Sam Reynolds Opens Up About Head Injuries

[00:00:00]And for concussion again, if you've ever been through it, it's like they just stand you down and it's like you need to go deloading, you know, limit your screen time, which is really hard this day and age.

[00:00:09]>> Yeah, I couldn't look at my phone.

[00:00:10]>> Yeah.

[00:00:11]>> I had 2 weeks I couldn't look at a TV or phone cuz it just it hurt. Like it hurt in my brain. And the guy there's actually another concussion specialist.

[00:00:19]I think he's also called Eoin at Crankworx because I just didn't feel right and it was like this is actually between So my concussion was so bad because it was two.

[00:00:30]So I hit it like not that badly at actually on the back of my head and it was just like a what until then was quite a normal head impact that happens all the time. I saw stars like briefly and then was kind of okay. Like okay, cool, but just felt a bit off and I was racing at Whistler Crankworx a couple weeks later and I just didn't feel right like the added pressure, the physicality of pushing up and down, sprinting at speed and start and I was just like something isn't right. I don't feel right.

[00:00:58]Maybe it's this head hit. So I went to talk to Eoin and he actually he did one of those tests cuz I was like is there a scan you can do? He's like not really like you can do but like answer these questions and I did the questions and he was like all right, okay, I think like if you're above a 30 out of 100, I wouldn't let you race and you've scored 60 something out of 100 so then I'm going to tell you you should not race at all. But then I was kind of relieved cuz I went to the team boss and I was like I've actually got a concussion from the doctor and he says I should not race in the team but cuz I I was too scared to go and just say I don't feel right. I don't want to race cuz I've flown all the way to Canada like it's a lot of pressure.

[00:01:32]I'm kind of doing good in the championship like should just crack through it but at this point [snorts] I would have actually loved to have had the device on to have had the the numbers and be like you've hit your head this much, you need to have a bit of rest as well. Cuz Eoin also, other Eoin, described it as like an earthquake in a factory in your brain of concussions. He said like all the things have fallen off the shelves, they're not quite in the right place and if you just go straight back to using a screen, straight back to everything, there's no time to put everything back on the shelf, and the factory just runs again, and it doesn't know where everything is. Well, you need a few weeks to settle back, put everything back on the shelves, then when you turn the factory back on, everything's back in the right place, which I thought was an interesting analogy. And Yeah, I was And it was that was the first part of the concussion, then the actual real part was a couple weeks later where I had a big hit, and that was at the nines, I hit the back of my head again really bad. I never lost consciousness at any point, >> [snorts] >> but like I didn't know where I was.

[00:02:27]Apparently, I I built the course over the last month, and I was just walking around apparently asking like, "Wow, what is this place? Like, what's going on? Like, who built this? Like, this is a crazy place." And my friend said I was like, "Yeah, [snorts] you built it. I think it's time to go see the medics." So, I was like, "Oh."

[00:02:45]But that's so scary to hear because then, yeah, for like weeks afterwards, I didn't I'd forgotten words, I couldn't finish sentences, and it was really, really frustrating. I actually would have like a really short temper, like I punched a hole in the door >> Did you?

[00:02:57]>> for no reason. I had to go to therapy and everything.

[00:03:00]And yeah, it took me a good 6 7 weeks where I didn't know if I was going to get better. That was the most scary thing. I've had big injuries, I've broke my back, I broke my wrist, broke my ankle, and all of those like, yeah, they're scary, but you can see a recovery time, and you can see something getting better. When it's in your head, especially when I came home, like I couldn't drive home, I had to get a ride home from Isted cuz I didn't want to get on a plane or anything. So, I literally sat in a car with Isted.

[00:03:24]He drove me all the way back to my house, and I was home with the kids, and I remember just like, yeah, being like, "What if I never come back?" Like, I knew I was stupid cuz I knew I couldn't finish sentences, and people would talk to me, noises would really irritate me, and yeah, horrible.

[00:03:40]And I'm pretty sure that's because it was a few concussions or a few head hits back-to-back. Even though they weren't that massive, they were really Yeah, really scared me.

[00:03:47]And there there's stories of cuz I was at the nines, and they said one of the skiers, one of the girls actually has done her head so badly that she can't even go to the shops, you know, anymore to go and and >> Wow.

[00:03:57]>> buy groceries. So, that was super scary.

[00:03:59]I was just like, "God."

[00:04:00]>> I like that you Were you Were you like conscious of it?

[00:04:03]>> Yes.

[00:04:04]>> Like you say you know something's wrong.

[00:04:06]Like things aren't making sense. It must be a brain injury.

[00:04:09]>> Yeah, and just like staring off into the distance and yeah, getting really short-tempered and things like that. So, that's kind of At that point, when I found this device, I was like, "That would have really helped." Especially to be to have a number to say, "I don't want to race because of this." Not just be like, "I don't feel well." Like it sounds It sounds like It's really hard to tell your team manager you don't feel right. Whereas if that had like an actual number with all the research and actually, along with that, obviously there's a safety side, but the things that in that interested me the most, that you were saying, were the cumulative loads of when you just have like a big day with your brain rattling around, like you said, and at the end of the day you just don't quite feel right.

[00:04:48]>> Mhm.

[00:04:49]Mhm.

[00:04:49]>> And that's what you said that's a thing.

[00:04:50]Like tell Yeah, tell us more about that because >> So, I mean, we I I reference it internally as kind of as a fatigue. We're giving you fatigue level. It's like if you run a marathon on a Saturday, you're probably not going to run a marathon on a Sunday.

[00:05:01]You're going to, you know, stand down, have a coffee, chill out, relax.

[00:05:04]And it's like what we're now starting to find is like levels of accumulation. So, like I would say about 60 G for a one-off linear impact is like you've got that cumulative cumulative load, which is just exposure of like, you know, you've got the gloves now from pneumatic drills. And it's like, "Oh, you eventually your hand starts to shake and you start to feel it. You're like, "Oh, god, that's that's a bit."

[00:05:22]But sorry, you're getting the same amount level in your brain. It's round about At the moment, it's round about 300 Gs for an adult male based on research. I think what's really frustrating with research is all kind of on adult males. And what we're trying to do now is create different profiles, but cumulative load there, where it's like you start to see a change in cognitive ability. We call it cognitive agility.

[00:05:41]>> Okay, so 1 G 300 times, is that just to just to like make it clear, is that the same as is that the what the cumulative load means?

[00:05:48]>> Yes, exactly. So, it's like again, you while you're riding you might accumulate like 5 6 7 Gs for like a pothole, going around a berm, like jumping off, like you know, landing. Like these sort of things. You're just accumulating load.

[00:06:01]And it's like that analogy of just flicking it enough times that it's like oh, there's a feeling a bit of a bruise. And there's certain things which is like again really important for for mountain biking. Um and any sport really is like things that start to go is like ocular reaction time. You know, if you think you're you know, you're riding and you're going in and out of like shade and you know, trees and stuff, you're like you're constantly reacting in milliseconds. As soon as that slows down, performance we're we're like we're starting to say that it's to like look at your performance in a way. Not just injury cuz of course the the injury is is not sexy.

[00:06:34]>> That's mad to hear, isn't it? Because you you everyone I reckon listening to this is made a mistake cuz they're tired.

[00:06:42]>> Yeah. Yeah.

[00:06:43]>> And maybe it's a millisecond here and >> millisecond's the difference. Front wheel goes over the top of berm on one of the last stages at Trans Madeira for instance. Big down a bike. You would just put it down to tiredness, but I guess what you're saying is it yeah, it could be tiredness, but it could also be this load that's built up over the it's kind of indistinguishable from tiredness, would you say? It is fatigue.

[00:07:03]>> Yeah, again, it's like the same way that's like what's so scary about what Sam is talking about with his with his with his injury is like you're trying to understand certain things and it's you're just you're just not. And it's like you're trying to then understand why you don't understand it and it just compounds. But then this this element here is that you know when your legs are tired. Like you know when God, like I'm out of breath here. Like I'm knackered. And it's like your brain just wants to keep going.

[00:07:28]Like you're constantly trying to do that. And like now we're starting to be we actually have levels we can we can tell you when you're you're slightly off. And it's again, ocular motion, reaction time, balance, another really important one. Like all just start to to go. Like one of the things we've been doing with like uh North America's gear hockey and ex-spatial awareness. You know, if you watch that, they're just getting melted out of out of nowhere.

[00:07:50]And uh it was just great to watch, of course, but at the same time, super dangerous, especially if they don't have any awareness of their spatial surroundings. It just gets even worse when you get that whiplash effect. So, now you're able to start tracking that. It's like, okay, well, you know, we talk about, you know, downhill world series or something. It's like, practice day. Okay, it's the difference between five practice runs full speed versus six. And there's maybe a difference of 100 G's there or 50 G's there, um depending on the rider, depending on the track, of course.

[00:08:18]And it's, okay, well, what's that sixth run going to do for you on that day? You might get a thousandths per second quicker. Um but actually, if you just stop, deload overnight, which is kind of what we say is deloading, but it's like, as soon as you you recover from fatigue, of course.

[00:08:36]Um so, like, 300 G's will recover back to zero in like 48 hours.

[00:08:41]>> Okay.

[00:08:42]>> Which is like, but again, if you recover for 24 hours, you're back down to 150 G, like, you're still at those sort of safe levels. Um >> Yeah, you're not far off of another two or 300, are you? You're only one or two runs off of back to slower reaction times and >> Yeah.

[00:08:56]>> Yeah, I mean >> It's super scary.

[00:08:58]>> Mhm.

[00:08:58]>> But I did one the other day, I rode an airbag for 1 hour and I had 200 G's in 1 hour and I think I crashed once in the airbag and I think it wasn't even a I think it was 15 G crash, like, but just doing the airbag 20 times, every takeoff, every landing, meant I was pretty much at a time already after 1 hour where my reaction times are not going to be as good, which that was well scary for me.

[00:09:22]>> Okay. Okay. Hey, man, what an episode that was. You did amazing in it.

[00:09:26]>> And so did you.

[00:09:27]>> You shone like a star.

[00:09:28]>> You shone like a moon.

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