5 Ways to Shorten Recovery Time
Recovering from an injury properly isn’t just about taking a few days off from the gym; it’s about making use of multifaceted strategy to maximize your recovery and minimize your down time. Have you ever had a physical injury hold you back from exercising? Taking enough time off to heal an injury is important but recovery time can be affected by many factors such as diet, toxic load, and stress on the body. I found some great strategies in my medical and athletic career to speed up rehabilitation that I have listed below for you.
1. Hydration
Nothing you haven’t heard before- drink water! Staying adequately hydrated is important but is especially so for people with an injury. We are made up of about 70% water which is essential for basic cell function, lymphatic drainage, and transporting nutrients throughout the body. Staying hydrated can even reduce muscle soreness, tension, and fatigue.
2. Movement
Continue to move with an injury? YES! One of the worst things you can do is stop moving if you have an injury. Activating the injured region can help with recovery by increasing blood flow and lymphatic drainage. Depending on the exact nature of your injury, you may be losing out on an opportunity to improve your recovery by ceasing all physical activity. This doesn’t mean you should workout out as you normally would, just that you should get your body moving (without making your injury worse).
3. Remove the junk
Put junk in your body, your body will take longer to heal or cause subpar healing. Food is the ultimate medicine. Stay away from greasy foods, alcohol, sugary snacks, and lots of caffeine (just to name a few!). Junk food has more inflammatory properties and has less nutrients than whole foods. We want to limit your body’s inflammation and maximize your nutrient intake. Focus on organic whole fruits, veggies, and plant protein. If you can’t pick it from a tree or from the ground, stay clear! The simpler the food is, the better. It’s easier for your body to break down food that’s relatively unchanged from its natural source. The more energy your body spends breaking down that food, the less energy is available to heal that injury!
4. Hydrotherapy
We discussed our water intake to speed up recovery, but we can also use water externally as well. Hydrotherapy is the root of naturopathic medicine. It consists of using water to stimulate the body’s natural healing response by applying cold or warm water via baths, wraps or showers. However, everyone’s injuries are unique in nature and shouldn’t be treated the same. For instance, if your injury is more recent and has lots of swelling and heat, a cold-water application would be most appropriate. If you want to do a deep dive on hydrotherapy as injury treatment, check out my blog post “Hydrotherapy for Pain”.
5. Herbs (lymph, analgesic, anti-spasmodic, wound healing)
The beautiful thing about herbs is that they can target specific tissues of the body but also have benefits to other areas in the body as well. Physical exercise is great for your health, whether it is strength training or aerobic exercise. But have you ever felt depleted, sore or exhausted a day or two after a good work out? This is normal! There is slight inflammation in the muscles after stressing the muscles. Herbs with anti-inflammatory properties can be helpful here, such as Salix species (willow) and Curcumin longa (turmeric). During and after your workout, your body is moving lymphatic fluid and reducing lactic acid in your muscles. The faster your able to move stagnant fluid out of the body, the quicker your recovery will be. Some lovely herbs that can help with this are Calendula officinalis (Marigold) and Galium aparine (cleavers). Lastly, whenever we do physical activity we are naturally increasing oxidation in the body which causes inflammation. Antioxidants can help reduce inflammation and, in theory, minimize recovery time. Some antioxidants herbs are ginkgo biloba, Sambucus nigra (elderberry) and Camellia sinensis (green tea).
Information provided on the site is for educational purposes only, and does not substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider if they’re seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.