The Unique Physical and Mental Health Needs of Retired Athletes
Retired athletes have a unique set of needs, both physically and mentally. After spending so much time, likely many years, training to excel in their sport, the transition away from that can understandably be a challenge. Let’s first talk about the physical aspects.
Maintaining physical fitness
Former athletes have trained their bodies to do amazing and challenging things. When they retire, many athletes want to maintain the physical fitness they have worked so hard for. However, the level of training that got them there was likely taxing on their body and is no longer a part of their life. So now what? There is the possibility of body change and weight gain for the former athlete after they are no longer training for their sport. What does a former athlete workout plan look like? It’s important to learn a new way to maintain physical fitness, if that is what the athlete wants, while also being gentle and compassionate with the body. That can be a tough pill to swallow for the athlete that is used to pushing their body to its limits on a regular basis. It may be difficult to figure out what the body now needs with less physical demands and aging.
The other side of the coin is that the athlete may feel a sense of relief at not “having to” workout anymore. They may shy away from it all together, especially at first. I remember when my gymnastics career ended as I entered college, I was often thinking (and saying out loud to many people) “I just spent most of my life in a gym doing gymnastics and conditioning. The last thing I want to do right now is work out!” That didn’t last long because I soon felt the need to use my body in cool ways again and joined the college cheerleading team. But I remember feeling like I needed and had earned a break from the intensity.
Wherever you land on this, the physical changes in the body is one that can be difficult to accept for the retired athlete. The truth is that it is normal for the human body to change over time, no matter who you are. It is going to change, especially when a person goes from an intense training schedule to a more moderate one. Finding a balance of maintaining fitness and finding self-compassion is a journey that they may likely need to go on.
Muscle memory and intuitive movement
Another unique quality of a former athlete is that, depending on the sport, they used muscle memory to reliably complete the actions that allowed them to excel at their sport. This is especially true for sports like gymnastics, track and field, running, baseball, etc. Motions become second nature to the athlete and their body just does it. This is great when doing their sport, but in the long run does not allow the person to learn how to move in a more intuitive way, which is a part of the process of learning to be fully present and mindful in life.
One of the things I remember when I started practicing yoga frequently was that I didn’t know how to move my body intuitively. In yoga, students are often cued to “listen to your body” and decide what feels good to them. That was never the case in my sport, gymnastics. I moved my body in a way that allowed me to execute a skill with the correct form, regardless of how it felt in my body, so that I could get the highest potential score. It was quite a revelation to move in whatever way felt good and made sense at the time!
Dealing with Injuries
Retired athletes may also have lingering injuries or pain due to the repetitive stress motions their sport required. While fully active in their sport, injuries were likely treated efficiently and then addressed through intensive rehab and physical therapy. However, there are often continuing effects of injuries that may be felt long after an athlete is no longer intensely participating in their sport. Common issues can be back pain, shoulder issues, hip issues among others. As athletes age, these may be felt more over time. As a former gymnast, I struggled with low back pain as I got older, which was not a specific injury I had as a gymnast. It didn’t show up until later in life and yoga for low back pain made a huge difference in helping decrease the pain over time.
Yoga can help maintain flexibility and range of motion in joints, which often decreases with inactivity. It also helps students establish proper alignment in their bodies. The more a person goes through life with misalignment, the more wear and tear there can be on the joints. In addition to the alignment of the joints, yoga can help maintain a healthy fascia in the body. Fascia is a fibrous tissue that wraps about the muscles in the body. As we get older, the fascia in the body can become dehydrated and tight, which limits movement and may feel like stiffness in the body. Regular yoga can help keep the fascia system hydrated and healthy through mindful movement.
Now that we’ve talked about some of the unique physical needs of retired athletes, let’s talk about some of the mental needs that often come up after they are no longer intensely active in their sport.
Developing a new schedule for health and wellness
If you were intensely involved in a sport, chances are you had a structured and intensive training and practice schedule, resulting in a busy and structured life. You probably had a coach, or coaches, that provided your training as well as direction and guidance on other aspects that affected your performance, such as nutrition, sleep, equipment and clothing, just to name a few. Following all of this guidance probably made a positive impact on your performance in your sport. When that level of guidance and structure is no longer there, the retired athlete is left to figure out:
What kind of training or exercise do they need to maintain their physical fitness
What schedule to have in order to do this
What are the nutritional and sleep needs of their body with a less intense training schedule
What to do with their newly found unstructured free time
That can be an overwhelming task, especially considering the new needs of the body after sports. Establishing a new routine, a new set of values and taking committed action toward them is a step in the right direction.
Difficulty establishing non-sport goals
Athletes tend to be very goal-driven, which is necessary in order to excel at their sport. These goals could be short term, stepping stones to a bigger accomplishment or a crowning achievement. Either way, being intensely involved in a sport usually comes with a vision of what the athlete wants to accomplish, and it’s often pretty clear. Once that is no longer there, goal setting may not be a skill that easily translates to the rest of life. It can be a struggle for the former athlete to know what to focus on and how to accomplish it.
Again, it comes back to the athlete’s values outside of their sport. What is truly important to them? What are they willing to do to live according to those values? To figure this out, the athlete needs to learn who they truly are, which is so much more than just their sport. Learning to practice mindfulness helps to start this process. Mindfulness and yoga practices teach people to notice sensations in the body and thoughts in the mind and accept them without judgment and without letting it define them. It is then that a person can start to discover who they really are without all the noise.
Loss of the Athlete Identity
I was a serious gymnast growing up. I was always on competitive teams, practicing almost every day. My conversations with my friends often involved gymnastics. My extended family would always ask me how gymnastics was going when we got together on holidays. A lot of people in my community knew me as “that gymnast”. And I loved it. Because I loved gymnastics and I loved interacting with people about it. So when I eventually stopped competitive gymnastics, I wasn’t “that gymnast” anymore. So then, who was I? So much of my identity was wrapped up in that identity. This was a big struggle, especially when going off to college and not having my “gymnast” status to tell people who I was. I didn’t know who I was without it and now I had this big hole in my life.
It is important to realize that athlete identity was not and is not all that a retired athlete is. Being so committed to only the athlete identity, one can become closed off to the importance of other parts of your identity and exploring what they are. Retired athletes need to spend some time learning about their new self and what is important to them in their life after sports. What are their values and how do they start living those values in their new life?
Grief
It is a completely normal response to experience grief when retiring from a sport. There are significant losses that come with retirement. Identity, the team or community that came with the sport, the emotional highs from a win or accomplishing a goal, an outlet for stress, continuing to make memories, the recognition of accomplishment. It is no wonder that grief can result from these losses. The reaction or expression of this grief is as unique as the athletes themselves. No matter what it looks like, it is important to acknowledge the grief and be willing to experience the process.
Many times, athletes become very skilled at holding back emotions so that they do not affect their performance. After retirement, the need to control emotions is no longer there and the athlete may have a whole new experience with emotions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, commonly known as ACT, offers helpful strategies for athletes experiencing grief and negative emotions. ACT does not attempt to change or prevent negative emotions but instead acknowledge them as something separate from the person themself. By doing this, the person can move forward, not getting stuck in a downward spiral from these negative emotions. Helping retired athletes through ACT can help them emerge from this process as a mindful individual who is living a balanced, value-driven and meaningful life after sports.
So if you are a former athlete, no matter how long it has been since you retired from your sport, these things can still be a struggle…and THAT’S OK! You trained your body to do amazing things. And along with that comes a unique set of physical and mental challenges once you are no longer as active in your sport. My journey to finding a healthy balance with my body and mind was through a combination of yoga and mindfulness practices and using the strategies I know as a behavior analyst, specifically Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, with myself. Once I started to understand that I am more my thoughts, emotions and athletic identity, I was able to start living a more value-based and meaningful life after sports.
Along with these challenges, the retired athlete brings a very unique and valuable set of strengths. An ability to set and accomplish long term goals, determination to live to the fullest potential and experience of navigating a roller coaster ride of ups and downs in sports are just a few. By capitalizing on these strengths and specifically addressing these unique set of circumstances, the retired athlete can flourish in their life after sports.
If you are a former or retired athlete and your curious about how you can move toward a balanced and fulfilling life after sports, check out the FREE 3-day series, The Vintage Athlete Awakening and start to unlock your potential.
