Hidden Truths About Athletic Injuries

Welcome to The Movement. Today is a 10-Minute Read

My name’s Ryan, and I specialize in helping people be active and thrive in and out of the gym. This newsletter is about challenging the status quo of healthcare and fitness and summarizes what I’m learning, thinking, and teaching.

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Here’s what we got this week.

Hidden Truths About Athletic Injuries

Injuries aren’t just physical.

They test your mindset, resilience, and approach to recovery. The way you think, talk to yourself, and visualize your comeback can make all the difference.

Here are some hidden truths and action steps.

Let’s get into it.

Wolff’s Law: Stress + Rest = Growth. Be obsessively intentional about both.

In other words, Work + Recovery = Adaptation. It’s important to focus on the right types of training and load you’re placing on your body, especially when it comes to tissue healing.

People often make an assumption that after suffering an injury or undergoing surgery, rest is all that’s needed for the area to heal.

Sure, rest is important but only AFTER there has been stress. Stress facilitates healing by forcing the body to grow stronger, lay down fresh collagen, produce fibroblasts, etc.

Both parts of the equation are equally important. Don’t neglect them.

Surgery works better when you prepare for it.

Prehab, or rehab done in preparation for an upcoming surgery, works really well.

Strengthening weak muscles and improving joint mobility can pay dividends after a surgery. If you’ve ever had surgery, you know how much pain, swelling, and inflammation there is and the more “extra credit” you can put in beforehand, the better you’re gonna feel afterwards. And the better the outcomes.

Research confirms this. Do your prehab.

It’s never just about the soft tissue.

I love seeing professional sports team post injury updates.

All they ever wanna talk about is the “calf strain” or “bicep tear” and the surgery they underwent to repair the thing.

I’d also argue it’s why re-injury rates are so high across all sports from little league to the pros. We hyperfocus on the tissue and medical diagnosis and neglect the other factors involved.

The systemic inflammation an injury creates, the mental stress and strain it places on the athlete, the compensations and weaknesses that form from not moving for weeks on end, so on and so forth.

All injuries have a trickle down effect and cause issues upstream and downstream from the site.

Effective rehab plans understand this.

An injury can rip you from your tribe. Don’t let it.

You know what the hardest thing is for a CrossFitter to deal with after being injured?

Not being able to go to the gym. It’s not the pain or the rehab or the medical costs.

It’s being removed from the community of people they love spending time with and being able to do the activities they love.

The same goes for high school basketball players or runners who are in running groups. It doesn’t matter.

In these instances, the best thing an injured athlete can do is still show up. Do what you can. Modify the workouts. Hang out. Walk around. Shoot the shit. It doesn’t matter.

But being alienated does no good. Stick to your routine. It helps.

Healing always takes longer than you expect.

Whatever the projected timeline is, multiply it by 1.5x.

Just when you think you’re good, that’s when the real rehab begins.

I always say that the most dangerous part of a “return to sport” rehab plan is when the athlete is finally pain-free. Because pain is limiting. It gives you pause to not do too much because you’re not “100%” yet.

But when things feel good, it becomes much harder to hold back, even knowing that the tissue isn’t anywhere ready to tolerate the same type of intensity and workload you’re accustomed to.

Be patient. Follow the plan. Make sure the body is ready, and remember, that goes well beyond getting rid of pain.

Winners don’t rehab. They rebound. Reframe your goals.

Imagine you’re standing on top of a tall building and you throw a bouncy ball off the top towards the ground.

The ball falls 20 stories before hitting the ground and bouncing back up.

This is the journey of an injured athlete.

The injury happens and we’re immediately flooded with emotions of despair, sadness, and hopelessness, falling towards the ground.

But the sooner we can work through those emotions, and reach acceptance

A body doesn’t heal with a broken mind. Start there.

Athletes with a positive mindset recover faster, and research backs it up. While we don’t fully understand the mechanisms, neurogenesis (the brain’s ability to form new neural connections) along with the nervous system’s role in regulating inflammation, pain, and tissue repair, likely play a key role.

This connection between mindset and recovery is what inspired Restore, Valvo Health’s proprietary formula.

Designed to optimize the body’s natural healing processes, it helps athletes move better, recover faster, and stay resilient, both physically and mentally.

Your medical diagnosis is a piece of the puzzle. Not the puzzle.

Doctors love to throw labels on things - stenosis, tear, degeneration, strain, etc. It’s these labels that get them paid after all.

But these diagnoses don’t tell the full story.

They don’t explain how you’re feeling as a result of being injured.

How you’re moving - your mobility, stability, strength, balance, coordination, etc.

Your stress, diet, sleep, inflammation, or recovery, all of which impact your recovery process more than what your “ICD-10 code” does.

Your medical diagnosis only matters to the insurance companies.

Your functional diagnosis is what you should care about.

Good rehab is just training with a different focus.

If your rehab program doesn’t leave you sweaty, tired, and out of breath at some point, it’s not a good program.

Traditional PT is notorious for underworking and underloading athletes.

Maybe it’s because the doctor’s protocol they’re following is too easy. Or because they’re worried they may injure their patients. I’m not sure.

But this is why athletes so commonly get injured when returning to play.

Your rehab plan, especially in the later stages, should look and feel a lot like your actual training. Speed, intensity, high volume, low rest, sport specificity, game-like scenarios.

If the body doesn’t experience this in a closed, controlled environment, there’s no chance it’ll be able to handle the real thing when it’s “go time.”

FAR: Feel. Accept. Recover. Not the other way around.

“FAR” is the process through which athletes move through recovery after an injury.

Feel your emotions. It sucks to be injured. You’re depressed, sad, and frustrated. Sit with those emotions, don’t brush them away.

Accept that this is your current scenario and nothing will change it. Focus on what you CAN control and not what you can’t.

Recover through action. Once you've processed your emotions and accepted your situation, build a plan and execute it. True recovery happens when you take purposeful action, and moving through the F-A-R process ensures that action leads to real progress.

Use self talk. The only person that knows what you’re going through is you.

Injury can feel isolating. No one truly understands what you're going through except you, and that’s why self-talk matters. It’s like having an external voice guiding you, almost like a friend pulling you through the tough moments.

Think about running up a steep hill in a race. Your legs are burning, your breath is short, and everything in you wants to stop.

But then you tell yourself, "Keep pushing. One step at a time. You’ve got this."

That voice, whether in your head or out loud, pushes you forward when everything else wants to quit.

Self-talk is a powerful tool. Who cares if you sound like a weirdo? Use it.

Set goals. Visualize them. Every day. With movement.

Goal setting is a powerful tool in recovery, and the more vivid the goal, the better. The key is to see it, feel it, and train with it.

Picture yourself squatting 300 pounds, throwing a 90 mph fastball, or sinking a 12-foot putt to win the tournament. Close your eyes and mentally step into that moment—the sights, the sounds, the feeling of success.

But don’t stop there. Bring that imagery into your movement and training. When you squat, feel the weight as if it’s already 300 pounds. When you throw, embody the speed and precision of that 90 mph pitch. When you putt, let your body move with the confidence of a champion.

Your body responds to what your mind believes. This isn’t woo-woo—it’s how high performers train their nervous system to execute under pressure. Set goals, visualize them daily, and move with purpose.

Until next time

That’s all for today. Whenever you’re ready, here’s how I can help.

• 🤝 Want to work with me 1:1? Book a Discovery Call to see if you’re a good fit.

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Ryan

DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice.