Recovery: Essential to Health & Wellness
Recovery is a primary biological response and complex organic process that occurs after exposure to athletic training, exercise and sport. In fact complete recovery after stress of any kind, including physical, mental, emotional, financial, spiritual or metaphysical, is essential to individual survival, optimum health and personal wellness.
All athletes regardless of their particular sport, frequency of play, intensity of training or demands of skill training and practice, must fully recover from the stress of physical activity. Adequate rest and sleep is absolute, but the body must also obtain the resources it needs from food to fully replete the energy and micronutrients expended during exercise.
As the athlete engaged in sport and training knows, any tonic or natural remedy that enhances recovery after training is a valuable asset. Quick and efficient recovery means things are going well. Good recovery is one of the most reliable barometers for measuring someone’s physical health and condition. Completing the trek up the mountain is admirable, but how well did you fare afterwards?
Optimum sports nutrition includes many excellent dietary supplements and natural health products that enhance recovery, reduce inflammation, minimize risk of tissue infection and improve functional wound healing. Creatine and ribose for example, both help sustain and maintain the production of ATP, the body’s primary energy currency.
Without an ample supply of energy post-workout, recovery is prolonged. Until the body has completely recovered, no growth or further progress is possible. This is why recovery is so important. Recovery is as important as the training itself.
Adaptogens help athletes train harder, recover more quickly and achieve maximum output with less biochemical disharmony. Classic adaptogens include Maca root, ginseng, astragalus, ashwagandha, cordyceps, rhodiola and schisandra.
Antioxidant nutrients such as vitamin C, E, zinc and selenium taken before and after training protect cell membranes, mitochondrion and DNA from the scourge of uncontrolled free radical pathology. Less damage means faster recovery.
Supplemental enzymes such as pancreatin, papain, bromelain and protease help reduce pain and the formation of scar tissue, especially when combined with ice therapy. BCAAs (Branched-Chain Amino Acids) can extend training performance and reduce the depletion of potassium and glycogen.
Glycogen (human starch) is stored in the liver and skeletal muscles and functions as an immediate energy source for muscle cells. Quick restoration of depleted glycogen after training is crucial to speedy recovery. The entire process of growth and muscle remodeling depends on it.
Sports Injuries
Sports injuries include a wide variety of soft tissue, skeletal and joint-related injuries associated with physical exercise, sporting events and various athletic activities. These are commonly described as strains, sprains, dislocations, fractures, lacerations, cuts, abrasions, blisters, bruising, inflammation, hernia and pain. More than 20% of all reported accidents are sports-related.
Outside of direct impact injuries, additional symptoms may include Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness DOMS, muscle cramps or stitches, exercise-induced asthma, upper respiratory tract infection, compromised immune function and increased susceptibility to different cancers, cataracts and even premature aging.
The degree of impairment and microcellular damage caused by sport-related activity depends on the athlete’s state of health and physical condition. Other variables include training frequency, training intensity, quality of diet, hydration status and sport specificity (football versus golf).
Humans possess a high degree of adaptability provided they are well and conditioned, but only within specific and limited physiobiochemical parameters. Personal boundaries of individual stress tolerance are determined principally by genetics, environment and mental toughness. They vary from one person to the next, but the real trick is to understand the limits of your own body. The wise and experienced athlete makes every attempt to protect his temple from unnecessary harm and depletion.
There are only two rules we need live by.
- Do No Harm
- Stay Out of Harm’s Way
With these two rules in mind, it’s impossible for the moral man to compete in any sport that tolerates or perpetuates physical violence. Violent behavior in sport is synonymous with primitive emotion and unresolved anger.
Stress Management
Response to stress, as defined by Canadian physiologist Hans Selye, is a built-in mechanism designed to protect us from damage. Selye defined human reaction to any form of stress as a general adaptation syndrome (GAS), and proposed that GAS consisted of three stages of progression, including the…
- Alarm phase
- Adaptation phase
- Exhaustion phase
Diseases and injury mainly appear in the exhaustion phase, when due to depletion and lowered resistance, the body loses the ability to manage the effects of stress.
Physically active individuals engaged in sport and constant training are frequently subjected to the risk of injury, be it in the gym, on the ice, on the field or in the pool. Although prevention is always the best medicine, accidents seem inevitable and in certain sports where physical contact is part of the game, such as rugby, boxing, wrestling, lacrosse, football and hockey, injury caused by collision and direct impact is common.
In other sports such as the discus, hammer or javelin throw, or tennis and baseball for example, the elbow and shoulder joints are frequently injured due to excessive repetition and overuse. Cumulative microtrauma weakens collagen cross-linking and predisposes the noncollagenous matrix and vascular elements of tendons to affliction. When a tendon has been strained repeatedly to more than 4% of its original length, it is unable to endure any further tension, and injury will occur with a break in collagen structure.
Common sports injuries are best treated quickly and biologically. Constant pushing against the body’s inherent healing grain makes the body more susceptible to chronic injury, illness and infection. This typically occurs when sports injuries are ignored, incorrectly diagnosed or treated with drugs without consideration to cause.
The best healing method known is biological (Nature’s Cure). Think of it. With all of its research, technology, notoriety and apparent sophistication, the best advice conventional medicine can offer today for treating most acute sports injuries hasn’t changed in a 1000 years: ICE. Now how technical is that and who owns the patent?
To improve recovery of the entire system day-in and day-out, consume whole, natural real food. Choose a diet compatible with your genome. Supply your biological demand. Eat a mixed alkaline-forming diet high in potential energy, one that provides a multitude of diverse bioactive micronutrients. Natural whole food is incompatible with the initiation and propagation of disease. Where there is light there is no darkness.
Avoid the chronic overuse of NSAIDS and pharmaceutical drugs. Used long term they destroy everything and everyone and foster the menace of chemical dependency. BigPharma isn’t interested in natural healing or complete restoration of the mind and body. If everyone was well and educated in the art and science of natural medicine they wouldn’t exist.
Shake & Take
Don’t run on empty. Make a protein shake before and after training. Become one with your blender. Use filtered water as a base. Add 1-2 T. of hemp, chia, flax or a mixed blend of omega-3 rich seed oils. Liquid fish oils that contain EPA and DHA are fine.
Omega-3 fatty acids combine with the sulfur in non-denatured protein to form healing lipoproteins. It was German scientist Dr. Johanna Budwig who first discovered that these organic substances could heal a mountain of disease. The right oil and protein mixed together modifies the catabolic influence of elevated cortisol, reduces inflammation and helps rebuild damaged filaments and active tissue.
Add 1-2 scoops of your favorite protein supplement, preferably one that is isolated and high in biological value (BV). Whey peptides are preferred in terms of BV, nitrogen retention and benefits to the immune system. At home we combine whey protein isolate with a plant-based protein blend derived from hemp, pea, Saviseed and brown rice. Long live the spirit of eclecticism.
Before turning the blender on, complete your shake matrix with a teaspoon of calcium ascorbate, creatine monohydrate, L-glutamine, D-Ribose and something green, such as spirulina or chlorella. Add your favorite fresh or frozen organic fruit. Our favorites include papaya, pineapple, banana and frozen berries.
What we eat is a reflection of our consciousness; it represents who and what we are. Health is a mindset and the body serves the mind. The tail should never wag the dog. So let’s be who and what we are…biological snowflakes committed to reason, beings of light designed by Nature to think and act rationally without fear.
Health is far more than the absence of disease; it is the presence of function. Efficient recovery is the hallmark of excellent health.
Photo by Nicole De Khors from Burst
As always, stay well and live free!
Dr.C
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