" 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 lo...
Feb 12, 2026•1 hr 11 min•Season 9Ep. 159
" 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 ...
Feb 05, 2026•12 min•Season 9Ep. 158
"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 ...
Jan 29, 2026•1 hr 13 min•Season 9Ep. 157
" 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. So many injured athletes have had the experience of latching onto an initial timeline given by a doctor...
Jun 19, 2025•12 min•Season 8Ep. 156
" Surgeries one through three, there is still this fear around weight gain and therefore restriction. And I think part of me wants to know, is that a major factor in why I didn't heal well? I'm not going to dwell on that or guilt-trip myself over it; it's in the past. But it was also an opportunity for surgeries four and onward, to say: 'Let's take a different approach. Let's nourish to heal. Let's not feed to skate by.'" Tatum Vedder was heading into her last year of collegiate volleyball, play...
Jun 12, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Season 8Ep. 155
" I've unfortunately faced a series of surgeries and setbacks over the last few years. While I feel like I have a supportive group of friends, I don't feel like my primary coach has been that understanding of the mental toll that this has taken on me or how to navigate a game plan through my recovery, even though she's successfully done that in the past with me as injuries have come up. She doesn't feel approachable to talk to and rarely reaches out to me. While I know she isn't my therapist, I ...
Jun 05, 2025•10 min•Season 8Ep. 154
" 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 ...
May 29, 2025•1 hr•Season 8Ep. 153
"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 reinju...
May 22, 2025•15 min•Season 8Ep. 152
" 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 ...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 8Ep. 151
" 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 i...
May 08, 2025•12 min•Season 8Ep. 150
"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." Tom Smith 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 cou...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 8Ep. 149
" 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 Athlet...
Apr 24, 2025•10 min•Season 8Ep. 148
" 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 a...
Apr 17, 2025•37 min•Season 8Ep. 147
"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 tha...
Apr 10, 2025•15 min•Season 8Ep. 146
" 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 a...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 8Ep. 145
" 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 understand...
Mar 27, 2025•12 min
" The biggest change that I've had to make in myself is, you don't always have to be progressing. I feel like there's this huge push to be able to run faster, run farther, lift heavier, just do more all the time. But it doesn't necessarily have to be that way to reap all the benefits of health and fitness that come along with cardio and with strength training." Physical therapist and strength coach Dr. Susie Spirlock has always been a healthy, active person. But after she got sick with COVID in ...
Mar 20, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 8Ep. 143
"How can I cope with treadmill anxiety? Coming off of a mild ankle fracture, my first few weeks I was back up to speed. Lately, as soon as I go anywhere over a jog, I feel panicky, like I'm going to fall and have to slow down. I feel relatively sure it is all mental—but I'm wondering if you have any tips." —Jennifer 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, Coac...
Mar 13, 2025•13 min•Season 8Ep. 142
"Actionable goals build. It's a mountain—recovery is a mountain. Think about the stops on that mountain that you need to make to get to the top." Millie Paladino had a successful, relatively injury-free collegiate career in running at West Virginia University and then Providence College, where she ran distances from 800 meters to 3,000 meters and was an all-American in the mile. She turned pro and joined Team New Balance, and in 2021, made the final in the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials i...
Mar 06, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 8Ep. 141
" I tore my ACL last April; it's been very challenging. Do you have any ideas on how to make the recovery process fun? Also, why do I feel so lost and confused without my sport—what should I do with this feeling? —Ava 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, in response to Ava, she reiterates one of the key messages of The Injured Athletes Club: That you are st...
Feb 27, 2025•10 min•Season 8Ep. 140
" I don't really want to be who I was before I was injured. In a lot of ways, I'm thankful to a place that just completely broke me, just brought me to some really low points. That's when I was able to grasp my faith or what it was, which is my personal worth. It has absolutely nothing to do with a soccer field or anything of the sort. Just learning that my worth and my fulfillment comes solely through my faith has been something that will go so much farther through life than soccer ever could."...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 8Ep. 139
" I have had the worst luck in the last two years. I had a knee replacement in April 2022 for a left knee that had at least 6 scopes over a 10-year + period and it was finally ready to be redone. At last, I would be pain-free. I worked extremely hard to rehab so I could get back on my mountain bike and on the ice. I did, eventually, but with a constant nagging pain. It turns out I had a fungal infection in the joint from the first surgery and now I am facing two major surgeries and possibly anot...
Feb 13, 2025•12 min•Season 8Ep. 138
" Anybody I've met since I got hurt, I feel like they don't know me and that they can't know me. For people that I've become really close to since I got hurt—it almost hurts me to know that this person won't actually ever know who I am or who I was. They're meeting an entirely different person … there's a before and after, and a massive wall that separates them." As a seasoned personal trainer and co-owner of Amplify Fitness , a gym in Boston, Mia Lazarewicz is used to helping athletes and adult...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 8Ep. 137
"I am a soccer player, and I tore my labrum in my right hip. After trying physical therapy for 4 months, I ended up needing surgery. I am a couple months post-op, feeling much better now, and can see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, however I am still having trouble being around soccer. Every time I go to support my team, it doesn't even feel like mine anymore. I'm very excited to play again, but I'm scared that I will have been left behind and scared I'm not going to be the playe...
Jan 30, 2025•11 min•Season 8Ep. 136
" I never lost my ability to breathe. I never lost completely my ability to swallow. We had to adjust things for a little while. But I am a huge believer that being as fit at that moment as I was going to be all year—I needed that to get through what I got through and to be able to get up and moving again so quickly." Lynn Rogers had completed one IRONMAN triathlon and was training for another when her hands started to go numb. Next, it was her feet and her tongue. In the end, she'd be paralyzed...
Jan 23, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Season 8Ep. 135
" My injuries led to major surgery, a hip replacement. I have really struggled with being on my feet all day, fatigue, and not feeling even close to 80 percent at work. I just learned I will have two unrelated surgeries, and the thought of healing all over again in my stressful and physically demanding job has caused me to 100 percent regret coming back early from hip surgery. It seems hard to believe that being on my feet all day is harder than advanced physical therapy. Have you heard of athle...
Jan 16, 2025•10 min•Season 8Ep. 134
" Now I have to take this as a challenge: How do I have this elite-level B game that is almost indestructible, where I know I can get the job done in a maybe a different way, but just as efficient … and that's where athletes get the most gain in their mental capacity and their ability to win and their consistency is understanding that they can have that elite-level B game. They can beat anyone without having to feel 100%. And so that's kind of where I would go." Casey Patterson's journey through...
Jan 09, 2025•58 min•Season 8Ep. 133
" How does one find self-compassion when you've been through this too many times and understand the importance of the beginning phase while also itching to get out of it and back to the activities that bring me joy? I know all the usual tactics: time with friends, using other activities (music, podcast, drawing), resting, lifting upper body and moving in whatever way I can that doesn't jeopardize the surgical area, reframing, CBT, DBT, etc. But I still feel a bit lost." —Bec It's our very last e...
Jun 20, 2024•28 min•Season 7Ep. 132
"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 real...
Jun 13, 2024•31 min•Season 7Ep. 131
" How to deal with re-injury? I tore my ACL last winter and it almost broke me, but I fought my way back into skiing at almost my previous level this year. Now I just tore it again and I feel absolutely shattered. I wasn't out of control or falling - the turn was just too much for my knee to handle and it snapped. I have no idea how I'll ever feel confident enough to take up skiing in the future now this happened. Also, I'm feeling completely demotivated for my recovery this time around." —Mario...
Jun 06, 2024•13 min•Season 7Ep. 130
