Mind & Muscle: Using Body Scan and Visualisation to Speed up Recovery and Rebuild Performance

Hands up who's ever been injured and thought their entire sports career had just flushed down the drain... 🙋

Let's be honest, being injured absolutely sucks. Not just because your body hurts, or you’re stuck doing rehab exercises that look suspiciously like warm-ups for pensioners, but because your head starts doing weird things too.

Suddenly you’re hyper-aware of every sensation. You don’t trust your body. You’re overthinking movements you used to do without blinking. And you’re asking Chat GPT questions like, “Is it normal for my knee to feel funny when I think about it?”

(For the record: yes. Yes it is. I asked Mr GPT myself)

For those of you that have been injured, you've probably noticed that suddenly you’re not just rehabbing a hamstring, you’re also rehabbing your patience, your confidence, and your entire sense of identity as an athlete.

This is where two specific tools can come in handy. The body scan and Visualisation. They sound very “sport psychology-ish,” but are actually way simpler (and way more useful) than they sound.

Footballer visualising himself working as a truck driver after getting injured

Injury Isn't Just Physical!

Most athletes expect pain, restrictions, and boring rehab timelines.

What they don’t expect is:

• feeling disconnected from their body and their athlete identity

• panicking over every tiny sensation they feel in their body

• worrying about re-injury before they’ve even returned

• losing confidence in movements they know they can do

These thoughts and feelings come from your nervous system being a little bit overprotective. And rightly so!

After injury, your brain’s job becomes: “Let’s not let this happen again at any cost.”

Which sounds helpful… until it starts treating every sensation like a threat. So the goal during rehab isn’t just to heal tissue. It’s to be the couples therapist that helps your brain and body start trusting each other again after complicated breakup.

Body Scan: Learning to Notice Your Body Without Freaking Out

Wtf is a body scan? Well, let’s clear up what it isn't first.

A body scan is not:

• meditation where you must empty your mind

• lying on the floor pretending to be calm

• ignoring pain and “thinking positive”

A body scan is basically exactly what it says on the tin. It's a mindfulness technique that requires you to "scan" or "check in" with your body from top to bottom. The aim is to notice any sensations without judgement. So, instead of avoiding them or spiralling every time you feel something is different, you notice the sensation and just let it be.

Here’s why that matters:

When you’re injured, most athletes either:

1. completely ignore their body hoping that if they don't think about it, it will magically disappear, or

2. obsess over every sensation like it’s breaking news.

I hate to break it to you but unfortunately neither is helpful.

A body scan however helps you sit in the middle. It teaches your nervous system that you can notice what’s happening in your body… without freaking tf out. And that thought alone reduces the threat response, muscle guarding, and unnecessary tension around the injured area. And over time, it rebuilds the trust between your body and your mind.

What a Body Scan Looks Like in Rehab

Let's explain it in a bit more detail so you don't get confused. Basically, you slowly move your attention through your body and notice what’s there. That’s it.

You’re not trying to fix anything. You’re not judging sensations as good or bad. You’re literally just observing.

You might notice:

• tightness

• warmth

• heaviness

• numbness

• comfort

• discomfort

All of it is allowed.

This helps your nervous system learn that it can feel things without something being wrong. Which, during injury, is HUGE.

Over time, body scans:

• reduce unnecessary tension

• calm fear-based guarding

• help you feel safer moving

• rebuild trust in your body

Basically, it stops your brain from shouting “DANGER” every five seconds and it helps your body feel listened to rather than interrogated about WHY it feels the way it does.

No, you don't have to sit cross legged on a paddle board in the middle of the ocean to do a body scan...

Visualisation: Training While Your Body’s on Time Out

Now let’s talk about visualisation, often the one everyone’s heard of, but almost no one is taught properly.

Good visualisation is realistic, sensory, and relevant to where you’re at right now.

When you can’t train fully, your brain still wants to get in those extra reps. If it doesn’t get them, movements start to feel unfamiliar and confidence takes a hit.

So visualisation is what keeps those pathways active while your body patiently waits for it's turn to take over.

How Visualisation Supports Recovery

When you imagine movement properly, your brain activates similar neural pathways to when you're performing physical movement. I.e., the same brain areas "light up" regardless of if you're doing burpees or just vividly imagining doing burpees. Pretty cool right?

That means visualisation can help you:

• maintain connection to your sport

• rehearse pain-free movement

• rebuild confidence before returning

• reduce fear of re-injury

• keep skills feeling familiar

The key is how you visualise.

This isn’t about imagining Ronaldo's highlight reels pretending it's you or winning finals from the physio table. It’s about realistic, sensory-rich rehearsal.

What Good Rehab Visualisation Actually Looks Like

Okay so what goes into good rehab visualisation? Well, instead of imagining perfection, imagine control.

Picture:

• the movement performed during the rehab exercises

• how your body feels doing them

• how calm and steady, and safe it feels

• how you respond if something feels slightly uncomfortable

This teaches your brain that you can handle the demands of rehab which increases your confidence. And this is exactly what returning athletes need - confidence! Why Body Scan + Visualisation Work Better Together

So which one should you choose? My recommendation: Both. The body scan helps you to listen to your body while visualisation helps you to believe in your body.

The body scan helps calm the nervous system. Visualisation helps rebuild confidence.

Remember recovery isn’t just about tissue healing. It’s about helping the brain feel safe enough to let you move freely again. And using these tools together can shift the narrative from "my body is weak and fragile" to "my body is healing and getting stronger every day."

Try This Week

1️⃣ Body scan during rehab

Before or after rehab exercises, take 2–3 minutes to scan through your body. Notice sensations without labelling them as problems.

2️⃣ Visualise pain-free movement

Once a day, mentally rehearse a simple movement relevant to your sport. Slow, controlled, and confident.

3️⃣ Pair awareness with reassurance

If your brain jumps to panic, try reframing the sensation as information rather than as danger.

Thinking about it in this way can calm a lot of unnecessary stress.

🌱 Conclusion

Injury recovery is all about rebuilding trust. In your body, your movement, and yourself.

Body scans help you reconnect. Visualisation helps you rebuild confidence.

And when mind and muscle start working together again, rehab stops feeling like a never ending battle and starts feeling like progress :)

If you're currently struggling with an injury and want some more guidance feel free to reach out and I might just bless you with a free body scan audio exercise if you're lucky ;) Also, don't forget to follow me on my socials to get some more information about this topic and many more!