Just as recovery is the most important part of training — it’s how we get stronger, how we get stronger, how we get faster — recovery from injury is the most important part of the healing process. injury.
If you are injured, your average healthcare professional will tell you that “the body will take care of itself”. They will say “eat healthy,” “rest,” and “take ibuprofen.”
But is it really the best way to recover from an injury? Oh my god no. You have more agency than that. You can proactively and effectively improve your healing and come back faster, stronger and better than ever with clinically proven interventions and strategies. Here are some of my tips for recovering from an injury.
Practice eccentricity slowly
If you have a tendon or ligament problem, one thing you can do — now, have to do — is run eccentrically slow. A freak is lowering the weight; Concentric means lifting weight. Eccentric slow exercise involves dropping weight at a slow pace to really stretch and emphasize the affected connective tissue.
Slow, low weight is the gold standard for healing any connective tissue strain or sprain. For example, if your biceps tendon hurts, curl your hair slightly off-center.
Constantly on the move
Movement helps you heal for a number of reasons:
- It removes damaged tissues and proteins from the affected area.
- It pushes healing compounds and blood into the painful area.
- It tells your nervous system that you’re recovering — if not, how would you move the “injured” tissue?
But here’s the thing: you have to move well. You cannot limp. You cannot suffer while moving. You have to make the movements clear, sharp, as close to perfect as possible. For example, if you have sprained your ankle, you want to start walking on that ankle in perfect shape as soon as possible. This can mean going really, really slow, but that’s how it has to be. Go slowly and deliberately to maintain perfect technique.
If you can’t move well, don’t move. However, movement can be as easy as flexing and extending your knees when you’re lying in bed, rotating your ankles, or doing windmill moves with your arms. It doesn’t take much. Just move and maintain motion quality.
Using red light therapy
The red light is perhaps the latest and greatest in trauma recovery. From what I can tell, it’s a powerful healing booster – against almost anything. Here are some of the benefits of red light therapy.
- Patients with knee osteoarthritis have used red light therapy to reduce pain points and increase microcirculation in the knee. That means real healing.
- Literature reviews have concluded that red light therapy reduces joint pain, even in chronic joint disorders.
- Exposure to red light increases blood flow to the skin and improves fracture healing.
- It has even been shown to improve neuropathic pain. No “physical” damage needed.
- It is even effective against sunburn, especially if you use it before going out in the sun.
You can get this kind of light by exposing your skin to sunlight at all hours of the day, especially in the morning and at sunset for infrared rays. But for healing, you may want to focus on high-powered light that is directed using a red light or an infrared light device. You can do this in clinics but I would recommend just choosing one for yourself. You can buy the Joov that I have and like, or something like that.
Go to sleep
Patients who get the most sleep when recovering from an injury recover more quickly. This was probably the most common factor throughout my years of running, cycling, swimming, and competing in endurance sports. Those of us who sleep the most will heal the fastest.
Hell, sleep deprivation has been a popular approach to studying agents that improve injury recovery in studies. They injured the animals, put them to sleep, and then saw what experimental drugs or interventions they could use to speed up the healing process. The notion that sleep deprivation slows down healing time is not even a question anymore. It is assumed. That’s reality.
This means that if you are injured, you need at least 8 hours of sleep, and possibly more. Recall that elite college athletes who sleep an extra two hours a night see better recovery and performance, and realize that recovering from injury and training is simply a matter of fitness level. degree. Those are all the same paths.
Eat more protein
When you are actively healing and restoring and placing or repairing tissue, you need extra protein to handle the replenishment processes and provide the substrate for new tissue. For example, burn victims heal faster when they eat more protein.
Eat 1 gram of good protein per pound of lean body mass as you recover. Consider including whey isolate, as it’s an easy source of additive protein that’s been shown to improve recovery after bed rest and surgery.
Consume collagen
Collagen is a protein, but it’s not what most people think of when they think of protein. It is also absent from most protein sources. No, if you want collagen, you need to drink bone broth, eat connective tissue and skin, or get it through gelatin or collagen hydrolysate.
Incorporate omega-3s and seafood in your diet
Long-chain omega-3s have potent anti-inflammatory effects that can improve recovery and speed your return to normal activities after injury. They reduce pain and inflammation without limiting the healing process, unlike pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory drugs. One study even showed that high doses of omega-3s increased physical activity, maintained physical function, and reduced the rate of joint replacement in older adults.
Long-chain omega-3s also increase muscle protein synthesis, especially in older adults (perhaps with higher baseline inflammation). They will help you better use protein for healing purposes and form new tissue.
Let me know if you try any of these tips and what you do to help boost recovery from injury.
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