Henry Abbott: Why Star Athletes Are Getting Injured More Than Ever
Abel James Show
Abel James Bascom
4.7 • 2.6K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 66 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The glory days when all-stars like Cal Ripkin Jr. played 2,632 consecutive games seem far behind us.
These days, promising careers are tragically cut short by horrific injuries televised to the masses. Some managers even see pro athletes as expendable, as surgeons circle broken bodies like buzzards.
The strange truth is this: sometimes getting stronger actually makes us worse at sports.
Athleticism is much more than just an arms race of strength and speed. It's about physical intelligence, skill development, and building fluency in the language of movement.
We're here today with Henry Abbott, award-winning journalist, OG podcaster, and author of the new book “Ballistic: The New Science of Injury-Free Athletic Performance.”
From jaw-dropping moments on the NBA court to the hidden science and technology in cutting-edge elite training labs, Henry unpacks the secrets behind how to build and maintain athletic mastery for life.
if you're looking for extra motivation to get out of your chair, this is it.
In this episode, you'll discover:
- How cutting-edge research is reshaping the way athletes train
- Surprisingly sneaky causes of common injuries (and how to prevent them)
- What professors and elite athletes know about recovering from injury that you don't
- How to incorporate more "play" and joyful movement into your fitness routine
- And much more....
- Website: henryabbott.com
- Book: Ballistic: The New Science of Injury-Free Athletic Performance
- Substack: truehoop.com
- TrueHoop podcast: Apple / Substack
- X: @TrueHoop
- Instagram: @true.hoop
The internet doesn't have quite the vibe it used to, so we're building our own "space" where health nuts like us can level-up together.
We're planning challenges you can join from anywhere as well as live events and in-person meetups in Austin, Texas and beyond.
It's called Club Wild, and it's almost ready for you. If you're not already subscribed to our newsletter, be sure to sign up at https://abeljames.com/.
You can also join Substack as a free or paid member for ad-free episodes of this show, to comment on each episode, and to hit me up in the DM’s. Join at abeljames.substack.com. And if you’re feeling generous, write a quick review for the Abel James Show on Apple or Spotify. You rock.
This episode is brought to you by:
Crowd Health - Go to JoinCrowdHealth.com and use the code WILD at checkout to get started for as low as $80 per month.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey folks, this is Abel James, and thanks so much for joining us on the show. |
| 0:04.3 | A modern mystery haunts professional sports. |
| 0:07.1 | Why are today's star athletes who are bigger, stronger, and faster than ever getting injured at such catastrophic rates? |
| 0:14.4 | The glory days when all stars like Cow Ripkin Jr. played 2,632 consecutive games seem far behind us. These days, promising careers |
| 0:24.6 | are tragically cut short by horrific injuries televised to the masses. Some managers even see |
| 0:30.5 | pro athletes as expendable as surgeon circle broken bodies like buzzards. The strange truth is this, |
| 0:36.2 | though, sometimes getting stronger actually |
| 0:38.7 | makes us worse at sports. Athleticism is much more than just an arms race of strength and speed. |
| 0:45.3 | It's about physical intelligence, skill development, and building fluency in the language of movement. |
| 0:50.9 | We're here today with Henry Abbott, award-winning journalist and author of the new book, |
| 0:55.1 | Ballistic, The New Science of Injury-Free Athletic Performance. From jaw-dropping moments on the NBA |
| 1:00.9 | court to the hidden science and technology in cutting-edge elite training labs, Henry unpacks the |
| 1:06.8 | secrets behind how to build and maintain athletic mastery for life. If you're looking for extra motivation to get out of your chair, this episode might just be it. |
| 1:15.0 | Before we get there, here's a quick plug for a new project that's many years in the making. |
| 1:19.8 | We're super psyched about this. |
| 1:21.2 | Very soon, our newsletter subscribers are going to get a very special invitation. |
| 1:25.5 | Allison and I have been building a brand new, gamified |
| 1:28.2 | members-only private community completely outside of social media. This is a long time coming. |
| 1:34.5 | The tech really wasn't there for many years, and it's just catching up now. So we're really |
| 1:39.3 | excited about building this new platform and this new community for you folks. The internet doesn't have quite the vibe that it used to, especially social media. |
| 1:47.9 | So we're building our own space where health nuts like us can level up together. |
| 1:52.3 | And we're planning challenges that you can join from anywhere, live streams, as well as live |
... |
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