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How To Eat When You Have An Injury

applied athletes injury nutrition recovery Nov 04, 2023

No one likes beaning injured, missing time away form your sport.

However there is a time every athlete will be faced with an injury, its part and parcel of beaning an athlete.

If you currently reading this because you are injured I wish you a speedy recovery.

Iv had my fair share of injuries and this blog is close to my heart, from trial and error and trying to speed up my time rehabbing I researched how I can support the process through the right kind of nutrition.

I hope this blog helps you out as much as the info here has helped my in my rehab journeys.

By reaching the end of this blog you will understand:

The different stages of a soft tissue I jury and how long each stage typically lasts for.
How to eat and modify your your current diet to improve and speed up your rehab process.
The top 4 supplements that I recommend to add I to your routine to help with new tissue growth, pain management and to improve sleep/recovery.

The Stages of an Injury

As athletes we have all experienced our fair share of injuries from serious to mild. Its not a nice time to go through, anything that we can do to help the process is always welcomed.

To better help you Ill be going through in this new serious of posts how we can better support out bodies when dealing with soft tissue injuries and improve our recovery.

But first up we need to refresh on what’s actually happening during our time out injured.

Coagulation (0-2 days post injury)

Begins almost instantly after an injury has occurred as damage will have destroyed blood vessels. The goal here is for clotting to occur to prevent blood loss from the damaged blood vessels in the injured site restoring homeostasis.

Inflammation (0-5 days post injury)

Categorized by pain, sweeling and redness/heat, attracts inflammatory/immune chemicals (leukocytes, neutrophils, macrophages, phagocytes, etc.) into the injured areas to clear out the dead cells and starts the repair process.

Migration / Proliferation (4 days – 21 days post injury)

Inflammation will reduce as damaged tissues are removed from the site. A new nutrient rich blood supply will be delivered to the site, once this happens, collagen and fibronectin are laid down forming new temporary tissue “scar tissue.”

Remodelling Phase (5 days – 2 years post injury)

During this phase stronger more permanent tissue (Type 1 collagen) replaces temporary tissue (type 2 collagen) from the proliferation phase. This new tissue may never likely be 100% as strong as before but can be up to 80% as the original injured tissue. Don’t be alarmed with the remodelling phase lasting up to 2 years you will be competing well into this phase.

Nutrition can play a vital role during all 3 stages of your injury recovery.

Nutrition for Inflammation

We consider the inflammation stage the second stage of the injury process. This is where you can start to aid the recovery process and manage pain with nutrition.

Inflammation stage (0-5 days post injury)

Main aim of this stage

Is to manage inflammation preventing acute inflammation turning into chronic inflammation, while also allowing the inflammatory process to happen during the acute phase of the injury. Supressing the inflammatory process too early into the injury rehab will slow down the recovery process and likewise if inflammation becomes excessing this too will slow down the recovery process. We’re looking for that fine balance between acute and chronic. We also want to reduce pain and biomechanical compensation that can occur during this stage to prevent a second injury due to compensation of your movement patterns.

Managing inflammation via our diet

What you need to do is balance your fat intake of your omega 6 & 3. Omega 6 is pro inflammatory while omega 3 is anti-inflammatory. The ratio that were looking for is either a 3:1 or 1:1 of omega 6 : omega 3.Typical speaking we want to decrease you omega 6 and increase your omega 3 intake. This will reduce your saturated fat intake (pro-inflammatory) and increase your mono & polyunsaturated fats (anti-inflammatory). Getting this balance right will aid in collagen deposition (building of new tissue) while allowing acute inflammation to do it job at the same time.

Practically speaking.

You need to increase your intake of nuts, seed, olive oil, oily fish (salmon, maceral) while also adding herbs and phytochemicals that fights inflammation, such as Turmeric, Garlic, Bromelain, Flavonoids, Boswellia.

Nutrition for Proliferation & Remodelling

The final 2 stages is where the magic happens, the time and effort rehabbing in these phases will dictate how well you’ll return back competing.

Proliferation& Remodelling (4 days – 2 years post injury)

During migration/proliferation a new nutrient rich blood supply will be delivered to the injured site. Collagen (type 2) and fibronectin are laid down forming temporary scar tissue. Moving into the remodelling phase stronger more permanent type 1 collagen tissue will be laid down replacing the type 2 collagen form the proliferation phase.

Main aim of these stages

The main aim of these stages can be divided into 3 physiological targets.

Inflammation management – aiming to prevent chronic inflammation by including anti-inflammatory fats (omega 3) and herbs (Garlic, Bromelain, Turmeric).
Immune system support – making sure to get in adequate amounts of essential vitamins & minerals for immune function (Vit A,D,E & Selenium).
Regeneration & anabolic support – supplementing with Glucosamine, Chondroitin, and Hyaluronic Acid for tissue growth.

Supporting Proliferation/ Remodelling with nutrition

First up you need to get your energy balance right, BMR will increase 15-20% but you need to take into account the absence of training, so aim for 15-20% increase of calories from your sedentary baseline energy needs. Aim to get between 1.5-2.0 g/kg of protein in each day. Aim for 2-3 g/kg of carbs per day. And aim for 3-7g of omega 3 per day.

Practically speaking.

Include protein in each meal from minimally processed sources. Eat enough carbs, not as much as you would if you were training but include complex carbs in each meal. Balance your fat intake aiming from 1/3 from saturated/ monounsaturated/polyunsaturated foods. Eat the rainbow of veg aiming for at least 6 portions across the day. And lastly stay hydrated, keep your pee clear.

Supplementing to speed up recovery

These are the top 4 supplements I recommend to athletes who are going through rehab with soft tissue injuries.

For Tissue Growth

Zinc is partially responsible for synthesis of protein, DNA, RNA and cell proliferation (increasing cells). A deficiently in zinc will inhibit these processes and thus slow down your recovery. Zinc has two standard dosages. The low dosage is 5 -10mg, while the high dosage is 25- 45mg. The low dose works well as a daily preventative, while the high dosage should be taken by anyone at risk for a zinc deficiency. Optimal type to take is Zinc citrate.

L-Arginine may stimulate insulin release and IGF action. These powerful anabolic hormones can stimulate protein synthesis and collagen deposition. The growth & formation of ligaments, tendons and muscle tissue.Dosage in the range of 15-30 g per day.

For Pain management

Turmeric inhibits stimulation and reduces circulating cytokines (inflammatory) in the blood which has a direct effect on reducing inflammation. To be used as pain management and or if inflammation become chronic.Recommended dosage 5-7g per day for 30 days. Make sure supplement has active ingredient curcumin and is paired with (black pepper). Also you can maintain supplementation through rehabilitation period and continue use post rehabilitation.

Sleeping Aid

Valerian is taken as a sleep aid also reducing anxiety. Enhances the signalling of one of the main sedative neurotransmitters, gammaaminobutyric acid (GABA). May help improve your sleep which is often affected by injury. Standard dosage of 450mg, dosages can range from 300 600mg, experiment and see what works best for you. Timing 30 to 120 minutes before bed. Possible side effects sedative like effect, may leave you feeling “hungover” after very high dosages (600mg+).

What to do now ?

when injured you need to recalculate the current calories you're consuming to avoid any unwanted weight gain.
increase your protein intake to make sure your getting 25-40 grams per serving 4 times a day evenly spread out to.
You need to reduce inflammation to prevent this from becoming a chronic issue , prolonging your pain and time spent rehabbing. Add anti-inflammatory foods into your diet where you can to reduce inflammation.
make sure you prioritise good quality sleep as this will speed up your recovery in-between rehab session

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References

Bloomer, R.J. (2007) ‘The role of nutritional supplements in the prevention and treatment of resistance exercise-induced skeletal muscle injury’, Sports Medicine, 37(6), pp. 519–532. doi:10.2165/00007256-200737060-00005.

Savasky, B.M. et al. (2018) ‘Nutritional and pharmacological effects on oxidative stress in soft tissue and bone remodeling’, Journal of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2018, pp. 1–9. doi:10.1155/2018/4183407.

Tipton, K.D. (2010) ‘Nutrition for acute exercise-induced injuries’, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 57(Suppl. 2), pp. 43–53. doi:10.1159/000322703.

Tipton, K.D. (2015) ‘Nutritional support for exercise-induced injuries’, Sports Medicine, 45(S1), pp. 93–104. doi:10.1007/s40279-015-0398-4.