognize what to take ownership for, and what was out of their control? For example, one's weightlifting form may have led them to injury. Shame and guilt can be common emotions here, which are not helpful to our recovery, but how do we recognize what causal factors to take ownership of in a healthy way?” —Clark “If a series of acute injuries are a consequence of a chronic condition, how can you ever live without fear of reinjury or, perhaps worse, self-blame? Asking for a friend.” —Jennifer In...
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151 | Paralympian Ryan Medrano on Visualizing Success—then Living It
The Injured Athletes Club
“ That's how I learn life. I look at it, I visualize myself doing it, and then I execute. And if it doesn't feel right, I can feel it. I can see it, almost like a third person's view. That's the way I've approached life; that's the way I've been able to really reel in on what I'm good at and what I'm not good at.” Ryan Medrano has faced his share of challenges—he was born with mild cerebral palsy, which caused motor and cognitive delays, and was often bullied as a child because of it. But as he learned to walk and read social signals, he gained knowledge about himself and the...
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150 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question from Kathy: On Having Patience for the Long Haul
The Injured Athletes Club
“ How do you stay patient when the doctor says you’re doing too much? Mentally I get so down.” —Kathy 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. This week, she empathizes with Kathy’s conundrum—most injured athletes aren’t happy with the pace of their recovery, because they don’t want to be injured in the first place. But patience is essential, and the way to cultivate it is to recognize it for the strength and power that it...
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149 | Hockey Player and Marathoner Thomas E. Smith on Becoming What’s Possible
The Injured Athletes Club
”What went through my mind—I was 19 at the time, my birthday was the prior month—was, oh my goodness, is my life over in terms of being able to live my dream? Because hockey, for me, wasn't just a sport. It was a gateway to do better in all facets of life.” doesn’t like the word “impossible.” After all, time after time, he’s beaten the odds. After a paralyzing spinal cord injury during a hockey game, some doctors didn’t think he would walk again—but he found a team that believed he could not only walk but skate. Nine months later, he returned to the ice. ...
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148 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question from Whitney: Rejoining the Group Ride
The Injured Athletes Club
“ When you're injured and beginning to rejoin group rides/workouts, how do you let other riders know you're not at 100%? I'm thinking specifically of gravel and mountain biking. I have trouble clipping out quickly, and am currently overly cautious. I want to ride in the very back, but sometimes there are other people ALSO trying to ride in the back. I know people don't want/need to hear my ‘woe is me' injury story, but I also don't want to be a hazard!” —Whitney In season 8 of The Injured Athletes Club podcast, mental skills coach Carrie Jackson answers a question every other...
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147 | Coach Carrie & Cindy Explore Your Identity
The Injured Athletes Club
“ When you give yourself permission to explore your identity, you will start to realize that being an athlete is an important part of who you are, but it is not all that you are. When you develop other areas of your identity, it can sometimes open up your performance in ways that were never available to you before.” As we discuss frequently in The Injured Athletes Club, injury brings a rollercoaster of emotions. But often, one of the most destabilizing feelings is the question of identity: Who am I without my sport? In this host-ful episode, Coach Carrie explains how common...
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146 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question from Allison: Coping When Recovery Feels Overwhelming
The Injured Athletes Club
“Besides feed the athlete/feed the monster, are there other ways to reframe and build confidence with that day-to-day overwhelm in month 3 and beyond?” Allison 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. This week, listener Allison wants advice on self-talk and other confidence-builders as she moves into the long-term stretch of her rehab—and Coach Carrie delivers advice that will help any athlete riding the emotional rollercoaster of a lengthy recovery....
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145 | Paralympian Noelle Lambert: Breathing Life into a New Identity
The Injured Athletes Club
“ I woke up in the hospital and told everybody that this isn't gonna define me. I'm going to be playing lacrosse again. But there was always that what-if in the back of my head; I didn't really know if it would be possible. Having amputees sit across from me and hearing everything that they've been through … they were telling me that I'd be able to live an active lifestyle. I would be able to do whatever I wanted to with my life. And if I really wanted to, that I would be able to play lacrosse again.” Noelle Lambert was a collegiate lacrosse player at UMass Lowell when she...
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144 | Coach Carrie Answers a Question from Emmie: On Anger and Failing Relationships
The Injured Athletes Club
“ Just after recovering from being hit by a truck over the summer and breaking a bunch of bones, I got to start running again only to slam my ankle into a table and now I can’t even walk. It’s possibly just a bone bruise but the pain is radiating through my entire leg and I’m so angry this happened to me just after I got better. Everything is just fifty thousand times worse. I don’t get along with those closest to me, I have so much more conflict with family and friends because nobody understands what I’m going through and nobody is even that nice. Does anyone else feel...
info_outline“If one already has a good physical therapist, what are the benefits of a personal trainer when recovering from an injury or surgery? Is it just more money or can a personal trainer actually be a value add?”
“How do you balance being smart about prevention without letting worry of re-injury consume you?”
“What is the best way to recover from a VERY torturous PT session? Mental and physical. Also, more info on using blood flow restriction for recovery.”
“How can I trust that my crosstraining really works? And how can I let go of the fear of not recovering? I struggle with the feeling that I have lost all the success that was coming for me.”
“How many injuries do you incur and fight back from before you just give up?”
Coach Carrie has been tackling listener questions all season—and this week, she responds to not one, but four queries from Injured Athletes Club members out there.
She covers the best way to build confidence in your recovery, whether that’s assembling a top-notch team or celebrating small steps. She discusses fear of re-injury and how to calm down your nervous system after a tough PT or training session.
And, she talks thoughtfully about the very hard decision some athletes eventually face: How to decide when it’s time to move on. The answer involves getting deep about why you loved your sport in the first place, then giving yourself grace and patience as you work through whether you can fill your bucket with other options.
These questions come from five individuals but the answers have something for everyone—so don’t miss this one!
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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.