Exploring the Pain Cave with Lloyd Emeka MSc, PhD(c) #219
Episode overview:
Lloyd completed a BA (hons) in Business Administration at Staffordshire University and an MSc in Marketing Management at Aston University. He then proceeded to work in the advertising industry for several years before embarking on a career change in 2016.
Lloyd returned to academia after a thirteen-year break and completed a Postgraduate Diploma (conversion degree) in Psychology at Birkbeck, University of London. After completion of the postgraduate diploma, Lloyd studied for an MSc in Applied Sport Psychology at St Mary’s University and graduated in 2021.
Lloyd has also held several committee and board member roles at the British Psychological Society (BPS), and he is currently Past Chair for the BPS London & Home Counties branch and an editorial board member for Sport & Exercise Psychology Review (SEPR) which is an international, peer-reviewed publication.
Episode highlights:
(25:17) What is “real” pain: associations between perceived pain and injury or tissue breakdown, societal portrayals and associations between pain and injury
(40:33) Seeking longer distances: graduating from 50 to 100 miles, adapting to the challenges of longer distance, the distance gap between training and racing, attraction to the unknown, challenge through duration versus intensity, being content with your race distance
(45:02) Athlete takeaways: capability through knowledge, discussing pain with peers and your coach, reflecting only our personal pain narrative, pain and prevention, managing pain is a learned skill
Our conversation:
(0:00) Introduction: contextualizing the pain cave, introducing Lloyd, using experiences to perpetuate performance
(2:00) Lloyd’s background: work in communications and sports psychology, academic background
(4:20) Discussing pain: neuroscience and psychology, our personal relationships with pain
(5:24) Pain culture in sport: positive associations with pushing through pain, pain is personal and subjective
(7:16) Measuring pain: quantifying and qualifying degrees of pain, pain scales, describing pain
(9:52) Pushing Through the Pain Cave: introducing Lloyd’s study, Carla Meijen, examining pain through a qualitative lens
(12:36) Study setup: the experience of pain, reasons for studying male ultrarunners, semi-structured interviews during the pandemic
(15:03) Methods: interviews with six male ultrarunners, extracting information from interviews, transcription and data mining, identifying common themes, interpreting athlete conversations
(17:34) Why is the pain cave a cave: trying to find your way out of a mental dark place, entering a cave is voluntary, the deeper you go the darker it gets, you can always leave, you don’t know how deep it goes
(21:12) Themes around pain: discussing the first of four main themes, building relationships with pain, experience dictates comfort level, interacting with pain is a learned skill, drawing on past experience for confidence
(25:17) What is “real” pain: associations between perceived pain and injury or tissue breakdown, societal portrayals and associations between pain and injury
(27:55) Ultrarunning culture: the risk-reward proposition, pain is part of the goal, instant and delayed gratification, kudos from peers
(30:54) Encountering pain early: unanticipated pain and negative thought cycles, consequences of pushing through pain
(33:23) DNFs: the personal meaning behind a DNF, letting yourself or others down, a DNF is not necessarily bad if it lets you race another day
(34:18) How much pain is acceptable: a common question, pain is a part of the game, making your own self-assessment
(36:20) Self-assessing pain: familiar and unfamiliar pain, how you feel pre-race, evaluating risk
(38:26) Risk-value proposition: examples, formulating your relationship with risk, you want the decision you make mid-race to be one you agree with pre and post-race
(40:33) Seeking longer distances: graduating from 50 to 100 miles, adapting to the challenges of longer distance, the distance gap between training and racing, attraction to the unknown, challenge through duration versus intensity, being content with your race distance
(45:02) Athlete takeaways: capability through knowledge, discussing pain with peers and your coach, reflecting only our personal pain narrative, pain and prevention, managing pain is a learned skill
(49:15) Future research on pain: chronic pain in the populations of developed nations, chronic pain in endurance athlete populations, recognizing productive and counterproductive pain
(52:55) Wrap-up: where to contact Lloyd, giving thanks
(54:28) Outro and main takeaways: discussing your pain with your peers, differentiating pain from competition and pain from injury, share the KoopCast
Additional resources:
Papers discussed-
‘Pushing through the pain cave’: Lived experiences of pain tolerance in male ultra-marathon runners
Portrayals of Pain in Children’s Popular Media: Mothers’ and Fathers’ Beliefs and Attitudes
LLoyd on X: @nathan78
Academic profile: https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/staff-directory/lloyd-emeka-staff-profile
ResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lloyd-Emeka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyd-emeka-msc-gmbpss-1262662
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpain.2022.898855/full
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