Tips on Physical and Massage Therapy by Olympian Experts

This Transcript is Autogenerated:

Alicia Lamb  0:02  
People associate PT with an injury. I mean, there's PT for performance just to kind of keep your body always performing at its best for either your sport or whatever you do.

Kristi Wagner  0:13  
Welcome to the other three years, a show for anyone who has an Olympic sized dream they want to turn into a reality. Hi, and welcome to episode 23 of the other three years. This week is a super exciting week because I interview Dr. Dre and Alicia who are physical therapists and massage therapist for the US rowing team. So I interviewed them during the World Championships. I literally think we were watching people racing on the TV in the PT room. But Alicia lamb is a massage therapist that's worked with both winter and summer Olympians and has served in last three Summer Olympic Games. She now lives in Portland, Oregon, and owns Phoenix Bodyworks. And Deirdre McLaughlin is a physical therapist based in Berkeley, California, where she owns her own practice called resolute rehab. And you're also works with Cal Berkeley. And having wrote herself at BU, she's worked with many rowers over the years, including working with the US Olympic teams in 2016, and 2020. And both of them are still working with many athletes, including, of course, the US rowing senior team. They were both at the World Championships. And it was my choice. They involve me at the Olympics next summer. It was a super fun conversation with Deirdre and Alicia. And they're so important to the whole US rowing team. They keep us together physically, but also mentally and emotionally and spiritually. It sounds funny, but it's true. And we talked about how they got into their practices, why it's important for them to work with athletes, and what motivates them what their favorite parts of their jobs are maybe what their least favorite parts of their jobs are. And I'm so grateful to Deirdre and Alicia for being on the podcast, but also for taking such great care of me and all my teammates. They're really critically important in helping us reach our top potential and we couldn't have had the success we had at Worlds without them. I hope that everyone enjoys the conversation as much as I did. And I think there's so much everyone can get from it if you're an athlete or not. But before we get into that, here's an update on what's currently going on in my training, which feels a little weird to say because I'm actually not really training right now. Do you get a little bit of time off after the World Champs last week, I was just traipsing all around hanging out. I was in Paris for a couple of days, which is where I recorded the last episode. It feels crazy that a week ago I was in Paris, but I flew back to New York and came to Saratoga. And then I went home to my parents house in Boston for the weekend. Because my mom hosted a wedding shower for my brother's fiancee, Jenny. So I got to go to that. Before that I went to our scrimmage that we had at Saratoga rowing on Saturday morning, got to see a ton of people there. So really have seen so many people. I went to the Patriots game last night, which was fun, but they did lose. So you know, that was a little less fun, but it was still it was still a good time. And now I'm back in Saratoga podcasting in the Brightside studio. So it's really it's really exciting. I have not rode since race since our final, the World Champs and it feels really good not to have rode for a week and a day. But I probably start getting back into it a little bit this week, and then probably ramping things up a little bit more next week, but not going to any official practice right now. Because it's really important to take time off. I think almost mentally more than physically, physically, it's important obviously, but mentally just having a break from the really rigid and intense routines that we have and the competition aspect of it. And then when we get back into it in the fall, it's a lot more just base training and a lot less like really intense racing, really intense competition, because this is going to be a short year before we get back into it. So it's really important to like take that time and let things come down, build your base back up. I'm not really looking forward feeling out of shape, but I think it's the price you pay but it's worth it to take the time off. So that's it really not that much going on in training because of the time off but it's it's been a really fun week. It's been nice to see my family and friends and get to relax a little bit. So yeah, and Now, it's time for the main event. So here are Deirdre and Alicia. And I hope that everyone enjoys listening to them and hearing all of the amazing things that they have to say. So I thought we can just start by you guys introducing yourselves and then explaining both what you do here, but also what your kind of full time quote unquote job is.

Deirdre McLoughlin  5:27  
I'm Deirdre McLaughlin. I'm a PT on this rowing trip. I'm Alicia sidekick on this drone trip. I'm really just here for that to keep her super best. I try to help people who are injured. I try to keep you under control, and safe sport at home. I do PT I have an office I used to work at Cal full time. Now I have an office private practice. And I'm running around a couple of days there I do one day at one or two days at California Rowing Club. I do two days at cow during the year with the men's and women's rowing teams as well as any other athletes. And then in the summer I travel with you guys to support the team. I rode in college, I wrote a BU and then my fifth year at BU is my last year PT school had no more eligibility left. And I helped out with the team, novice assistant coach. So gradually made my way into doing part of it's because I got injured my sophomore year could not ruin the head of the Charles because I was injured, I hurt my back and nobody knew how to fix me. None of the athletic trainers, sorry, bu athletic trainers, nobody knew how to fix me. So I was injured. And I remember standing on the mass at bridge at sunset, looking down at the racecourse looking down at BU and just sort of saying to myself that I wasn't gonna let that happen to anybody. Like, if anybody was going to be in that position, I wanted to make sure that I can help them. And it sort of happened. So then I didn't like have a plan necessarily, but it was just like, little thought in my head that like this totally sucked. All I want to do is race. And nobody knew how to fix me and like dammit, I didn't want that to happen to anybody else. And then my career sort of took its path. And here I am. And I didn't know I'd end up working with you. That's a good cue back to

Kristi Wagner  7:17  
Alicia.

Alicia Lamb  7:18  
So I'm Alicia lamb. I'm a massage therapist. And I became one because I was actually a hairstylist and I previously worked in television and film in New York City. And then I moved to Lake Placid which is basically in middle of nowhere. So I had to do something. So I opened my own day spa and I had massage therapist working with me. And I thought that's really cool. I want to do that. So took me three years of college to get a degree in massage therapy. And I volunteered at a triathlon event at Ironman triathlon is one of the first ones in Lake Placid. Now it's a really popular Ironman destination, because it's super hilly but, and I worked on people that came off of the line could barely walk, they could barely walk, but nine and a half hours minimum to finish that race. And I flushed them for 15 minutes to the detriment of my hands, because they're disgusting when they come up. Or out of the race. There's like sweaty and crystallized all kinds of gnarly things. And they became normal in 15 minutes. And I was like, Oh, this is what I want to do. I want to do this. This is fantastic. So that's how I got into sports massage. But let's see where were we Oh, rowing, right. So I was working at the Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista since 2009. And I would get to see the rowers who came there to train in the wintertime for a few months. And it dawned on me after working on so many different Olympic bodies, that rowers are insane, like the train train so much harder. Actual training time than any other. Maybe it's just the Olympic athletes that are at that training center. I mean track and field and BMX cycling and archery. And, anyway, that in 2014, I approached the coach at the time, and I was so nervous because he kind of it was Tom to your heart, and he was kind of you know, that guy, like everybody was just a little nervous around Tom and I was nervous, and I didn't really know him. And I just walked up to him in the dining room and I said, Hey, you know, I don't know if you knew this, but like rowers are insane. Any help, any work, other than just the, you know, few minutes that I'm able to work on each person when they're hurt at a training camp. Like you should take me and he said, Okay, I was literally shaking. I was so nervous. And we said Oh, Que and then I went to Amsterdam for the first Worlds in 2014. That was my first trip. And I've been ever since. So, yeah, it's been great.

Kristi Wagner  10:09  
Yeah, you guys are both amazing. I actually have a bit of fear of like, PT, empty work,

Alicia Lamb  10:15  
we obviously do physical treatment on the table. But Deirdre and I talk about this all the time, since she supervises me, she's helping me, we, we know that part of our job has a lot to do with your mental state, how you feel about PT, how you're feeling about your race, how you're feeling about what your body is doing to your body, and often what your body's doing, based on how you're feeling about your race, once you start to get nervous, and everyone gets nervous at a different space in the, in the race, and, you know, in the time slot. Yeah. And so that's a big part of what treatment entails for rowing, in the sport, but particularly rowing. I mean, it's spaced out over such a long time. There's pre camps. So there, it's really a long time of training, and then maybe thinking about things when it's go time or time in between your first race and your second race. It's there's just a lot of time. Sometimes too much thinking is not a good thing. And it's hard on your body. This is the important part about our training room. I'll call it ours, because it's, it's really dear to us. She's really the boss is that we have a really good rapport Dierdre and I and so it makes for a good atmosphere. It's a positive app. Would you agree? I would agree. Yeah. So that's also part of Yeah, the vibe has to be good. And people have said that. And people who are afraid to have PT will often come in and be like, Oh, they're ridiculous.

Kristi Wagner  11:48  
No, but I think maybe if you can talk a little bit about what your like day to day is like here, because it's kind of crazy. So there's, obviously tons of athletes. There's, I don't even know how many 20 minutes slots a day. And you're just like machines going person to person, like, how do you remember everyone's name? Remember what things are going on with that person? Like, do you? Do you know, do you know what I mean? And like for you guys mentally, how like that must? I feel like your job is almost as hard as our jobs. Like there's just mentally so much and physically. I mean, you're physically working on the people.

Deirdre McLoughlin  12:26  
Yeah, I mean, we trade off. So one of us is up early on the 630 bus that's like our day, get to the tent, someone will be managing all the action at the racecourse. People are getting ready to go out in the water, feel a little stiff, something happening. Hopefully nothing happens. That's bad. We don't want any PT. Emergencies. Right. And then one of us or two of us today, stay here at the venue and just work on bodies. And then we trade off and then we go until nine o'clock at night. So yeah, I mean, it is a long day. I think I remember last year in Ricci J It was like pouring rain. And we were all freezing. And my Yeah, well my patients were my at my office were like, Oh, you think two of them when they knew we were going to Prague like you lead such a glamorous life. I'm like, I have a picture of Alicia lying on the table covered with a yoga mat to stay warm. Like this is not glamorous. I mean, which is not to say this is not amazing and fun. But it's not glamorous. It's it's work. Yeah, I mean, it's work. And it's amazing and fun. So I don't know, I think a good question. I think you just get to know, people around the table. But you just get to know what side it is or what you've worked on. Sometimes you forget. And then you say, remind me what we're working on? What do you want to work on today? And then we trade off. And I think we all have different skills. So we trade off, right? I'll say, can you work on this? And you'll say why don't you see Georgia for that, or the what I really like is when the athletes know us well, that they know what we each bring. And then they go to each of us for different things. And I I really liked that. Because we are different. And we do different things. And then you know what you want.

Kristi Wagner  14:07  
It's in my neck, I go to Alicia, and when my hips are when you really need

Deirdre McLoughlin  14:11  
to race really well, you come to me

Alicia Lamb  14:15  
for no, but generally, we also understand I think what each of us does, and Jeff is included in that. And so if you came in and had x issue, I might say, You know what? Put yourself on Dierdre schedule, because let's have her look at that in and then that happens. That's happened a few times this trip, actually. Yeah,

Deirdre McLoughlin  14:37  
it's been I mean, it's nice to work with people collaboratively because that's the point you're not we're making these jokes right but like we're not the ones out there racing. It's an honor and a privilege to be part of it. And to feel like you can contribute to something but but we're not you guys are the ones racing and the reality is if we weren't here you would be great. Like that is That's our job, I think is to both show you that we can bring something to the table literally for you. And if you can't see us if we had to leave if one of us got sick, quarantined, you'd be great. Like, it can't be that you rely on. Does that make sense? Like you can't rely on as like, oh, at least not here. We're just not here, Jeff. Like we're screwed. Like, it can't be like that.

Kristi Wagner  15:25  
So what is something that you think people would find surprising about your jobs here?

Deirdre McLoughlin  15:35  
I would say one thing from since I have a lot of friends who are rowers. I work with a lot of rowers. They're like, Oh, you're going to the world champ. i We don't get to see any rowing. Right? We're watching it on TV right now or on our phones. But like, I remember going to some World Cup and being trapped in some little massage tent with Mark and like, I don't know what happened. Like what happened? Oh, they won their heat. Great, like, so people think that you're going or like at the Olympics, we all got let out on the last day, Sunday. And we got to watch the eight. That was it. In live, you were like at the Olympics in a little room.

Alicia Lamb  16:12  
So also, now you're watching rowing, as you probably know, and you're standing in one spot. So you get to see about, I don't know, 100 meters 1000 meter race like one time you're like, Well, that

Deirdre McLoughlin  16:25  
was the Olympics. So we got to watch really, this rowing thing is cool. Actually, in Tokyo, I don't remember the first I don't know if you remember the first day the TV wasn't showing the racing. So we use my laptop. And we FaceTime my house in Berkeley. And Liz put the computer up to the TV. And like that's how we watched from Tokyo, like the TV in Berkeley on FaceTime to the computer to the TV in Tokyo like, I don't know, at the Olympics, we don't get to see anything.

Kristi Wagner  16:56  
If you could work with another professional sport, not us. Who would it be? Maybe we'll do like an Olympic sport, and maybe also just a professional sport. Because they're kind of different, I'd say, one could make you millions of dollars, and the other probably would just be cool.

Alicia Lamb  17:13  
Let's see, you know, I've never I don't really know what it would be like to work with a pro team. I did recently get asked to do that. And I turned it down. It just didn't want to live in that city. But yeah, I don't know. I'm the massage therapist. So it's the athletic trainers who are on the field of for field sport, like I do sometimes travel with women's national team soccer. And I do get to do fun things like go out on the field and shag balls during practice. You cannot overstate that. So cool. But I am not on the field during the game. I do however, get to watch from a very cold vantage point. And so yeah, I don't know if and I've traveled with track and field. That's also cool, but also not on the field. Yeah, so I don't know if a professional sports really would be different. I think their travel schedules are a little crazier. Yeah. I'm not sure there's more money in it for a massage therapist. I don't I don't really think so. Maybe a bit. Not crazy, though.

Deirdre McLoughlin  18:13  
Well, my son would like me to be with the Warriors. I mean, I love baseball, as a sport. So there's a part where like, I've always dreamed when I got like really old and couldn't work like the San Francisco Giants have little old people sitting on the fields with their baseball gloves. And they like help to like protect the fans from like foul balls. That sounds like a ball or like a ball. I mean, I wanted to be a ball girl so bad for the Yankees, but they didn't have any girls. When I was a kid, I wanted to be like a bat girl ball. Anyway, that wasn't happening for me. So baseball seems fun. But it's a long season. Like if you actually like were to think about the logistics of traveling with a pro team. And then I think, I don't know, I guess knowing rowing and being a rower is really fun. Because I feel like I can contribute to my sessions with people by saying, Oh, what about want to use a clam? Do you have a seat pad like I know enough about the sport to feel like I can contribute something else.

Alicia Lamb  19:11  
Also, and I think I've heard this from other practitioners who work on pro teams. I don't think the camaraderie is the same. We don't get to know like they know the players but isn't a closeness like there is with rowing. Like we know you guys really well from either years of being on the table or just the closeness that happens when you have someone on the table. I don't know. I feel like it's way more personal to be working with rowing. And that's fantastic. That's maybe the best part

Kristi Wagner  19:42  
Dierdre you mentioned your son and I appreciated that I wasn't asked this question but do your children. Both of you think that what you do is cool.

Deirdre McLoughlin  19:53  
Yeah, I think Kathleen my daughter Hmm, I think she thinks that we what I do is pretty cool. She you know follows along and has met some of the athletes and when she first started rowing, Kara Kohler gave me a whole bunch of gear like spandex and sports bras and T shirts. So she was super excited about that. Like I told you, James, who's now 15, he, the nickel just dropped a lot. I mean, I've been traveling since before he was born. So it's just a regular thing that I'm going away on a trip for a couple of weeks. But it sort of hit him that the rowers that I work with like, wait a second, so you saw it, not that you just work with rowers, but you work with like the Olympic rowers, right? Like the best in the country rowers, like, Yeah, and like, you can figure out like, if someone's knee is hurting, why it's hurting, I'm like, that's the idea. That's what I'm supposed to do. He's like, Oh, I couldn't do work for the Warriors like, Ah, so I think he's a little disappointed that I happen to work at a high level with athletics, but not with basketball, or some other sport that he could sit in the stance with. But yeah, I think they think what I do is pretty cool. I would imagine,

Alicia Lamb  21:04  
Alicia, I don't know, I think my kids must think that it's cool. They even their dad's an Olympian. And, you know, we've been involved with Olympic training centers, 30 years. So I think they're a little jaded about the gold medals are coming for dinner again, like they just are like, Yeah, but no, they actually follow all the athletes, and they do and they know so many athletes, and I think they love that part of it.

Kristi Wagner  21:33  
Is it hard that sometimes people will come to you with probably a more serious issue that they need, like a band aid? Do you kind of feel like sometimes you have to just put band aids on big holes? Or are you able to follow up with people after like, what's that? Like?

Deirdre McLoughlin  21:52  
I think, well, a little bit of both. When we went to the training camp, there was an athlete who had an injury, he's going to end up coming to CRC. So I know I'm going to see him and I, we had time. So I probably spent about an hour and a half. Sort of doing what I would do at my office like a full evaluation. Just to understand

Alicia Lamb  22:11  
it was fantastic. You're fantastic. You It was literally the first time I've seen you do a full eval of, of a rower on a trip. Coffee. Thank

Kristi Wagner  22:21  
you. It sort of seems like that's something you should do. For all of us.

Deirdre McLoughlin  22:25  
Well, we do have I mean, I think what happens when you come on the table, and we have a 30 minutes. I mean, if someone really got hurt, we would like block off a couple spots. But I guess that's sort of the fun slash challenge is and it's what I have to do in the training room, Macau, I don't get an hour and a half with people. So there's a certain amount of experience you have to get and bodies you have to have worked on. And now it's like er, PT er, like, Oh, someone's coming in, their back is hurting, they're racing tomorrow, you know, that I have to like, look at them and figure out what are the quick three tests I need to do that are going to give me the most information. And what in my little catalogue of treatments are the three treatments that I think will help the most to get this athlete back out on the water. But obviously, we're not getting X rays. We're not getting MRIs we're not none of that's available to us here. But that is the fun challenge when someone really has something pop up versus when I tried to be more like Alicia and maintain bodies. That's what we want to do here. We just want to do little tuneups. We don't really want to have injuries, but a PT here it is a different job. I'm not I've giving some extra. I'm not like rehabbing things, necessarily giving some exercises to some athletes, I will. But other athletes are going home and they have a PT at home that they're working on. Or I might email them or say here, bring this to your

Alicia Lamb  23:49  
thing with PT is that people associate PT with an injury. And I mean, there's PT for performance just to kind of keep your body always performing at its best for either your sport or whatever you do. But I think that's the difference that people associate PTS at home with, oh, I had an injury or I had a surgery. And now I go to a PT. But this is performance. PT, right? This is just keeping warriors on the field of battle.

Kristi Wagner  24:23  
What would you say are some of the most common issues that people come to you if and maybe to follow that up is like are there things that you wish all of us would be doing to prevent certain things?

Deirdre McLoughlin  24:40  
Yeah, leashes heard this before stiff hips, sink ships? I mean back pain for sure. It's something that's going to keep people out hip pain doesn't really stop you like ribs and bags would stop you from racing. Right? If God forbid, but everything else wouldn't really stop you. So those are the things we want to definitely keep in you know, High working function. So um, but I would say hips hip mobility, because if your hips are moving, then you can get to the catch. Without your bet you're gonna get to the cat, you're gonna get to full slide. Everyone's getting the full slide. No one stopping and only half side only saying sorry, I'm stiff today. So you're gonna get to full slide. The question is, are you getting there from your hips? Are you getting there from your backstopping? Are you getting there from your shoulders overreaching, which is going to tweak your ribs. So I would love every single row are listening to this podcast, I'm sure there's 1000s, right? Millions to mobilize their hips and have their knee be able to come right to their chest when they're lying on the table without their back rounding and slumping under them.

Alicia Lamb  25:40  
I mean, outside of hips, and certainly shoulders is a lot of forearms, and elbows. And it's something that you overlook, because you feel those things in your shoulders when they're dysfunctional. So I wind up doing a lot of elbows and forearms. Yeah. Just because that's what you're using repeatedly. And those are small muscles really in your forearms typically. So they get tired fast.

Kristi Wagner  26:10  
Okay, I have a serious question. But I'm gonna ask another more fun question first. When you guys first met, what were your initial thoughts of each other? Were you fast friends? Or were you like

Deirdre McLoughlin  26:24  
you were in Amsterdam. I missed that one. And so we met in 15, and egg billets downstairs, I walked into the room you were treating, and I was assigned next to you know, I was told by Carrie Simmons. And she's like, Oh, my God, I can't wait for you to meet Alicia, you guys are going to be awesome. So she weren't people. And then I walked in the room. And I think I was in the room for like, 90 seconds. And you were made some, like, mean comment to me. I was like, I see. I see. So. And ever since then I go to my therapist a lot. Like, really that bad. I don't know, this lady I work with is really mean to me. So that's what I was told about Alicia. And it's true. We get along really? Well.

Alicia Lamb  27:07  
You right from the firm that Gecko and that trip was fantastic. We had a really great trip. And so we still try to spend I mean, we spend all day working next to one another. It's painful. But we do still talk during the year in between trips. And yeah, I just recently stayed over at your house. Yeah, I went to Yeah, we went to one of the athletes got married. And we went together we were dates was awesome. And we do try to spend time outside of trip, like doing a little bit of sightseeing maybe or, you know, whatever we might be able to do in the country we're in. I don't know, where you are easily fast friends. And we get along famously and we I just we were just talking about this the other day that we've never, like, you know, you just generally get annoyed when you're around somebody a really long time like a roommate, you know, you love them. But then like there's always some little, I don't think we've ever had that in the nine years that we know one another. I've genuinely never been annoyed at Dierdre. Genuinely

Kristi Wagner  28:09  
are some of your favorite trips that you've been on and places that you've gotten to visit with the rowing team?

Alicia Lamb  28:17  
I mean, I believe it was our first it was fantastic. We had a great time. Yeah. It's a beautiful spot. And I don't know if we just got lucky in that we had the opportunity to maybe walk around the the town itself or the lake itself was beautiful. I don't. Yeah. And we had a nice time, like eating the bread and cheese from the local towns that we had. And that was good. i My favorite place is Lucerne. I just love Lucerne. That's just my personal favorite. Right. We always have a good time.

Deirdre McLoughlin  28:48  
I think we always have a good time. I think that was a super fun trip. Just because we were in a little town I think is what we try to do when we go someplace is when we were in Prague last year. You know, last year we got up at 630 took an Uber at like 6:30am went to the town square, saw the castle walked around, got a cappuccino, figured out the tram home in the pouring rain and got on the 30 best. And then we're like great. We've seen something. So I think we try to see things do some things to feel like you get a little bit of a taste of the country and where we are a little bit

Kristi Wagner  29:26  
of a more serious question. But what would you say you are most proud of in your professional career? I

Alicia Lamb  29:34  
think the thing that I would be most proud of is not the number of people that whose bodies were fixed, but who found some, like emotional peace with their bodies during treatment. Yeah, because that's just a I mean, it's a little more important, but that they somehow made the emotional and physical connections to grow. It's amazing. Yeah, it is amazing. It's really the only reason to do this job. So yeah, it's amazing.

Deirdre McLoughlin  30:10  
Well, I'm gonna go back to like my thing that I talked about standing on the bridge mass average of like, there's like a couple of injuries that I can think about of like, Oh, God, I hope we can get this athlete going. And then we did or you know, collectively, because not just me, it's me, with the doctors, with coaches, with you with Jeff, you know, with whoever's with us. But feeling like you had a part in an injury and resolving it and figuring out the right thing to do in the three or four days you had to do it. But I think just overall, like a measure of success for my job might be making a lot of money it might be having a practice having five practices having 20 employees, and I think for me, my like, my personal like, measure if it's the night before the Olympic final, or your Olympic semi final, do you feel comfortable? Having me work on you? Like, do you trust me, do you right? Like, that's the honor of like, I feel like I'm in good hands. And that's to me means that I'm doing good job makes my career worth it.

Alicia Lamb  31:15  
Don't you feel like you actually, were able, I mean, nothing gold medals are they are a gold standard. But I mean, if you can get athletes to perform at their very best, and then they metal like that's how many gold medals you have under your belt like a bunch.

Deirdre McLoughlin  31:32  
I mean, that's magic. Of course, like when somebody wins a medal and hands it to you and is like, Here, hold this. Here, you put it on, take a picture.

Alicia Lamb  31:41  
I have this or I can race today because of you. That's pretty amazing.

Deirdre McLoughlin  31:47  
Yeah, it is. But we I mean, it's so freakin hard. It's hard to get here. It's hard to you know, it's hard to qualify, it's hard to go to the Olympics, it's hard to get a medal like it's harder and harder and harder. But the right the fact that like you trust us to come in and if it's me, and if it's me working have to working if Jeff working somebody know if somebody else is here that you feel safe and comfortable and like, okay, this person is going to help me be ready to go, then. That's great. I always feel like my job's done. Like when it comes to trials, like at CRC are great. All the athletes were 100%. And they were able to compete. That's my job is your job to go do it. But like the fact that like, I played some part in like helping you like get to the starting line and sit at the blocks. Great, then that's rewarding. So just

Kristi Wagner  32:41  
thank you guys so much. I feel like this was really good. It was funny, but you had some good things to say a lot of good things. Is there anything else?

Deirdre McLoughlin  32:50  
Is there a rest of the week?

Kristi Wagner  32:51  
Is there anything else that you want to share that you didn't that I didn't ask you about? Any questions for me? Oh, that's that's a

Deirdre McLoughlin  33:00  
good question. She's gonna do this. And now. Wow, we have any questions for you. Do you

Alicia Lamb  33:07  
do Yeah. Do you like doing this?

Deirdre McLoughlin  33:08  
Now podcasting,

Kristi Wagner  33:09  
PT growing, but I like being

Alicia Lamb  33:13  
podcasting in questions that are cringy

Kristi Wagner  33:15  
I actually do like it. I I feel like it's been really fun to do the podcast, it's been a very different thing. I'm not one to usually talk about rowing. If you were to ask my family, I'm like a closed book. I'm don't want to talk about it.

Alicia Lamb  33:31  
Question for you. Do you find? Or how do you find PT and massage useful in your career during big competitions,

Kristi Wagner  33:42  
I'll try to say this really quickly so that we can get to Claire's PT appointment, but I had like shoulder surgery and hip surgery. So I feel like my relationship with physical therapy was one of necessity. And like marked a bit of like, I don't know, failure, or like my body's inability to do the sport or sports in general. So I think, coming from that, I really saw it as like, not a luxury like not like, Oh, I see my PT twice a week. And it's more of like what you were saying this emotional thing. You know, it just keeps my body but like, I needed it. Like I needed to be on the table. My body wasn't working properly. So then I think I saw it as like a red X like something's wrong with you, if you need PT. So it's been a little while of like, reworking myself into a place of, okay, no, it's helpful. And it's a performance, it doesn't mean that you're weak. It doesn't mean that you can't go and perform. It's all collaborative. It's all part of the process. And part of that is being on the senior team being a funded athlete and having access to like you guys are at the training centers, different places, and that it's not on your insurance. You only have 15 pt visits a year and when are you going to use them and you have no massage or chiropractic so it's out of your pocket and you have all these other bills. You know, there's a lot of things like come into it, but it's uh, you guys have played a role in helping me mend my relationship with therapeutic services. Well, thank you guys so much.

Deirdre McLoughlin  35:08  
Thank you for having us. I'm still very special.

Kristi Wagner  35:12  
I feel special. Yes. All right, cool. Okay, okay, bye. I hope that everyone enjoyed that and learned as much as I did from them. And before we close the show, I just want to share a quote of the week. And this week, I have one that comes from Ralph Waldo Emerson. He said, What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside you. So hope everyone has a great week and thanks for listening. See you next week.

I'd love to hear from you. So send us a topic suggestion or if you'd like to submit a question for our Ask Christy anything segment, head to our website, the other three years.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai