Overtraining, Injury, and Burnout w/ Dr. A'Naja Newsome

If you have ever been injured in your sport as an athletic person, you know how challenging it can be to get back into it. Not just for your body, but also for your mind. Movement, exercise, mental health, mindset, self-efficacy, and burnout are all connected, which is why it can be extra difficult to come to terms with a change or adaptation in your training routine. This is why it is so important to find harmony in your training, and recovery, as an athletic person.

Key Takeaways

If You Want To Overcome Injury and Avoid Burnout, You Should:

1. Look for new or interesting ways to experience the mental benefits of exercise in a way you haven't done before 
2. Remember the importance of proper recovery in order to maintain your ability and motivation
3. Take a step back and look at your environment and how it affects your goals, lifestyle, and mindset

Overcoming Injury with Dr. A’Naja Newsome

Dr. A’Naja Newsome is an exercise scientist, coach, and educator who is passionate about helping people like you to optimize your strength, mental health, mindset, self-efficacy, and balance training with recovery. She knows firsthand the struggles that adapting your training and understanding how your body is healing can take on an athlete. If you have ever been injured and noticed it took a toll on your mental health or identity, this episode is for you.

The Mental Benefits of Movement

Often when people think about the benefits of exercise, they focus on the physical benefits without realizing all of the amazing mental benefits movement and exercise can have. Improved mood, cognitive function, memory, and overall happiness are just a few of the ways that exercise and physical activity can benefit your life. 

However, when we have to change the way in which we train, it can feel like an overwhelming task. This is where your mindset, lifestyle, and goals come into play.

Building Goals Against Yourself

Dr. A’Naja is an advocate of adjusting your training to where you are right now. Instead of trying to compete against others or an old version of yourself, she recommends taking a step back and re-evaluating your training goals. By building goals against yourself, you can align the things that matter most to you so that you can improve your ability and performance while avoiding burnout, overtraining, and poor motivation.

By adjusting your mindset, you can adjust your training and recovery to your lifestyle. Because life is always going to happen, and as athletes, we need to find ways to improve our self-efficacy while taking a step back and checking that our actions are moving us towards our real goals.

Are you struggling with overcoming an injury or changing your training routine? How do your lifestyle, mindset, and goals play into your recovery? Share your thoughts with me in the comments on the episode page.

In This Episode

• Explore the connection between movement and mental health (9:56)
• How to develop the motivation, self-efficacy, and mental skills to promote longevity in your physical activity (16:06)
• Advice for those having difficulty adjusting their identity to a new training regime (21:34)
• Mindset and mental health strategies to help you adjust to a change in your physical activity (29:36)
• The importance of social support when it comes to self-efficacy (35:34)

Quotes

“Enjoyment, happiness, those are all things we have seen a connection with increased physical activity.” (11:15)

“It is really important to understand that physical activity and exercise is not just about physical improvement. There are mental and psychological improvements as well that can be had.” (13:02)

“[Overtraining] is not worth it in the long run. For your physical health, but also your mental health. It is not good in the long run for the longevity of being an athlete to overtrain.” (20:18)

“Your lifestyle is going to constantly change. Your mindset is going to constantly change… you have to fully align your training goals to your nutrition, to your mindset, and to your lifestyle.” (26:16)

“I don't care what your one rep max is. I want to see if you can hit 85% six times, and look sexy doing it.” (31:15)

“Self-efficacy is not about it being easy, it's not about choosing easy tasks, it is simply about believing that you have the tools to overcome whatever obstacle is going to come.” (34:24)

Featured on the Show

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