103 | Author and Athlete Christine Yu: Writing a New Story

The Injured Athletes Club

“My previous perspective, or the way that I have always thought about my body, is that it's injury-prone. That's the narrative I had adopted and often just think of myself and my body in sports, or in doing any sort of physical activity, that it's not quite suited to or made for this type of activity and that there was something just wrong with me, for lack of a better way to say it. Through the course of talking to a lot of experts and pulling this information together for the book, I really recognized that sometimes things just happen. You could be doing everything right and something still happens.”

Christine Yu had torn her ACL twice before—in fact, she opens her new book with a story about the moment she felt a twinge on the track. But when it happened again, not long after she turned in her manuscript, she had a whole different perspective on why, and how to cope.

That’s because, in her research for Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes, Christine had delved deeply into some of the shortcomings of exercise science research in general, including injury research specifically.

In this week’s episode, and her must-read book, Christine illuminates historical disparities in research that harm women and girls—and, in reality, give all athletes incomplete information about their bodies, their health, and their performance.

She shares how learning about these gaps can shift the narrative for athletes, and outlines exciting new efforts to fill them. And, she describes the way she’s moving through this latest injury with much more peace and perspective. “Everything will be okay when you're okay with everything,” she says.

Resources/links:

• Christine’s website, Instagram, and Twitter

• Her book Up to Speed: The Groundbreaking Science of Women Athletes

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• Fluid Running, which has revolutionized fitness by bringing running to the deep water

• IceeNOW.com, which provides innovative injury prevention and recovery solutions for athletes

• ADAM Rehabilitation, creators of the ADAM Brace System, the most stable exercise system built to save the health of your shoulders

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