PLAYING THROUGH THE PAIN: WHEN & HOW TO LISTEN TO THE WARNING SIGNS - EPISODE 57 W/ COACH BRYN

There is going to be a certain amount of discomfort in growing, in stretching, in getting better. And so sometimes you're going to feel fatigued, your mind's going to tell you to stop. I'm excited for you to see this week's episode, but before we get to that, I have a message for you. If you're a parent of an elite athlete or a coach of a high-performing team and you want— you're looking for some help or assistance with making them more mentally resilient, perform with more confidence, be more consistent, anything like that, then this is for you. I have an 8-week program all designed to address exactly that, to help your athlete be at their best on a more consistent basis and not get tripped up by those little voices in their head and getting down on themselves for mistakes, but performing like we know they can. So what I want you to do is don't delay, schedule a— just grab a time on my calendar through this link and let's set up a time to talk about your specific situation and how what I'm offering in my 8-week program can help. Okay, so it's Bryndresher.com/freeconsultation. So click this link, grab a time on my calendar. I look forward to talking to you. And now on to this week's episode. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mental Advantage Podcast. Got another solo episode with Coach Bryn, and this week we are talking about playing through pain. Playing through pain. Why are we talking about this? Well, uh, 2 weeks ago I had a back injury. I could not move. I had a lot of pain, and it made me think of the athletes and the performers that I have had the pleasure of coaching. And we've already done an episode about injury on here, but even when some players have some modicum or some degree of pain, there's a lot of school of thought about like, what can you play through? Like, what are you willing to do to get through that pain, right? And so I want to talk about that particular instance that happened for me because I woke up and literally, I, I mean, I was fine the day before, I was fine the day before that, but that, based on some choices that I made, shoe footwear options, kind of changing things up and sitting a lot, I think it just caused my body to be like, oh, there's something going on here. And then I had a lower back injury where it was painful to sit, to stand, to move, like, you know, the things we take for granted, right? So a lot of times, you know, in the old school days of sports, a lot of athletes would just take something like, you know, just give me a painkiller. And what painkillers do is they numb the pain. They numb the pain. But I'm also a big believer in why is this pain here, right? So it could be something physiological, like I said, I wore certain shoes and that created something. But then there's also the psychological— I said the physiological, sorry if that's what— if I didn't say physiological. And then there's the psychological aspect of what was I feeling, you know, because back is structures, right? And lower back is about maybe trusting yourself, certain things. So I want to say when it— when people talk about playing through the pain, there is a certain amount of pain that one can play through, right? We talked about in the last episode, um, or in the episode that's upcoming with Marco Nunez, about how Kobe walked off the court with his Achilles, um, issue. And it's like, once it's broken, there's not much more damage you can do to it, right? But then there's this other school of thought of like you know, uh, sometimes there is going to be a certain amount of pain in the victory, in the triumph, in the journey of pursuing excellence, greatness, etc., etc. So I think that there's, you know, let's, let's address when you shouldn't play through the pain first, right? So for example, in my instance, there was not much I could do. It was painful to get up, to walk, to sit, to do. So as far as full mobility, to be able to go out and perform much of anything on particular day, it was challenging. All I could do was stretch and work on doing things to alleviate the pain. We think it was my sciatic nerve that was, you know, like I was having some pain in that particular area of my body. And I gotta say, it was quite a bit of pain. I spent my last day in Miami just sitting on a couch and, you know, doing my best and taking the advice of people and watching videos that might have helped me sort of alleviate some of that pain. I had 2 2 plane rides on the way home and, you know, a car ride and then, you know, getting home. And I slept on the floor for about a week after just to kind of not allow like the small— the softness of my mattress to sort of misalign anything and just allow my back to get better day by day. And eventually in a week I was fine. Okay, like I'm fine. I've got full mobility again. It was painful to even sit in this chair that I record and work all day in. So It told me a couple of things, right? I need to be more stretching. I need to, I need to move more throughout my day. I have a very virtual lifestyle right now, and that is not going to be conducive for me to be as, you know, flexible in maybe how I can move and what I can do. And if I'm standing for long periods of time, I haven't strengthened my back muscles to the same degree as I had before when I was, I had a much more active lifestyle. So I think it's also kind of looking at your environment. What are you doing and what could be contributing to this particular type of pain? And so use that pain as like a warning signal on the dashboard of your car to let you know that this is not to be ignored. You really need to take a look at this and make sure that you take care of it because you don't want to be in a situation where it's a 5-alarm situation like I was in when I could have done some things proactively. But then from that pain, there's a lot of lessons there, right? More activity, stretching, um, you know, switching up what I'm doing throughout the day, being mindful of the type of footwear I'm wearing. I wore heels and then Converse. Converse have no support. Heels don't really have support, but they've got the heel. So it's like, you know, your spine is getting used to the different elevations. And again, not having that normal muscle because I'm working out all the time, creating those issues. So really want you to be mindful of when we talk about the mental advantage, we also need to know, like, what are we learning from our mistakes? What are we learning from what our body is telling us, right? And so your body is screaming at you with these warning lights, kind of like the dashboard on the car, like I said. And it's important that we're paying attention and we're not just ignoring it and then taking a painkiller that may alleviate the pain but doesn't really wake us up to, hey, there's something to pay attention to here. There's some kind of activity, behavior, habit, that you're doing that's contributing to this, and your body's telling you it. Now, of course, it's up to each individual how you're going to deal with that pain, because, you know, there were moments where moving was excruciating. And I am not saying that you shouldn't take a painkiller or do what you need to do to get temporary relief, as long as you know that that's just a numbing and not a curing. Does that make sense? So it's more like doing the stretching, doing the yoga, all the stuff that I did throughout the week to really address what was going on with my back rather than just popping pills that might make me feel better but aren't really helping me strengthen my muscles and getting me back into activity. So let's talk about when you can and could play through the pain. There is going to be a certain amount of discomfort in growing, in stretching, in getting better. And so sometimes you're going to feel fatigued. Your mind's going to tell you to stop. There's going to be times like when you used to do like, um, when, when I was in track and field, and I know a lot of athletes have different exercises they do, you might experience a certain amount of pain or discomfort in the process of doing like a wall sit or even lifting, right? And it's like, ah, that last one is just like, it almost like feels like it hurts to get it done because your muscles are so fatigued and there's such, you know, things in there that it's like, I can't do it. Your mind's going to tell you you can't do it, you can't do it. And so there's a certain amount of pain, like, you know, I guess it's different kinds of pain, right? So there's acute pain, which is like a sharp pain that's like, whoop, something there, something's off, I shouldn't push through that because I can further injure myself, exacerbate an injury, things like that, right? And then there's just like that dull ache of like soreness and pushing through something. And those are the type of pains we're talking about that you could play through. And so you don't want to let the first sign of fatigue fatigue or just like that lactic acid buildup or that soreness be something that's going to tell you to not do something. Whereas when we're talking about pain pain, you know, the kind of pain that you're like, like it's excruciating, that's like, you know, that's like, oh my gosh, the car is about to overheat, we got to shut this thing down and sit down. Okay, so yes, there is a certain amount of discomfort, rather said, um, and maybe soreness that one can play through. But when we're talking about acute sharp pain That's something to pay attention to and make sure that you're kind of sitting down and really listening to your body because your body pain is there as an indicator to let you know that something's going on. So an ache versus a pain, we kind of want to look at that, okay? We want to look at that and say, you know, like, I'm going to play through it but not to the point of like further injuring myself because sometimes you can withstand a certain amount of pain and still get a result, but it could be doing irreparable harm to a muscle, to a joint, to something like that. So, um, and just to kind of bring it out to a broader— let's talk about the non-physiological pain, right? The pain of a loss, the pain of things going on off the court, right? When we talk about the mental advantage, how do I play through the pain? So that was the other part that I wanted to speak about, which is not playing through physical pain, because as we said, that's usually an indicator and something to pay attention to, but playing through— how can we play through the, you know, emotional and psychological pain that we might be experiencing from things that happen on and off the court, right? Maybe you're having a disagreement with a teammate, a coach. Maybe you're personally going through something off the court, like a relationship challenge, whether it be familial, romantic, friendship, things like that. And so learning how to play through that pain by knowing that you— sometimes a good outlet for pain is exercise, is working out, is going into your sport and really getting your mind off of it, as long as you're going to come back to it at some point. So, you know, you got to learn how to play sort of through the pain, but also just kind of use that pain maybe to say, hey, this is an opportunity for me to get some of that energy out and not hold on to it and stagnate, but play through what you might be experiencing emotionally, psychologically. But then make sure that you're coming back to it, you're not just ignoring it and stuffing it, because some people can use sports as a replacement for the pain. And then it's like, you know, it's kind of like pressing the pause button on that pain, but it doesn't go away. It's not like it just dissipates completely. At some point we have to deal with it, and the best way is through not around, over, you know, ignoring. Does that make sense? Oh, I hope this was helpful for you. I want to say, like, it's, it's important to really be able to talk about things and get things out, and then also know how to put things, you know, in perspective as far as, hey, this doesn't have anything to do with my sport, or, um, so I'm going to go ahead and play through this pain, uh, but I'm also going to come back to it and maybe talk to somebody. Whether it be a friend, family member, or health professional, about what you're experiencing so that it isn't plaguing you throughout a season or a career, right? You want to make sure that you're handling those things so you can redirect or transmute that energy in healthy ways. Okay, so physically, should we play through our pain? It depends on what kind of pain we're talking about. And then psychologically and emotionally, yes, we can play through it, but as long as we understand that it still needs to be addressed, it's not something to be ignored or to be stuffed, but to actually be, um, you know, taken care of, exposed, and healed. All right. So thank you. This has been another episode of the Mental Advantage Podcast. Make sure that you're taking care of yourself first and foremost, because you're the most important thing in your sport. And we'll see you next week with another powerhouse episode.