imagery and rehab - week eight Flashcards
why is it threatening for athletes to become injured?
Dependent upon their physical skills
* Sport is a part of their identity
* Fear of not fully recovering or re-injury
Almost all injured athletes experience some sort of
psychological distress during the injury and rehabilitation
- serious Injury is one of the most emotionally and psychologically traumatic things that can happen to an athlete
stress response
Relationship between the person’s cognitive
judgements of a potentially stressful external
situation and the physiological and attentional
aspects of stress
name the physiological, attentional, and cognitive changes when it comes to the stress response
psychological/attentional: muscle tension, narrowing of the visual field, increased distractibility
muscle tension: guarding, bracing
cognitive changes: how an athlete views competition can determine the athletes injury risk e.g., am I skilled enough to beat the other team, how skilled is the opposite team and from there the consequences are calculated - how they handle winning and losing and the negative appraisal is what causes the psychological and attentional changes
SRRS - social readjustment rating scale
tests the relationship of life stress and illness
female athlete injury
-Females get injured less often than males and have fewer treatment visits
-Higher ACL and concussion injuries
-Tend to be more non-contact injuries, where males tend to have more contact injuries (fractures) because of the types of sports played
personality affecting injury risk
Competitive trait-anxious athletes, when placed
in stressful situations, exhibit strong stress
responses and thus are more likely to incur injury
sensation seeking athletes (personality)
Sensation seeking;
* 1. greater risk of injury
because of their
willingness to take
chances , OR
* 2. lower risk of injury
because they are less
likely to appraise
extremely demanding
situations as stressful
coping resources
- General coping resources –> eating, sleeping, exercise
- Social support resources –> social activities and friendships
- Internal coping resources –> mental toughness, mental skills, and positivity
mental skills used in rehabilitation
spontaneous imagery use: 31.8%
efficacy of mental skills: 72%
- only about 32% of athletes used mental imagery in rehab to recover and from the 32% of the athletes who used imagery 72% of them said it helped them return to their sport
- imagery is under-utilized in sport rehab therapy
imagery in adult athletic rehab
Athletes with knee or ankle injuries
* Time of recovery and psychological factors
* 19% exceptionally fast recoveries
– Higher scores on healing imagery
– 1st time we heard the term- Healing imagery
healing imagery
- is one that symbolizes recovery, can be silly with images however meaning needs to be tied into it
e.g., broken bone –> cement filling in a break in a bone
torn muscle: muscle fibers braiding together
swollen body part: “bad stuff” - it’s a visual and kinesthetics feature
imagery and pain study
30 Subjects were randomized into
– imagery, placebo or control
* All had ACL reconstruction
* Findings:
– After 10 guided imagery sessions, the imagery
group reported
* Greater knee strength
* Less re-injury anxiety and pain
4 W’s of imagery use in rehab (when, why, who, what)
When?
- Rehabilitation
- Before, during exercises
- Athletes use imagery less frequently in rehab than training, but sessions are longer
Why?
CS-going through the exercise before you do it
- Help perform specific rehabilitation movements/exercises
- before and during execution
- Help relearn skills
CG-imaging new plays along with the team
- To maintain their ability to perform plays associated with their sport
MS-returning to play, rehabilitation milestones
-Involves the visualization of goals and associated activities
Process: “motivates you to do all of these dumb little exercises that at the time seem as though they are not helping you at all, but down the road they will”
Outcome: “I see myself fully recovered and back at competing”
MG-A-decreasing reinjury anxiety
- Help control the stress associated with
- being injured
- unable to participate in their sport
- facilitating relaxation
- Psyching up for the rehab
MG-M-seeing yourself be successful with the injury
- Used to maintain focus
- increase mental toughness
- elicit feelings of self-efficacy/positive attitude
Functions/Types
- Healing
- Positive images of internal and external physiological processes symbolizing recovery, creating a mindset for healthy healing
- Tie in the meaning
- Significantly related to self efficacy
- Important given we don’t know if imagery facilitates physical healing or is it the effect of imagery on the athletes well being
- Associated with faster recovery times
Imagery scripts useful for this function
Pain Management
To cope with the pain (prepare for the pain, distract themselves from experiencing the pain, block the pain, visualize the pain)
When our muscles tense, pain increases. Can use relaxation imagery to reduce pain
Injury Prevention
To prevent the occurrence of injury, or avoid re-injury
What (Content)
Sessions
In rehab, the imagery session lasted between 5-30 seconds
This is longer than when compared to training and competition
Despite reported imagery use at every physiotherapy appointment, imagery during training and competition still more frequent
Effectiveness
Imagery during rehab resulted in a faster recovery rate and better results than if imagery was not used
Nature
Positive images
injury free- future self
Negative images
As a motivator to do the rehab
Surroundings
Athletes reported imaging their competition surroundings rather than their current surroundings (physio clinic)
Type (modalities/senses)
Kinaesthetic imagery used extensively in rehab
AIQ-2 scale
- rated on a 1-9 likert scale
flotation (34.5 degrees celcius)
Based on Restricted Environmental
Stimulation Therapy (REST)
– Sensory deprivation resulted in relaxed and
pleasant experiences.
* FLOAT’s relationship to imagery?
– Imagery is more effective in the floatation
environment in sports contexts, including
gymnastics, basketball, tennis and basketball free-throw shooting.
Evidence supporting FLOAT and
Imagery
* Aldridge et al., 2003
– 18 junior elite basketball players
– Compared free throw shooting after imagery
during three 55 mins floatation sessions or
autogenic training.
* Results
– Imagery and floatation group outperformed the
autogenic group
* HR indicated more relaxation and deeper relaxation in
the imagery and floatation group
