Athlete Interview: Yonglin Hu
The back is one of the most crucial parts of our body, as it supports the entire weight and facilitates movements such as walking and running. Maintaining its health and avoiding activities that may adversely affect it are essential for daily life, especially in sports. In this instance, Yong-Lin Hu, a varsity track athlete and junior at Arcadia High School, suffered from severe lower back pain because she participated in events such as the triple jump, hurdles, and sprinting.
How did she get this injury in the first place? Did it happen all of a sudden or did the pain build up?
I got this injury from overusing it in all my events which were triple jumps, hurdles, and sprinting. I think it started at the end of my 9th grade track season but because I broke my arm, I was out of the season before it actually became a big problem. It really started to get bad during 10th grade when the constant practice and frequent track meets compromised my back; the pain was cumulative and little by little it would hurt worse for longer.
What was your reaction when you got injured?
In the beginning, I thought as long as I iced it, stretched it, and did back strengthening exercises that it would get better quickly, but because I was straining my back faster than it could heal, it became a prominent problem the more I did my events. I felt my jumps getting weaker because of it and I became scared to compete in my events because of how painful it was afterward. Even sitting up and down hurt.
What medical treatment did you do for it?
During the summer after 10th grade, I started to go to physical therapy, doing exercises surrounding targeted muscles and modifying my form in running, jumping, hurdling, etc. By this point I had been off from my season for a couple of weeks so my back pain naturally got better– going to physical therapy was more about taking a preventative measure. This is still an ongoing process! When I returned to track in my junior year, the pain gradually returned but I think so far, it did improve overall.
How did it affect your season and were you able to play?
I took fewer jumps than I [usually did], [taking] 2 jumps instead of 4, and did less rigorous activities by opting out of workouts. I felt I had less explosive power for my jumps and I became scared to compete in my events because of how painful it was afterward. Even just sitting up and down hurt.
What effect did it have on your mental health as you weren't able to compete?
There were definitely some challenging times when I felt it held me back from reaching my full potential. Due to my back injury, my overall attitude toward my performance constantly shifted from “considering I have a back injury” to “my back injury is holding me back.” A lot of what occupies my thoughts now is the fear that, despite all the physical therapy I’ve undergone, my back injury might return with full force and debilitate me before I can be satisfied with my achievements. Many tears have been shed watching my friends improve and being able to happily participate in the events I once loved. There's a constant fear that they will continue to grow, surpassing me and that I may never catch up. I'm in a perpetual battle between believing I could do better and not overcompensating for my back. I faced disappointment throughout the entire season and felt pressure from my coach to push through the last few weeks. Having built a reputation for falling in 9th grade, which cut my season short, I desperately wanted to reach my full potential in 10th grade, but I felt my back injury held me back from doing so.
Although her back injury hasn’t fully healed yet, she is still currently doing the hurdles running on the varsity track team and is being more cautious about her form and special techniques as it can trigger her lower back to be even worse which could result in less quality and possibly a long term effect in future seasons. Yonglin hopes to compete and win this following season.