3 Things To Speed Up Healing After A Sports Injury
Regardless of how careful you are, there’s always a chance that you could sustain some type of injury. Especially if you’re active and pushing your body to go past its normal limits, it’s likely that you’ll at least have small injuries to your muscles on occasion. When this happens, it’s more important than ever that you take care of your health so that you can get back up on your feet and back to your normal routines as quickly as possible. To help with this, here are three things you can do to speed up healing after a sports injury.
Be Care With Alcohol Consumption
While you might want to take your mind off your injury by indulging in some alcohol, Rachael Schultz, a contributor to Shape.com, recommends that you are very careful with your drinking when you’re trying to recover quickly. In general, alcohol can work as an inflammatory agent that makes it harder for your muscles and tissues to heal as quickly. However, some studies have shown that a small amount can actually work as an anti-inflammatory. So to be on the safe side, try to keep any alcohol you drink to a minimum and choose things like red wine and beer over other drinks, since those two are the ones that are most commonly called on as being more anti-inflammatory.
Keep Your Diet Clean
Although it’s always a good idea to eat healthy foods and to treat your body right by giving it the right fuel, this is even more important when you’re working on healing an injury. According to Alina Petre, a contributor to Healthline.com, some of the best things you should be eating when trying to heal are protein-rich foods, fiber-rich foods, vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids. All of these foods will help your body heal itself faster and give it the energy it needs to get back to its normal function.
Try Tape
Once you’ve sustained your injury, there are quite a few strategies you can try to alleviate the pain and encourage additional healing. For some injuries, heat and ice can work great. For other injuries, taking certain medications can help reduce swelling and aid in pain relief. One thing that’s just recently getting some notoriety is using kinesiology tape on injuries. While Alyssa Shaffer, a contributor to Health.com, shares that research on this topic is pretty limited, people who have used kinesiology tape have seen improvements in areas such as swelling, pressure, and pain.
If you’ve recently sustained an injury that you’re hoping to get healed as quickly as possible, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you find ways the speed your recovery process.