It says it in the title, but just to clarify, this book focuses on the mental and emotional aspects of rehabilitation. It gives very little information about physical recovery from sports injuries. If you’re the kind of person who dismisses techniques like meditation, visualization, positive self-talk, and healing energy as “pop-psych blather,” then it might be a bit too new-agey for you. I am not what you would call a devout yogi or overly bohemian person, but it does make sense that “certain attitudes and mindsets can elicit unwanted and unnecessary stress; we have some ability to influence our emotional experience; and those thoughts and emotions have an influence over our behavior,” and in turn, our physical recovery.
With all the mentions of coaches, healthcare teams, physical trainers, and even fans; it feels like the book was written more with professional athletes in mind, but most of it could still apply to hobbyist athletes. There is also an assumption, I think, that the reader has sustained a moderately-to-very serious injury —nearly all of the featured success stories tell of concussions, cracked vertebrae, torn ACLs, or 150-foot falls from mountain trails— which made me feel a little ashamed to be reading a book about recovery when I have never been seriously injured. In chapter 4, ultrarunner Amelia Boone says, reflecting on the self-blame she directed at herself: “Who runs enough to fracture their femur? It’s kind of shameful in a way, because with stress injuries, you have no one else to blame except for yourself,” and I immediately thought “Then how shameful is it to get stress injuries when you aren’t even logging some insane number of miles?” But that’s part of what the book teaches you to deal with. The severity and manner of injury don’t matter. “You can’t turn back the clock or fast-forward your healing process, [but] you do have more power than you realize, starting with the management of your own emotions and reactions in the present moment.”
So read the book, do some serious reflection, dog-ear (or highlight, on an e-reader) passages you might want to revisit, and honestly try some of the writing exercises and mental drills.
I didn't do all of them (like buying a sympathy card for myself, or writing a letter to my injury [although I did name my knees]), but I took the time to think and write out most of the lists. I am also going to try to get into the habit of five-minute morning meditation, visualization, implementing some changes in how I talk to myself and other about any future setbacks, and keeping an eye out for any “secret goals!”
Maybe my favorite line in the whole book was “You are still an athlete, and your recovery is now your sport,” in chapter 3. I am probably way behind in something that so obvious, but in the past if I’ve had to take a break due to a knee or foot injury I’ve just simply rested until I felt like I could run again, but if I develop and follow a training plan for a race, I should be doing the same whenever I need to nurse an injury. Again, that’s probably a no-brainer for most people out there, but it was almost like a literal light came on in my head (I’ll try to give myself the benefit of the doubt and say that I would’ve realized this sooner had I sustained a more serious injury requiring physical therapy, but that minor strains could also warrant a similar treatment is a revelation in of itself). Sure, it would’ve been nice to also get some pointers on setting up such a program, but considering the wide variety of injuries they’d then have to design a program for, it is okay that the writers did not include this.