#162 – Why I Kept Getting Injured & How I Broke the Cycle
If you want to get support directly from us to remove your repetitive self-doubt, join our FREE community: The Sport Is Life Movement - https://www.facebook.com/groups/sportislife
Want to get better at handling pressure? Start with our Performance Meditation training and learn how to stay calm, focused, and consistent — no matter what. - https://www.ianhawkinscoaching.com/performancemeditation
Episode Summary:
In this powerful solo episode, Ian Hawkins opens up about his own long-standing battle with recurring injuries and how years of conventional rehab never delivered lasting relief. From one injury to another, the cycle felt endless. But it wasn’t until he looked inward, exploring his emotional stress, suppressed trauma, and the overall imbalance in his body, that real healing began to happen.
Ian walks listeners through the mind-body connection he uncovered, sharing how addressing the emotional and energetic root causes led to profound physical breakthroughs. For athletes, parents, or anyone stuck in a recurring pain pattern, this episode is a vulnerable and hopeful reminder that healing is possible but it requires a more holistic, self-aware approach.
If you’ve ever felt frustrated by physical limitations despite doing everything “right,” this episode is for you.
About the Host:
Ian Hawkins is dedicated to showing how sports can transform lives. With extensive experience as an athlete, a coach, PE teacher, community volunteer, and manager at Fox Sports, Ian brings a wealth of knowledge to the podcast. His journey began in his backyard, mentored by his older brother, and has since evolved into coaching elite athletes and business leaders. Ian's commitment to sports and personal development is evident in his roles as a performance coach and active community member. Through "Sport Is Life," Ian shares inspiring stories and valuable lessons to help listeners apply sports principles to all areas of life.
Join the 2025 Planning Session here https://www.facebook.com/share/1C6AqzhGeY/
Check Me Out On:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ianhawkinscoaching
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ianhawkinscoaching
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SportIsLife-IanHawkins
Theme Music Artist:
One Day Kings https://www.instagram.com/onedaykings/
See https://www.captivate.fm/privacy-policy-for-listeners for privacy information.
Transcript
For years I kept getting injured.
Speaker:Different parts of the body, same
Speaker:frustrating pattern. No matter how much
Speaker:rehab I did, it always came back. It
Speaker:wasn't until I looked deeper at the root
Speaker:cause, at stress, emotions,
Speaker:and how out of balance my body really
Speaker:was, that thing started to finally
Speaker:change. In this episode, I'm sharing my
Speaker:personal injury story, what I learned
Speaker:about the mind body connection, and how a
Speaker:holistic approach helped me break the
Speaker:cycle. Good.
Speaker:I'm Ian Hawkins and this is Sporty's
Speaker:life. The purpose of sport, as I
Speaker:see it, is to see your vision become a
Speaker:reality, find your voice, create
Speaker:strong connections and learn to trust
Speaker:your body.
Speaker:When I wrote my first life game plan,
Speaker:my body was broken and one of the biggest
Speaker:goals in there was not the biggest,
Speaker:but from a personal perspective was
Speaker:around my physical health. My children
Speaker:were young. I wanted to be able to spend
Speaker:more time with them. I wanted to be able
Speaker:to do the things that an active dad
Speaker:could, and I wasn't able to do that at
Speaker:the time because I just was busted in so
Speaker:many different ways. And so.
Speaker:That was something that opened up to me
Speaker:a whole lot of different solutions to all
Speaker:of these different injuries I had. But my
Speaker:first experience with injury and
Speaker:seeing a deeper
Speaker:reason perhaps was when I
Speaker:was 20, I was still at
Speaker:uni. It was everything was adding
Speaker:up. So much uni work to do, had
Speaker:prac teaching coming up which I was
Speaker:terrified of and I was just all getting
Speaker:too much. Wasn't going well and
Speaker:the day, the Friday before, it was all
Speaker:sort of coming to a head when I had all
Speaker:of like 4 big assignments through which I
Speaker:probably barely started because I
Speaker:typically left things to the last minute.
Speaker:Day before I uttered the phrase
Speaker:it's OK. Not the phrase, the sentence,
Speaker:it's OK. I'll break my leg tomorrow,
Speaker:football, and I won't have to worry about
Speaker:any of it. Sadly, that was my
Speaker:first experience.
Speaker:That I can recall
Speaker:manifesting something quite significant
Speaker:because my friends got chills the next
Speaker:day when they heard that's exactly what
Speaker:happened. I broke my leg and spiral
Speaker:fractured my right tibia
Speaker:fibula as well was broken. My foot was
Speaker:going or my leg was going at the wrong
Speaker:angle so I got 3 ankles.
Speaker:And yeah, 18 months of
Speaker:of recovery. So be
Speaker:careful what you wish for.
Speaker:And then Fast forward to my body was
Speaker:in all sorts of states of
Speaker:disrepair. It's
Speaker:amazing what solutions show up when you
Speaker:have a really clear focus on what you
Speaker:want and.
Speaker:I don't want to go through all of the
Speaker:injuries, but there's a couple that sort
Speaker:of spring to mind and.
Speaker:It's from a mindset, mindset shift, which
Speaker:I've talked about before from one of my
Speaker:mentors saying, you know, like, what do
Speaker:you believe everything you're told? If
Speaker:you believe every diagnosis you're told,
Speaker:then you have to continue to be stuck in
Speaker:the same patterns. And I was determined
Speaker:to. To change that and create a
Speaker:different belief system after that. So
Speaker:one of the solutions that showed up was
Speaker:my foot. And actually this is
Speaker:predating this as well. This is probably
Speaker:another experience before I'm going
Speaker:through all this personal development
Speaker:stuff. My right foot had been
Speaker:broken. I was having all sorts of pain in
Speaker:the joint at the top of my foot.
Speaker:Training on Tuesday, limping till
Speaker:Thursday.
Speaker:Training on Thursday, Olympic to game
Speaker:day, and then it'd just be getting better
Speaker:on Thursday for the next training on
Speaker:Saturday for game day and
Speaker:then game day and and of course game,
Speaker:you're throwing yourself into it even
Speaker:more intensely. And then I'd limp for the
Speaker:next two to three days until
Speaker:next training and repeated that pattern
Speaker:for a few years and until I heard this
Speaker:story about. My
Speaker:mother-in-law not having to have surgery
Speaker:on a carpal tunnel problem.
Speaker:Quite invasive surgery and she'd been to
Speaker:acupuncture and four sessions and she'd
Speaker:never had a problem there again. So this
Speaker:sounds amazing. I'm going to give this a
Speaker:crack. And that's exactly what happened
Speaker:for me. 4 sessions. The
Speaker:very last session he put the needle right
Speaker:into the joint. I've never had a problem
Speaker:with that. My foot again. So that just
Speaker:opened my mind up to a whole lot of
Speaker:different possibilities.
Speaker:Then Fast forward to. Me
Speaker:wanting to free up my body, the first
Speaker:thing that showed up was I'm going to
Speaker:barbecue and I hear someone.
Speaker:It's sort of, you know, in.
Speaker:Off in the distance in the BBQ, someone
Speaker:talking about their back and how they'd
Speaker:had it fixed by this acupuncture that
Speaker:lived just around the corner from where I
Speaker:was at and where I lived. And I
Speaker:was like, oh wow, that's, that's cool. So
Speaker:I went and spoke to these people who have
Speaker:this conversation. I said, oh, you know,
Speaker:can I, can I hear more about this because
Speaker:I'm having all no end of problems with my
Speaker:back. And again,
Speaker:the reason why that was is because I had
Speaker:really clear game plan for what I wanted
Speaker:for my life. And your subconscious mind
Speaker:sets to work to, to, to see, to, to hear,
Speaker:to. Observe.
Speaker:To come in contact with the
Speaker:solutions to what you set down. That you
Speaker:create in truth by writing it
Speaker:down and what I have heard that
Speaker:message. If I wasn't looking for it, I
Speaker:don't believe so, because it's amazing
Speaker:what you pick up when you've got that
Speaker:focus. We take in billions of bits per
Speaker:second apparently, and we can only
Speaker:process a very small amount of that. So
Speaker:you need to give your brain, particularly
Speaker:the subconscious, a very clear parameters
Speaker:and what it's looking for so it can take
Speaker:in the things that you need. And that's
Speaker:exactly what happened. And this
Speaker:chiropractor in my local area fixed up
Speaker:all these different problems with my
Speaker:back. Your back basically builds up all
Speaker:of these knots to keep you safe. If
Speaker:you've got weakness in your back that
Speaker:it'll tighten and it'll keep tightening
Speaker:until where I was where I just had no
Speaker:mobility and I was having no end
Speaker:of problems with lifting and all sorts of
Speaker:different things. So then my back
Speaker:suddenly on the mend. And then I hadsome.
Speaker:Broken bones and my other
Speaker:foot. Which
Speaker:maybe ask questions about running and
Speaker:then umm.
Speaker:I get. On this running journey about
Speaker:changing my running, changing the shoes I
Speaker:wear, how I land, all these different
Speaker:things that ends up taking me looking for
Speaker:a run run coach who I find the run
Speaker:Dr. Who wasn't too far away from where I
Speaker:worked at the time. He was also a
Speaker:chiropractor, remodelled my, my,
Speaker:my, my running style, helped me build up
Speaker:the muscles that had never been built up
Speaker:from a young age. So basically training
Speaker:my my hamstring and my glute muscles to
Speaker:work in a way that they'd never had.
Speaker:Forward always relied on other parts of
Speaker:my legs and
Speaker:and suddenly my feet are good.
Speaker:And interestingly 2
Speaker:things really strengthen other parts of
Speaker:my body too. One was after I did my back
Speaker:I was doing Pilates and
Speaker:physio LED Pilates. So not the one you
Speaker:find in the gym but the ones with very
Speaker:specifically designed to strengthen for
Speaker:whole range of.
Speaker:Things and, and it's funny when I got my
Speaker:back fixed and then and strengthened and
Speaker:then and then I recalibrate the muscles
Speaker:in my legs as well and all of these other
Speaker:aches and pains and niggles started to go
Speaker:away. My dodgy ankles that I'd had
Speaker:for as long as I could remember to some
Speaker:of my late teens, they suddenly were so
Speaker:much better. Then my knee stopped hurting
Speaker:and my hips stopped hurting and my back
Speaker:got better and all these differentthings.
Speaker:At a specific target on what I wanted.
Speaker:But I also started to learn that a lot of
Speaker:these different parts of my body were
Speaker:also related to. Different blocks I had.
Speaker:So with my back, the back very much
Speaker:represents support. A
Speaker:lack of different parts of your back also
Speaker:represent specific parts of.
Speaker:Support and that's
Speaker:what I found out that I need to address
Speaker:and so I started doing that had prompted
Speaker:my shoulders.
Speaker:You get this floating calcium in your
Speaker:shoulder joint. I had both of those at
Speaker:different times. Excruciatingly painful.
Speaker:Promos. I had the way of the world on my
Speaker:shoulder that I was taking on too much. I
Speaker:was taking on too much physically,
Speaker:mentally, emotionally, and my body was
Speaker:the same. You can't keep doing this.
Speaker:Addressed the root cause.
Speaker:Shoulders are better. I do need a rotator
Speaker:cuff.
Speaker:Surgery because I because I still can get
Speaker:some pain if I surf in tennis or throw a
Speaker:throw a ball for long distances, but
Speaker:other than that I don't have problems
Speaker:with my shoulders. Got the right
Speaker:support, don't have problems with my back
Speaker:anymore. Umm, feet. It's about
Speaker:learning to stand on your own 2 feet. The
Speaker:body talks to us, it tells us.
Speaker:And dressed address what it is is
Speaker:telling you, then your body will find its
Speaker:way to healing. It's amazing. So
Speaker:you will stop the recurring injuries. You
Speaker:know, I talked about in the episode, the
Speaker:previous episode about specifically
Speaker:around the colour of the footballers at
Speaker:the moment and them going to get all this
Speaker:really expensive and exclusive rehab and
Speaker:then still having recurring
Speaker:injuries because they haven't addressed
Speaker:the root cause.
Speaker:So I won't
Speaker:bore you with the other endless stories
Speaker:about the different things that I need to
Speaker:improve my body and what they would do
Speaker:with, but there was a long list.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:I'm I'm as
Speaker:fit now, like physically
Speaker:as as was as I was.
Speaker:I feel as fit as I was when I was
Speaker:18 and 19 from a strength and stability
Speaker:and and freedom in my body. I don't get
Speaker:that pain that I got all through my
Speaker:20s and 30s and parts of my
Speaker:40s.
Speaker:It's not to say that I'm at the same
Speaker:fitness level because I'm certainly not
Speaker:pushing my body to the limits that I did
Speaker:it in my teenage years, but.
Speaker:I have the fitness of the level I want it
Speaker:to be and I'm also working on other
Speaker:things that I didn't work on back in
Speaker:those days. And it's amazing what the
Speaker:body is capable of in the right
Speaker:conditions. The
Speaker:word decease, disease. There's a
Speaker:lack of ease in the body, a lack of
Speaker:freedom, something that's not right, our
Speaker:body retains.
Speaker:The mental and emotional scars of
Speaker:injuries and those scars will
Speaker:continue to play up until you address it.
Speaker:And sometimes people get rehab and they
Speaker:get mobile again and they can carry on,
Speaker:but there's something in there that still
Speaker:doesn't feel quite right. That's what
Speaker:it is.
Speaker:There's a story playing in the head that
Speaker:you need to talk it over with someone who
Speaker:knows how to shift that. There's an
Speaker:emotion that's stuck there that needs
Speaker:moving. The emotion, energy and
Speaker:motion you need to move it. You need to
Speaker:move that emotion through your body so
Speaker:that you can allow that freedom back
Speaker:again. So
Speaker:before you blame the
Speaker:doctors or the physio or anything
Speaker:else, or as soon as you start blaming
Speaker:your body and getting
Speaker:frustrated and angry, it's just reminding
Speaker:that there's other work that you need to
Speaker:do. So it's
Speaker:never about going. I've tried everything
Speaker:and I just can't make it work because
Speaker:there's always a solution. Always.
Speaker:And yes, you need to do the physical
Speaker:rehab. Yes, you probably need to change
Speaker:your diet. You probably need to put the
Speaker:right things into your body.
Speaker:But you also need to address the root
Speaker:cause. It's a holistic approach and it's
Speaker:one that works and it's one that I swear
Speaker:by and I've helped that many people
Speaker:through it. A guy I worked with
Speaker:just last year, he had shoulder
Speaker:problems, same thing. He was
Speaker:just carrying too big a load. Yes, he
Speaker:went and got surgery and he got rehabbed,
Speaker:but we made sure that it it was free
Speaker:and it's recovered quickly.
Speaker:And also with his back, same thing.
Speaker:Initially he was like, yeah, I'm going to
Speaker:see this Cairo still, it's really good.
Speaker:But the more we've done the work, the
Speaker:less he's needed to do that. Just not
Speaker:having those setbacks because often they,
Speaker:you know, you get told or you probably
Speaker:just need to have this tune up for the
Speaker:rest of your life. But what if you don't?
Speaker:What if you don't have to have it for the
Speaker:rest of your life? What if you could heal
Speaker:that, release it?
Speaker:Full recovery, that part of your body
Speaker:strength strengthened and having that
Speaker:trust in your body again. It's a lot of
Speaker:why the recurring injuries because you
Speaker:lose trust in your body. Imagine that
Speaker:you trust your body to do what you want
Speaker:it to do. Particularly if you're getting
Speaker:older. We're all getting older, but you
Speaker:know what I mean? And you think maybe you
Speaker:have times past. Your body
Speaker:can can strengthen, it can still recover,
Speaker:and it will be totally worth it. There's
Speaker:never anything you regret.
Speaker:You've taken the time to listen to this
Speaker:whole episode. Now it's time to take
Speaker:action. Commit to one thing you've
Speaker:learned today and make it happen. And to
Speaker:avoid any obstructions, join the Sporty
Speaker:Life movement by clicking on the link in
Speaker:the show notes.
