What Kenny Rogers Can Teach Us About Pain, Sports Injuries and Recovery

Kenny Rogers. Chicken. Pain. You don’t see the connection?

A master country artist and fried chicken connoisseur, Kenny Rogers sang in 1978 that, “you gotta know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em, know when to walk away, know when to run.”

Weird connection. What can Kenny teach us about sports performance, injury and recovery?

It has to do with pain. With suffering. Discomfort. Agony.

Words that conjure terrible images and sensations/emotions we try our best to avoid.

But is pain always a bad thing? Is it a necessary evil? Should we listen to ol’ Kenny and run at the first sign of danger? Or can we stare down pain and convert it into a useful tool?

Physical and Emotional Pain - The Kinds You Can Make Friends With

20-reps later and she was sadly never seen again.

Good physical pain is most often associated with the blood, sweat and tears of gut-busting effort and intense training sessions. Pushing through a lung-busting widowmaker squat challenge is good pain…well…more sadistic…but the type of pain that allows you to explore psychological limits while simultaneously challenging your entire musculoskeletal and cardiovascular system in a manner that is almost unsurpassed.

Note: Widowmaker squats = 1 set of 20 squats at your 10 rep max. Not for the faint of heart and should not be undertaken without significant training experience, supervision and planning.

Even the physical pain of injuries can be considered a gift. Injuries can teach us about resilience, exploring our limits and intimately knowing our bodies; when to push, and when to reign it in. Witness the epic performances of Kerri Strug and Curt Schilling despite battling severe injury. Pain is the ultimate signal from our body that something isn’t quite right. It is wise to listen to these signals and pays to act appropriately. However, certain situations allow you to push those boundaries, knowing your limits and that you can hold on just a little bit longer.

Besides the physical manifestations of pain, the emotional and mental pain of losing can be tormenting and just as real as any physical pain. Glaring mistakes and mental errors that cost your team a win can cause a great deal of anguish. Feelings of sadness, despair and shock are not uncommon. And these feelings, if channeled properly through a growth mindset, can cause any athlete to bounce back more resilient and determined than ever. Like any pain, it can be difficult to process in the moment, but in the marathon that is a journey of athletic development, it can be a useful aid if used appropriately.

Physical and Emotional Pain - The Kind That is Not Your Friend

There are certain kinds of pain you need to stop, recognize and deal with appropriately.

The flip side of pain is the ugly side: The searing pain that prevents you from getting off the floor after breaking a bone or tearing a ligament in half. The pain of rehabbing injuries when it feels like all is lost. When coming back from injury, pain guides us by serving as a reminder every time we push too far. While a certain level of discomfort is to be expected while rehabbing from injury, pushing through pain is a recipe for disaster, likely to increase inflammatory responses and re-injure fragile tissues. A very generalized rule for injury rehabilitation is a 3/10 on a pain scale where 0 represents pain-free, and 10 representing the worst possible pain you’ve every experienced. It is normal and expected to have some discomfort while pushing the boundaries of your abilities as you expand range of motion and strengthen tissue, but anything more than a 3/10 on the pain scale, and you are likely doing more harm than good.

Emotional/mental pain can also persist in the form of anxiety, depression and host of mental illnesses that are no laughing matter. These types of pain are to be met head on, and more and more high-profile athletes struggling with mental health issues are coming forward to shed light on an under-served area of sport psychology. Check out more here.

Bottom line – pain can be your friend, or it can be your enemy. Recognize which situation you’re in and act appropriately!