Egan Bernal’s rehabilitation progresses and there are innumerable variables that must be analyzed so that this hard, long and difficult process is a success.
Bernal, who was admitted to the Universidad de la Sabana Clinic on January 24 with multiple injuries, after colliding heavily with a bus, is at home, he is already walking and his process is going well.
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One of the key parts in his rehabilitation is psychological, that mental strength that he must put in order to get ahead. It is a delicate, complex and difficult issue, but he must face it almost three weeks after being saved from dying and becoming a paraplegic.
“First you have to talk to the coach and the doctor. You have to know what the prognosis was, know the recovery time, what the physiotherapy sessions will be like, all classified information to be able to carry out mental rehabilitation ”, psychologist Lina Orrego told EL TIEMPO.
And I add: “An athlete gets depressed. One thing is for him to put his foot down, to walk, and another is for him not to get up, all this influences to carry out a specific work plan”.
The athletes whose life changes from one moment to the next, it is logical that they alter their thoughts.
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“They always have some goals and when there are events like these, they get down. They begin to think that the year was wasted, that they will not meet their goals. What you have to do is set goals and achievement goals for them so that they are motivated and look at that performance curve,” said Orrego.
“They are no longer performance goals, but recovery goals, to go back to being like before.”
“When an accident like this comes, the ‘stop’ occurs and you have to rethink goals. They are no longer performance goals, but rather recovery goals, to go back to being like before, ”she limited.
It is not difficult to think that the athlete goes through several stages after the accident and, one of them is that the guilty are sought and that must be passed quickly.
“You have to help them not to look for who was to blame, rather, you have to devise short, medium and long-term goals and help them meet them,” Orrego said.
For the sports and exercise psychology specialist Andrés Felipe Rodríguez, a difficult issue to address is changing those goals.
“It is not easy to tell the athlete that he is no longer going to fight for this or that race, but that now he has to fight to return to being the human being of before, because that causes the mood to go down. You have to readjust goals and that affects motivation. You have to recompose your goals, ”he said.
pain, a difficult subject
Without a doubt, after serious injuries, like Egan’s, pain is something that overwhelms athletes, people, which makes rehabilitation more difficult, perhaps the queen stage, that’s why it’s important to work on it.
A new athlete, with injuries like this, that disable him, leave him still, begins to get anxious. He wonders how his leg, his spine, will turn out, and all those doubts must be helped to overcome.
Experts on the subject warn that it is less complicated to overcome the inconvenience of pain when an athlete has already had serious injuries, blows from which he has recovered, but it is still a titanic task.
“With this type of injury it is another story. They are professional athletes, they sign a contract, they get paid to pedal and a different question arises. It is an advantage to be a mentally strong athlete, because you will work well, even if there is pain, but pain is a big problem”, Orrego pointed out.
“You have to work hand in hand with the physiotherapist, because pain management brings stress.”
“You have to work hand in hand with the physiotherapist, because pain management brings stress. As it is a reconstruction of muscle mass, it is almost necessary to start from scratch in this process, that hurts a lot and that part must be very accompanied. Fighting, even if it hurts, is very necessary, ”he indicated.
Rodríguez agrees with Orrego and points out that it works in favor of Bernal that he is used to developing that ability that not all human beings have to endure these tests, however hard they may be.
“When he had that back problem, he lasted a long time off the roads, with pain, going back to being what he was before and he was able to. Of course, today the injuries are different, but that experience remains in him and he can get up again”, Rodríguez specified.
family, key
It is also estimated in these cases to look for nearby ‘extra’ help, an emotional contingent that helps the athlete to forget about rehabilitation for a while.
Current psychology seeks the integration in the process of close people to help.
The parents, the coach, the teammates, the girlfriend, who accompany him in the sessions, make jokes, that works wonderfully, laughter is a good channel. You have to look for all these tools, activities with him.
“An injury is a loss, you have to treat the duel, what happened, because they question things: how come I won’t do this or that? There is also anger and that has to be negotiated for it to be accepted, but that process is long,” said Orrego.
“Social support is key, very important, because today Egan Bernal needs his family, his teammates, the coaches to get out of the state it is in,” Rodríguez commented.
Being the champion that he is is not so necessary to get ahead, because it is a matter of the person, of “I can, I want to”.
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“That being the leader or the gregarious does not condition the success of a good rehabilitation, it is more the personality of each one. The gregarious is accustomed to lowering his head and working like a mule, the capo’s is ‘I have to win’, but it is more the desire for recovery than anything else”, Orrego specified.
Lisandro Rengifo
Editor of THE TIME
@lisandroabel
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