I'm writing this article in response to Trace's recent rib injuries. Sometimes a strong mind can be a little too strong for the body and injuries can happen. It's important to know not only what you can use to prevent an injury, but how to treat an injury if one occurs. Here are a few tips off the top of my head:
PREVENTION
1) Protect your joints first...they don't repair as easily as muscles. A good joint supplement such as my favorite - BCS Labs ElastiFlex - will not only keep your joints in the best shape possible but give you the piece of mind to not always be worrying about them every time you feel the slightest knee, ankle, wrist, shoulder, or elbow pain. I prefer this specific supplement because it has the widest spectrum of ingredients that have been proven effective in clinical studies, and it is one of the few supplements that contains every ingredient in CLINICALLY EFFECTIVE DOSES. If the effective dose of something like glucosamine is 1500mg/day and a joint product that your friend (or even doctor) recommends to you only contains 200mg.....don't waste your time! Sub-clinical doses will produce sub-clinical results. FYI, other supplements that I recommend for joint health are Fish Oil (I like Scivation Essential EFA), Boswellia, and Bromelain (pineapple enzyme). A good multivitamin is essential too....connective tissue is made of many trace minerals as well as Vitamin C.
2) Get enough rest - most injuries happen when you are overtrained, meaning your central nervous system cannot keep up with the rest of your body. Sleep WELL and even take a nap after intense training if possible.
3) Eat a diet of healthy, unprocessed, natural foods (like Pure Healthy Eatery if you live in The Woodlands). If it didn't come out of the ground, or tree, or out of the animal looking the way you see it.....don't eat it! Processed food is cheating our body of nutrients that it would otherwise get in unprocessed foods. ALSO minimize refined sugar.....not just because its processed, but because sugar releases insulin and constant high insulin levels causes Glycation, which in layman's terms is the hardening of flexible tissue due to sugar....flexible tissue includes ligaments, tendons, cartiledge, but also veins and arteries. Certain B-vitamins help reduce glycation, but minimizing your sugar intake is the best route.
TREATING INJURIES
1) Diagnose the injury - joint, bone and muscle injuries should all be treated differently. For joint injuries refer to PREVENTION step #1.....it's more important now than ever. For bone injuries (such as Trace's ribs) I sold Trace a bottle of NOW Foods Bone Strength which is a multimineral and gives you additional minerals in highly bioabsorbable forms above what is already present in your multivitamin. For muscle injuries, since muscles are made of protein and amino acids you want to make sure you take in extra amounts of them to repair faster.
2) Ice or Heat or Advil - For muscle injuries you want to ICE for the first 24 hours, HEAT for the next 24 hours. ICE reduces swelling naturally while heat relaxes the muscle. If you put heat on too soon it can exacerbate the swelling. For joint and bone injuries NO HEAT only ICE (bones and joints can't relax like muscles). Ibuprofen (Advil) works great, much better than Tylenol for reducing inflamation.....but the body has a natural inflammatory response that precedes the repair process and I wouldn't interupt that immediately when an injury occurs. If you can wait 6 or 12 hours to take Advil then I would, unless the injury is severe.
3) Don't let it bring you down! Injuries happen to everyone (even Super Trace) and this is where a strong mind comes in. Keep your eye on the goal. The human body is a wonderfully complex and adaptive machine and you can't let a little setback discourage you. As they say in the song below....."Don't drop your arms"!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPOZifPfUsU
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