Illness and injury are not preventable but here are a few ways you can lower your risk, and boost a speedy recovery!
Unfortunately some times, people get injured while exercising this can be for a number of reasons:
- A fall or other accident
- Poor nutrition
- Lack of sleep
- Over exercising
Note, that people who train at high or low intensity are at greater risk of infection than people who train at a moderate level.
Although if you are an elite athlete for a longer time, your body will begin to adapt and fight off infections easier.
Accidental injury, E.G broken bone, fractured bone etc
Recovery for injury- Stage 1
Take time off, you do not want to damage yourself anymore with more long lasting effects!
Lots of protein, protein is now your best friend. You will need more protein then before as your body will use up more protein to help rebuild your body.
However if you lacked protein intake before injury, your recovery time may be extended, this is why it is so important to have a sufficient amount of protein. You should be having protein every 3-4 hours during the day if injured. Find a list of protein rich foods here!
Sufficient amount of carbs, as you may know already, carbohydrates are our bodies main source of fuel. However if carbohydrates are not present our body will begin to break down protein to use as energy, we do not want this as our body needs the protein to help recovery.
Calories go down, seen as you are not exercising anymore your body will not as many calories. However your body uses up a large amount of calories when recovering meaning you need less calories than a training day but more calories than a rest day.
Micronutrient intake, when you are injured, you will need to get your correct micronutrient intake as it is very important for the rebuilding of the body. Vitamin D and Calcium play a vital role in healing injuries such as bone damage. Vitamin C and Zinc aids collagen synthesis, which is important for the repair of ligaments, tendons and also helps with bone repairment.
Rehabilitation- Stage 2
Resistance exercise, after your injury has healed, you move on to the next step. Rehabilitation this is when you begin to ease yourself back into exercise and start increasing strength. Resistance training includes using resistance bands for exercises, pull ups, push ups. They are exercises that uses your body weight or weights. These types of exercises are great for building back strength after injury.
More protein, you are still going to be having a large quantity or protein to regain any muscle lost. You should have some HBV foods as well.
Illnesses E.G, inflammation, infections.
Causes: unhygienic conditions, raw food, low immune system.
When you train in high intensities your immune system lowers, meaning you are more susceptible to illnesses and diseases.
How to lower your risk of infection:
Wash hands regularly.
Do not share food or water.
Do not drink water from taps.
Sufficient micronutrient nutrient intake.
Carbohydrates taken before, during and after a workout, (these studies were mainly done on endurance athletes.)
What to do if you catch an infection
Probiotics, probiotics are a type of bacteria that lives in the gut. This is a good bacteria, probiotics help your body fight off infections and diseases. Probiotic rich foods are, yogurt sourdough, cheeses, soybeans, tempeh.
Avoid sugar and trans-fats, sugar helps the bad bacteria grow in your gut which could mean you have a unbalanced gut in terms of good and bad bacteria. You should also decrease the amount of trans-fats you are eating as trans-fats increases inflammation.
Take more anti-inflammatory foods, these include tuna, salmon, chia seeds, flaxseeds, turmeric, ginger, green tea, dark chocolate. Omega-3 rich foods reduce inflammation greatly, that is why tuna, salmon chia seeds are on the list of foods you should eat!
More antioxidants foods, your colourful fruit and vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers, all your berries ( blueberries, strawberries etc.). Your green, blue, yellow, orange, red fruit and veg!
Extra fluids, you should be taking on more fluids if sick to help the body function to its best ability and prevents dehydration.
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