How to Recover From an Injury Fast
There's no question about it, injuries are no fun. They slow us down, impede the progress we have made, and are in general, a pain. Unfortunately, when you live an active lifestyle, injuries are inevitable. This means that how to recover from an injury as fast as possible is an important concept that many of us want to understand. No matter what, injuries are going to take time to completely heal. And, chronic injuries can get re-aggravated. However, there are things that can be done to keep the injury at bay. And ways to recover from an injury faster, when they do arise.
The below outlines four ways to help recover from an injury fast.1
1. Listen to your body and adjust your workouts accordingly
Our bodies talk to us daily. They tell us when we're tired or when we're hungry. Ours hearts pump harder when we are excited, and we shiver and get goosebumps when we are cold. In these circumstances, we listen to our body and act; we sleep, or eat, or put a jacket on. But more often than not, we ignore the subtler chatter or signals our bodies give us when we are beginning to develop an injury. After all, what is a little pain when training? Pain can, after all, also represent the sign of a good workout, and thus we push through. That is until the pain gets so bad that we can't ignore it anymore. If you injure yourself, it is important to stop the activity you are doing. However, taking a bunch of days off isn't the solution to a faster recovery. If you can't walk because you are in too much pain, then yes, stop for a day or so. And if necessary, see a doctor. Otherwise, it is important to continue using your muscles. Just be sure not to over exert yourself.
Let me provide a personal example.
If you read my article on 7 ways to improve your running speed in no time, then you know I enjoy running. As an avid runner, I regularly put a lot of stress on my muscles. Recently, I re-pulled my hamstring, a chronic injury that I have. As much as I wanted to run, so that I wouldn't lose all of the progress I had made, I knew that in order to recover I had to stop, at least for a little while. But rather than take complete days off, I continued to use my muscles by moving to lower impact activities that put less stress on the muscle, but still allowed it to be used and grow. In this case, for cardio I switched to the elliptical and bike, and for weight lifting, I changed the type of exercises I did, to put less stress on the injured area. As I recovered, I slowly put running back into the mix, but continued to listen to what my body was telling me. I jogged more slowly, and for shorter spurts. If I felt pain while running, I assessed what I was feeling, and decided as to whether I needed to stop, or could continue for a short while. Had I not slowed down my pace, changed up my exercises, and run for shorter intervals than my usual runs, the injury would have lasted much longer. Instead, it only took a little over a month to get back to my normal cadence.
2. Look at the body holistically
When trying to recover from an injury, it is important to understand that our body is connected. Believe it or not, I thought for the longest time that my hamstring injury was a lower back injury. That's because,
I felt the pain in my lower back.
As the pain spread, I began to feel stress in my hamstring. However, the point of origin was so high up in my body that I couldn't isolate where the pain was coming from.
It wasn't until I was stretching, months in, that I was positioned just right on a hamstring stretch to realize where the injury was. The months of adjustments and massages on my back hadn't helped. And when I realized it was my hamstring, the massages on the actual injured part alone also weren't doing the trick. This is because our muscles are all connected to one another. While trying to heal one part of my body, I was neglecting the connected muscles that were working harder to compensate for my injury. Once I realized that I needed to provide therapy, massage, and stretching to the entire body, so that all of the muscles that work together could heal together, the injury began to subside.
3. Foam Rolling and Massage
Naturally, foam rolling and massage therapy are important. As pointed out above, stretching and rolling out the entire body, not just the injured area is important because if one part of our body is weaker, then our other muscles are going to strain more and work harder to make up for the weaker areas. More so than rolling the entire body, it's also important that when we foam roll that we move fluidly from one appendage to the next. So, while I may roll out my quads, I also want to make sure that I take time to roll not just the one tight area, but to roll from my hip flexors down to my knee. Appendage to appendage. Also, be sure to roll in multiple directions. You can use a small ball to help with that, to allow for both horizontal and vertical rolling. Along with the massaging and rolling, TENS electrotherapy is another option to add into the therapeutic mix.
4. Consume anti-inflammatory's and nutrients that aid in healing and recovery
What you put into your body is important. And, as an athlete, adding nutrients that help your muscles recover and grow is even more important if you want to prevent injuries, or recovery from an injury faster. Consider adding anti-inflammatories and amino acids to your daily regimen. There are supplements that you can take, like Glutamine, BCAAs and protein powders. However, you can also find cheaper ways to help your body heal. Teas, like green tea and ginger provide anti-inflammatory benefits. Common household spices, like turmeric and cinnamon can also help your body heal. One of the more recent items I have started taking to help with my injuries is collagen. Collagen doesn't just help hair and nails grow. It is also a protein that heals joints, tendons, cartilage, and ligaments. And you can easily get collagen by consuming more gelatin, or perhaps sipping on some bone broth.
To sum things up
Injuries are inevitable. By listening to our bodies, consuming the proper nutrients, and remembering that we need to treat our body holistically, we can heal much faster. And help prevent injuries from happening in the first place.
I am not affiliated with any of the linked products. These are just some products that I use and recommend.
1 I am not a doctor, and I will never pretend to be. Any advice, recommendations, or tips I provide in my blog posts and in response to your questions are based solely on my personal learnings and experience. This includes, but is not limited to supplements, diet and nutrition, and fitness.