Can emotional stress increase your risk of physical injury?
That's just part of the question that today's guest, Shauna Ericksen, is attempting to answer with her PhD research. It's the type of question that could create a major shift in how coaches manage athletes, how athletes advocate for their own well being and have a ripple effect into so many other areas of sport.
Shauna Ericksen is an Athletic Trainer with a Masters Degree in Sports Conditioning and is currently pursuing her PhD at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec. In her time as an Athletic Trainer, Shauna started to notice a pattern - when an athlete experienced increased life stress or mental fatigue, their risk of physical injury also increased. When she looked for evidence to support this observation, she found very little. Most research was focused on the inverse relationship - how does physical injury effect mental health? This is important to know, but if a better understanding and awareness of mental health could reduce the risk of injury, someone needed to start doing the investigative work it would require to create a solid theory!
In today's episode, Shauna and David talk about the connections between stress, mental fatigue, trauma and sports performance as it relates to injury.
They also discuss at length the profession of Athletic Training and how often it is overlooked when it shouldn't be. Shauna provides her personal definition of strength, and talks openly about one of the weaknesses she is currently working to improve through honest self awareness.
If you are an athlete, a coach, a parent, or anyone who is intrigued by the min-body connection, this episode is for you!
To keep up with Shauna and everything she is doing, check her out on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mvmt.matters/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mvmtmatters/
Website: https://linktr.ee/mvmtmatters
Until next time,
We wish you STRENGTH and GOOD HEALTH
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