By Cleveland Clinic Team — 2020
“We need to do a better job of addressing mental as well as physical aspects of athletic injuries,” sports psychologist Matthew Sacco, PhD, says.
Read on health.clevelandclinic.org
CLEAR ALL
For the first time in forever, Nathan Adrian truly has no idea if he’ll have a strong swim Friday. And at this point, it doesn’t really matter to the five-time Olympic gold medalist. He’s simply elated to be back.
‘Skin cancer worked its way into my lymph nodes. I was devastated.’
1
Injuries, while hopefully infrequent, are often an unavoidable part of sport participation. While most injuries can be managed with little to no disruption in sport participation and other activities of daily living, some impose a substantial physical and mental burden.
The next time you pull a muscle and think, “Oh my gosh, not another one,” you may need to consider the location of your pain may not be the cause. If you are plagued with chronic muscle pulls or tendonitis-like symptoms you’ll need a more holistic approach to the problem.
When you have localized pain, what do you do? You reach for it. Often without conscious thought, your hand goes to the area of discomfort and massages it.
With each diagnosis, knowing her life hung in the balance, she was “stunned, then anguished” and astonished by “how much energy it takes to get from the bad news to actually starting on the return path to health.”
When Peter Keating took off from the starting line at the Boston Marathon, it was the realization of a dream come true, but he never imagined just how unique his 26.2-mile trek would be.
You could argue that there’s three coding languages, one being your native language, the second being mathematics, [or] ways of representing the world internally to yourself, and the third is through imagery.
2
You probably know that exercise is one of the top things you can do to prevent chronic problems, but it can also mitigate existing obesity, heart disease, and diabetes — and the symptoms that come along with them.
Tracy Ward explores some of the neurological and behavioural changes that pain can bring about, and the implications for clinicians with athletes in their care.