Two-Sport College Athlete Insights on Athlete Pain Management | Ep 71

Consider how professional athletes manage their pain and still perform at elite levels, they aren't always pushing through at 100% intensity or at 100% functionality. Drawing from my experience as a two-sport college athlete in football and volleyball, I share the critical lessons I wish I'd known during my playing career about sustainable athletic performance.

The truth is that even superstars like LeBron James don't operate at full capacity every day. They've mastered the art of modification – sometimes training at 80%, sometimes at 60%, and sometimes focusing entirely on recovery. This approach creates a manageable pattern rather than the dramatic rollercoasters many athletes experience: feeling great, pushing too hard, experiencing significant pain, and then being sidelined completely.

During my collegiate career, I made the classic mistake of powering through discomfort with anti-inflammatories and sheer determination, often making my conditions worse. I remember the frustration of being sidelined while fielding endless questions from coaches and teammates about when I'd return. This pressure often leads athletes to make poor recovery decisions that ultimately extend their time away from peak performance.

What I've learned through my journey from athlete to practitioner is that there are solutions to physical limitations – they just require patience and the right approach. The goal isn't to eliminate all discomfort from an active lifestyle (that's unrealistic), but to develop tools for managing pain effectively while building resilience for sustainable performance.

Whether you're a competitive athlete or an active weekend warrior, this episode offers practical strategies for staying in the game longer by working smarter, not just harder. Have questions about managing your own athletic pain? Reach out to our team – we're passionate about helping others avoid the mistakes I made and find sustainable paths to peak performance.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you're a driven, active person who wants to reach
and pursue a higher qualitylife with some ambition, then
guess what this podcast is foryou.
This is the Driven AthletePodcast.
I'm super passionate about thisparticular thought topic
Because I was an athlete, right,I played, I led it in four

(00:23):
sports in high school I playedfootball, basketball, baseball
and volleyball.
My senior year of high school Idecided not to play baseball
and I played volleyball insteadand I remember that tryouts the
coach was like yo, if you let mework with you, I never played
volleyball.
I played volleyball earlier,like in middle school, so I had
a little bit of the basics, butI didn't play at all up until my

(00:48):
senior year in high school.
And I was just like tall and I,like you know, I had some
athleticism right Apparently.
But the coach was like hey, ifyou let me work with you, I'm
going to get you a D onescholarship in volleyball at
tryouts and I was like, let's go, let's get it Right.
Um, so then I college, I playedtwo sports.
I played football and I playedmen's volleyball right, he
actually got me that D1scholarship in volleyball.
So football we were divisiontwo and then men's volleyball is

(01:09):
not really like super popularcompared to like baseball,
volleyball, like the women'svolleyball, as an example,
football, basketball, whatever.
So it's not you're either D1 oryou're D3 or NAI, but men's
volleyball was division one.
So the school that I went towas dual affiliated.
It was a small school.
So I got the opportunity toplay two sports in college.

(01:33):
So I went through a lot right,put my body through a lot.
I was a tight end and receiverin football and then I was a
middle hitter in volleyball andof course, you get banged up,
right, you get nicked up, youget banged up, and the topic
that the main focus of this thatI wanted to bring up is being
through all that stuff.

(01:53):
I'm passionate about what I donow and helping athletes and
active people, because therewere things that were lingering
for me that I battled, that Ijust powered through that.
I didn't think there was asolution for that.
I didn't get any answers and Ididn't know what WTF like.
Why is this always hurting?
What do I do Other than justlike, take a bunch of Advil and
just power through or ice itafterwards, right, no-transcript

(02:37):
.
But with this, a big part of itis just managing day to day, as
in, if you're an athleticindividual and you're active,
right College athlete, proathlete, high school athlete, an
active weekend warrior, anactive adult who likes to work
out and exercise and stuff,things come and go Would you
expect things to never come backand never come back again, like

(02:59):
, never have any aches and painsand things get banged up, like
things happen.
We're humans where humans wereimperfect, right?
So would you expect things tonever happen again?
Of course.
So things are gonna come and go, right.
So, with that being said, it'sjust a matter of management.
So let's think of the best inthe world pro athletes.
Do you think LeBron James hasnever battled a pain issue, ever

(03:21):
?
Of course he has.
Do you think that, day to day,with his long schedule and
practices and training andworkouts, that things get flared
up and things decrease andflare up?
They come and they go, ofcourse, all right.
So, with that being said, doyou think that this person, this
professional athlete, some daysjust needs to go 50% to manage

(03:44):
it, so that they don't justlight it up and make it worse?
Because at some point we needto manage and we need to back it
up a little bit, where I liketo use the word modify.
We just need to modifytemporarily modify workouts,
temporarily modify the intensityso that we're not just
constantly lighting things upover and over and over again.
Some days we need to back downthe intensity and let things

(04:06):
settle down right.
Waking up one day it's like I'mnot a hundred percent.
My knees bother me.
I still want to do stuff, but Idon't have to go a hundred
percent.
What I feel like is appropriateright now from what I'm doing.
If I go more than 60% right now, I feel it Well then let's stay

(04:27):
under 60% for today and thenlive to fight another day and we
can work on stuff in themeantime.
So it's just management day today.
All right.
Of course, pro athletes theydon't.
They aren't a hundred percentevery day.
They're still working on stuff.
But today might be 80%, Todaymight be 60%, today might be
just like 20%, today might justonly be recovery and treatment
day, so that the roller coasterof pain management is not
massively drastic, as in like Ifeel really great, crush it and

(04:50):
then I don't feel great, but I'mgoing to do it anyway and it
gets even worse.
Right, it's just management,right?
So people are asking meconsistently, when we're working
on stuff their shoulder pain,their back pain, their neck pain
, knee pain, like whatever.
When am I going to be a hundredpercent right?
When can I go back to a hundredpercent?
And then, um, should I, whatthings should I do and what
things should I not do?
And the suggestions I have withthat is every day is a little

(05:14):
bit different and you have tofeel, listen to your body.
Where some days you might needto back up the intensity, you
can still do stuff, just modifyso that we don't just like light
it up and flare it up and makeit worse.
But you're still doing things.
And in the meantime, what if weworked on things that might
improve the problem to beginwith?
That's what we.
That's where we come in, right,so we can improve the problem.
But it's just a matter on yourown, it's just a matter of daily

(05:36):
management.
If you feel it and it's makingit worse, what do you think you
should do?
Back it up a little bit andmodify, live to fight another
day.
And then we're going to work onthings together so that the
improvement scale keeps risingin a positive direction.
Right, so that eventually theultimate goal is to be able to
be physically functional as longand as hard as possible, right,

(05:59):
but going 100% all the timeisn't going to be the key, where
even pro athletes like theycome in and they have guys like
me or girls like me.
Guys and girls like in myprofession travel with them 24
hours a day.
They're always working on stuff, so they're always doing it.
Fortunately, they have theunlimited time and money and
resources to get that kind oftreatment, so they're always

(06:21):
working on stuff, right.
So a little bit of expectationsand then also just intensity
management day to day of what'sappropriate.
But I'm just passionate aboutit where, being a two sport
college athlete, during thattime, it sucks when you're hurt
and you're watching yourteammates do stuff and play and

(06:42):
practice and you're like I wantto be out there and then your
teammates and your colleaguesare like hey, when are you gonna
be back?
Hey, when are you gonna be good?
Hey, are you going to practicetoday?
Hey, when are you fine?
Hey, what's going on?
Are you ever going to come back?
Coaches are saying the samething hey, are you good?
Are you practice today?
Hey, we need you, can you dothis?
Hey, are we finally ready?
Like I want to be, but likethings still are not feeling

(07:05):
right.
Right, I can't go 100%, I don'tfeel right.
Right, it hurts and I'm notfunctioning at my peak athletic
level right now.
Right, and probably wouldn't bea good idea to just like power
through and crush at the expenseof making things super flared
up or going to set myself backeven further.
Where in season, if you have agame that weekend, the goal is
to get to the game.

(07:25):
Right, if you're a provenplayer and the coach knows that
you're legit and you're notfaking it, right, the goal is to
manage during the week so youcan get to the game.
Like, do you think, julian?
I remember specifically Iwatched the 30 for 30 on Julian
Edelman, or no, it was afootball life, it was that show,
a Football Life on JulianEdelman, right, if you're not
familiar, he's a wide receiver,a slot receiver for the New

(07:51):
England Patriots, where he wasan influential factor, but he
was with Tom Brady and multipleSuper Bowls.
But I remember watching it andhe was like after a game, like
we weren't able to like walkwithout super debilitating pain
until like Thursday the nextweek.
But at that point he's a provenplayer and the goal is to be
able to get to Sunday, so theywould recover and rest.

(08:13):
They wouldn't crush stuff fromMonday, tuesday, wednesday,
thursday.
They would start doing moreintense things.
Friday they're feeling better,saturday they're good, and then
Sunday they're ready to playRight.
So it wouldn't be wise to justget after it on Tuesday when
you're banged up, right andeveryone's cool with that,
because they know that you're aproven player you want to play.
The goal is to get to the gameright.
That's in season.

(08:34):
So it might not be.
It might not be wise to justpush through and crush things at
the expense of making multiplesteps backwards where you're not
going to be good for the restof the season.
It's just day-to-day management, right, so expect things to
come and go.
But I was a two-sport athleteand it was super frustrating If
you ever got banged up and likehurt or whatever and people are

(08:54):
asking are you good, can youplay coaches?
There's expectations and youwant to fulfill those
expectations.
Um, it's hard, right, it'sfrustrating totally.
Um, and instead of just, andwhat I did, I just powered
through.
I just took a bunch of adviland just like, powered through,
right.
Um, it just made things worseright until the end of the
season when it's just like majorrecovery time and that's no

(09:16):
bueno.
I don't advocate for that right.
But the bottom line is likethere is a solution and that's
why I'm passionate about thisstuff Like I wish I knew this.
I wish I had someone like me towork on me when I had my issues
in college and high school too,where it would have been more
light would have been shed onwhat the problem is, how to
manage it, and then feelingbetter, taking purposeful action

(09:37):
on how you can fix it right,because there is a solution.
It just takes a little time onthe right things and part of
that fact, part of all thosegolden BBs that add up to
feeling better it's a hot andgolden BBs that tip the scale
and make things better.
Part of that is management andjust not effing it up all the
time right and expecting thereto be banged and nicked up, so
that when it does happen, we'renot like jumping off a cliff

(09:59):
like I'm never going to getbetter.
Right, because things happenright.
But now that I know this stuff,I'm just super passionate about
living vicariously through theathletes and active people that
we work with, where we can getthem better and work on that
solution.
That's just something I'm superpassionate about.
So if you have any issues,don't hesitate to reach out.
If you have any questions,we're always open to answering

(10:22):
questions, comments, questions,concerns, conflicting opinions,
like whatever.
But yeah, if you have anyquestions or issues that you
want to talk about, the best wayto reach us is probably our
administrator email, which isteam at athlete rccom, or our
phone, which is 561-899-8725.
So don't hesitate to reach out.
We'll catch y'all next time.