How to Exercise, Eat, and Supplement When You’re Injured
Get-Fit Guy explains how the proper use of exercise, nutrition, and supplementation when you’re injured can help you avoid surgeries, heal naturally, and stay fit. Check out a week-long workout program and menus for a fast recovery.
Ben Greenfield
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How to Exercise, Eat, and Supplement When You’re Injured
I don’t remember where I first heard this, but it’s certainly a true statement:
“Injuries never disappear – they just move around your body.”
It seems that in most active, hard-charging folks, once an elbow injury heals, the pain or discomfort moves to the knee. And once that heals, it migrates to your hip. And once the hip begins to feel OK, it moves to your shoulder, or your back, or your neck…and so on. You get the idea.
I’ve certainly covered a fair amount about exercise-related injuries – and how to work out when injured. Some of the episodes on this topic include:
- 6 Tips to Avoid Common Fitness Injuries
- How to Avoid Exercise Injuries
- How to Exercise With an Ankle or Foot Injury
- How to Exercise With a Knee Injury
- How to Exercise With a Lower Back Injury
- How to Exercise With a Shoulder Injury
- How to Exercise in the Water (perfect for when you’re injured)
- How to Recover After a Workout (tips for making you less sore)
But I’ve never before actually laid out what a sample program would look like if you had a seriously injured, sore, or immobile joint, and you wanted to avoid surgery while healing that area as safely, quickly, and effectively as possible…until now.
Below, you will find a sample proactive approach to healing an injury naturally. In this case, the example is for an injured shoulder, but you can apply these same techniques to any area that’s troubling you. Hopefully, this information will get your wheels turning about how you can both stay fit through an injury and get an injured area healed up as quickly as possible.
How to Exercise With an Injury
Instructions: In addition to everything below (which, once again, is an example for an injured shoulder), begin every morning with all 10 exercises from the Foundation book, by Dr. Eric Goodman, which do a great job of building a strong core and foundation without stressing the body excessively.
Monday
Do a 5-minute hot-cold contrast shower in the morning and evening, alternating between 20 seconds of cold water and 10 seconds of hot, 10 times through.- Use the MarcPro 2-3 times per day. It’s a device that produces a form of electrical muscle stimulation (check out more details about it is here). Surround the area of pain with electrodes and operate for 15-20 minutes with an ice pack covering the actual electrodes (and preferably the entire injured area.) Upon finishing, rub topical magnesium into shoulder.
- Do 30-45 minutes of cycling, elliptical, or running at explosive intervals (30-60 seconds with 4-to-1 work-to-rest ratio.)
- Weights (all with elastic bands or elastic tubing): 5 rounds of 20 reps of seated row, external rotation shoulder, internal rotation shoulder, straight arm pull-downs, and straight arm raises. Go as light as necessary for completely pain-free range of motion.
Do a 5-minute hot-cold contrast shower in the morning and evening, alternating between 20 seconds of cold water and 10 seconds of hot, 10 times through.Tuesday
- Do a 5-minute hot-cold contrast shower in the morning and evening, alternating between 20 seconds of cold water and 10 seconds of hot, 10 times through. Rub magnesium into shoulder after shower.
- Apply MarcPro 2-3 times per day. Upon finishing, rub magnesium into shoulder.
- Weights: 5 sets of 5 reps of squats (be cautious with how you carry the weights and be mindful of your shoulder position during the squats. Do nothing that produces pain or discomfort). Follow the squats by 3 sets of 10 lunges or leg presses, leg extensions, leg curls, and side-to-side lunges.
- Optional swim: 10×100 kick with kick board (as hard as possible.)
Wednesday
- Soak the full body in cold water for 20-30 minutes. Follow with dry sauna for 20-40 minutes. If that’s too hard core for you, alternate soaking in cold water for 10 minutes and hot water for 10 minutes, 3 times through. Rub magnesium into shoulder after soak.
- Weights: after bicycle or elliptical warm-up, do a circuit of 15-20 repetitions 4 times through. Include incline bench sit-ups, reverse hyperextensions, V-Ups, and Superman (keep arms at side if any shoulder discomfort occurs with Superman.)
Thursday
- Do a 5-minute hot-cold contrast shower in the morning and evening, alternating between 20 seconds of cold water and 10 seconds of hot, 10 times through. Rub magnesium into shoulder after shower.
- Apply MarcPro 2-3 times per day. Upon finishing, rub magnesium into shoulder.
- Weights: 5 sets of 5 reps of squats, followed by 3 sets of 10 lunges or leg presses, leg extension, leg curls, and side-to-side lunges.
- Optional swim: 10×100 kick with kick board (as hard as possible.)
Friday
- Do 30-45 minutes of cycling, elliptical, or running at temp intervals (2-5 minutes with 2-to-1 work-to-rest ratio).
- Apply MarcPro 2-3 times per day. Upon finishing, rub magnesium into shoulder.
- Weights (all with elastic bands or elastic tubing): 5 rounds of 20 reps of seated rows, external rotation shoulder, internal rotation shoulder, straight arm pull-downs, and straight arm raises. Go as light as necessary for completely pain-free range of motion.
Saturday
- Soak the full body in cold water for 20-30 minutes. Follow with dry sauna for 20-40 minutes. An alternative is to soak in cold water for 10 minutes and hot water for 10 minutes, 3 times through. Rub magnesium into shoulder after soak.
- After a bicycle or elliptical warm-up, do a weights circuit of 15-20 repetitions 4 times through. Include incline bench sit-ups, reverse hyperextensions, V-Ups, and Superman (keep arms at side if any shoulder discomfort occurs with Superman.)
- Apply MarcPro 2-3 times per day. Upon finishing, rub magnesium into shoulder.
Soak the full body in cold water for 20-30 minutes. Follow with dry Sunday
- Go on a 1-3 hour hike, bike ride, or other aerobic activity. Do not carry anything or engage in positions that are stressful or painful to the shoulder. If you stay aerobic, you can do this workout minimally fed or fasted.
- Deep tissue massage on entire back/neck/thoracic/cervical/shoulder area from a deep tissue massage therapist. Have therapist use magnesium during or after massage.
How to Eat When Healing an Injury
When healing from an injury, you should focus on an anti-inflammation diet with plenty of support for connective tissue, like joints and collagen. This type of eating may seem too simple, repetitive, and boring for you, but remember – it’s only for the length of time that you’re healing. You certainly don’t have to avoid chocolate forever!
Breakfast
Combine 2-3 scoops of a vegan protein powder (such as pea, rice, or hemp) mixed with full fat coconut milk to desired texture. Mix in 1 handful of walnuts or almonds, 2 tablespoons chia seeds, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon sea salt. If it’s too thick for your taste, add extra water. If you’d like, you can blend in any types of dark leafy greens you like, or none at all.
Lunch
Salad: Over a bed of mixed greens, spinach, or kale, add:
- 1/2 sliced avocado
- 1 can sardines (with oil), 4-6-ounces grass-fed beef sliced thin, or chopped free-range, organic chicken
- 1/2-1 sliced tomatoes or a handful of cherry tomatoes
- 1 carrot
- Several tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil or avocado oil
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Handful of pumpkin seeds, crushed walnuts, or almond slivers (not roasted)
- Fresh herbs of your choice, like parsley, chives, or cilantro
1 can sardines (with oil), 4-6-ounces grass-fed beef sliced thin, or chopped free-range, organic chickenDinner
- Your choice of a clean, organic, grass-fed or wild-caught protein (like steak or fish)
- A side of a clean carbohydrate (white rice, mashed or regular sweet potato, regular potato, or quinoa)
- A side of a vegetable that is as dark and colorful as possible (kale, spinach)
- A side of any sulfur-rich vegetable (Brussels sprouts, onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower)
- Use turmeric, black pepper, and sea salt liberally; for dressings/oils, use only grass-fed butter, ghee, avocado oil, olive oil, or coconut oil
Drinks
In between meals, try to drink 1-2 cups of bone broth as your primary “snack,” and make sure you only drink lower sugar beverages, such as water.
Ginger tea infused with anti-inflammatory compounds, such as turmeric or garlic, is another must (see this video for an example.) Make the tea by boiling fresh ginger root in water. You can eat the softened ginger root if you’d like (I encourage it!), and you can use a low-sugar sweetener such as Stevia to sweeten the tea, if desired.
Supplements
And finally, how about supplementation? The wide world of nutritional supplements for injuries and inflammation can be confusing to navigate. I suggest incorporating a few of my favorite supplements for injuries, including proteolytic enzymes, Vitamin C, curcumin, ginger/garlic/turmeric extracts, tart cherry juice, glucosamine, and chondroitin.
Summary
All of this may seem like a huge amount of trouble to go through just to help an injury heal faster, but if it comes down to naturally giving your body the support it needs to heal versus invasive surgery – or worse, chronic pain that won’t go away – the time investment is well-worth it.
Do you have more questions about how to exercise, eat, and supplement when you’re injured? Then head over to Facebook.com/GetFitGuy and ask your questions, or join the conversation there!
Photos of woman working out with knee injury, woman taking cold shower, woman on elliptical, and bone broth courtesy of Shutterstock.
About the Author
Ben Greenfield received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Idaho in sports science and exercise physiology; personal training and strength and conditioning certifications from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA); a sports nutrition certification from the International Society of Sports Nutrition (ISSN), an advanced bicycle fitting certification from Serotta. He has over 11 years’ experience in coaching professional, collegiate, and recreational athletes from all sports, and as helped hundreds of clients achieve weight loss and fitness success.