Merry Christmas!! Hope you enjoying the holiday season with your family and/or friends! Which means you'll resonate with this post. Keeping your circle small.

When you’re injured, everyone wants to talk about the exercises, the protocol, the rehab timeline. And don’t get me wrong—those things matter. A lot. But there’s one piece of recovery that often gets overlooked: who you surround yourself with.

Your social support—the people you train with, live with, text at 2 a.m., or even just exchange a quick “how’s your ankle?” with—can completely change the way you heal. It can be the difference between feeling isolated and defeated versus motivated and on track. Let's go make friends.

The Science of Social Support and Healing

This isn’t just feel-good fluff. Research has shown that social support directly impacts recovery.

• A 2012 study in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation found that athletes with stronger perceived social support reported lower pain intensity and faster return to sport compared to those who felt isolated.

• Another study in Health Psychology (Uchino, 2006) highlighted that social connections reduce stress and cortisol levels. Since stress hormones can slow tissue healing, the right circle literally helps you heal faster. Cool, huh?

• Depression and anxiety are common after injury (Appaneal et al., 2009). Social support is one of the strongest buffers against these psychological setbacks, which are known to prolong recovery.

So no, your “training family” isn’t just for high fives after PRs. They might actually be shortening your rehab timeline.

Why Isolation Hurts More Than You Think

Injury already takes away a huge chunk of your identity. If you’re a hybrid athlete, training and racing aren’t just hobbies—they’re part of who you are. Take that away, and it’s easy to spiral: I’m falling behind. I don’t belong anymore. Everyone’s getting better without me.

That isolation isn’t just mental—it feeds back into your physical recovery. Without support, motivation drops, adherence to rehab slips, and the chances of re-injury skyrocket. It’s not weakness to need people. It’s science.

Choosing the Right People

Here’s the tricky part: not all support is good support, especially when you're keeping your circle small. You need to be intentional about who’s in your circle during recovery.

The Right People:

• 🟢 Encouragers – The ones who remind you of progress, no matter how small.

• 🟢 Listeners – Sometimes you don’t need advice, just someone to vent to.

• 🟢 Accountability partners – They’ll check if you did your rehab or walked into the gym instead of sulking at home.

The Wrong People:

• 🔴 Comparers – “Oh, I had that injury and I was back in two weeks.” Not helpful. And a dick.

• 🔴 Dismissers – “It’s not that bad, just push through it.” Recipe for setback.

• 🔴 Energy vampires – The ones who make everything about them or drain your mental space. We all know a few.

Ask yourself: Do I feel lighter or heavier after I talk to this person? That’s your answer.

How to Keep Your Circle Close

Recovery is long, boring, and often invisible. You’re not always going to have new progress to share. But keeping your circle close matters. Here’s how, as the person recovering and helping others recover:

1. Stay involved, even if you can’t compete. Volunteer at races, show up to training sessions, grab coffee with your crew after their workouts. Being there keeps you connected and grounded.

2. Communicate openly. Let people know what you’re going through. Hiding your frustration only fuels isolation. A simple, “I’m having a rough week with rehab, can we hang out?” goes further than you think.

3. Lean on quality over quantity. You don’t need a stadium of cheerleaders. Two or three people who truly get you are more valuable than 20 surface-level “supporters.”

4. Give support back. Even while injured, you can still encourage others. Being part of someone else’s journey reminds you that you still belong.

Why This Matters for Hybrid Athletes

Hybrid athletes live in a unique space—we’re part runners, part lifters, part masochists who think sled pushes are fun. That community is one of the best parts of the sport.

But when you’re sidelined, it can feel like you’re watching from the outside. Having the right circle around you bridges that gap. They keep you plugged into the culture, accountable to your rehab, and reminded that you’re more than your current injury.

When you combine strong social support with good rehab, smart training, and the “boring” recovery tools (sleep, nutrition, stress management), your odds of a successful comeback go way up. These fundamentals are not just key for injury recover, but for life.

Final Thoughts

Injury recovery isn’t just about muscles and tendons—it’s about people. Social support can reduce pain, speed up healing, and protect against the depression and isolation that derail recovery.

So take inventory of your circle. Who lifts you up? Who drains you? Keep the lifters close, set boundaries with the drainers, and remember—you don’t have to do this alone.

Because at the end of the day, healing is faster, easier, and a whole lot less lonely when you’ve got the right people in your corner. If you need that extra support, click here to set up your free call, and let's get you back on track together.