The right food and supplements can speed injury recovery. This is important — but often ignored.
Most trainers, coaches, nutritionists, therapists understand that nutrition can play a role in injury recovery. However, in lecturing around the world, I’ve found that very few of them really know how to use food and supplements in this way.
Aside from recommending more water, topical homeopathic creams and gels, and glucosamine/chondroitin combinations, there’s really not much else on the menu when a client or athlete goes down with an acute injury.
That’s why we’re sharing this 5-part video series, filmed live at the 2012 Fit Pro Convention in Loughborough, England.
In this video series, we’ll teach you how the body repairs itself after an injury.
Then we’ll share the food and supplement protocols we use to get injured clients back in the game more quickly and completely.
- Want to see our visual guide? Check out the infographic here…
To learn more, click the play button below to get started with Part 5 of Nutrition for Injury Recovery. (Click here for part 1, part 2, part 3, and part 4). The video is about 9 minutes long.
To download an audio or a video version of this file, click here.
Please be patient as downloads may take a few minutes.
Wrap-up and practical implementation
In parts 1-4 of this video series, we reviewed the research on nutrition for injury recovery. We also made some practical recommendations for you and your clients.
However, taken altogether, the strategies might seem overwhelming. I can totally identify with this feeling.
I’ve sat in on hundreds of lectures. When speakers present long lists of nutrition and supplement suggestions, I usually leave baffled.
Which of the 20 or 30 supplements should I take? Which of these strategies is the most important? Do I have to take all the suggestions? Or just a few? And how do I choose?
I’d hate to have you leave this series with the same questions and anxiety. So let’s wrap this up with a few examples of just how easy the implementation can be.
To do so, I’d like to finish where we started — with Georges St. Pierre.
As discussed in part 1, GSP came to me for advice prior to a surgery in 2007. Since a surgery is essentially an injury process, the advice I gave him fits perfectly here.
GSP’s Plan – For 1 week before surgery
- Follow training-based nutrition plan leading up to surgery
- No supplements for the week before surgery (especially fish oil, as this can interfere with anti-clotting medications)
- Let doctor know about prior fish oil use
GSP’s Plan – For 4 weeks post-surgery
- Continue with training-based nutrition plan but remove 1 daily Super Shake
- Quest multi-vitamin: 1 capsule, 2x per day
- Biotest curcumin: 2 capsules, 2x per day
- Biotest Flameout: 3 capsules, 2x per day
- EAS Muscle Armor: 1 scoop, 2x per day
As you can see, we kept it very simple for Georges, making only small changes to his already well thought-out nutrition plan. And adding just 4 supplements into his regimen helped to manage the inflammation process while stimulating anabolism and tissue repair.
For a detailed explanation of why we chose these particular supplements, please see the video above.
Here’s another example. Last year, while training for the 60 m sprint race at the Indoor Canadian Masters National Championships, I injured my hamstring. This is the plan I used for 4 weeks after the injury.
JB’s Plan – For 4 weeks after hamstring injury
- Ice, heat, elevation, 2-4x per day
- Stretching and light activation, 1x per day
- ART, 2x per week
- Doctor’s Best curcumin: 500 mg, 2x per day
- Labrada Sorenzyme: 4 capsules, 2x per day
- Fast Joint Care+: 1 capsule, 2x per day
- Optimum Nutrition vitamin: 1 tab, 2x per day
- o3mega fish oil: 1 tsp, 4x per day
Like Georges, my eating plan was already very good, so I didn’t really change much there. I just added a few supplements to support recovery. Again, see the video above for more.
In the end, the program worked extremely well and enabled me to compete at the National Championships, placing 3rd in my age category without any hamstring concerns.
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What’s next?
That’s it for part 5 of this Nutrition for Injury video series.
At this point, you might be asking: “What’s next?”
If you’re a coach, or you want to be…
You can help people build sustainable nutrition and lifestyle habits that will significantly improve their physical and mental health—while you make a great living doing what you love. We'll show you how.
If you’d like to learn more, consider the PN Level 1 Nutrition Coaching Certification.
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