Interested to know how your diet and nutrition can help you prevent and recover from injuries? Caitlin Holmes, a functional sports nutritionist, discusses the importance of nutrition for athletes, nutritional strategies to prevent injuries, how to utilize nutrition as a rehab tool, and why energy deficits increase risk of injury and slow recovery.

She also provides recommendations on how to implement these concepts for long-term health and injury prevention. We need calories! These are vitamins and minerals: what we need in smaller amounts for proper body functioning and metabolic processes. Micros support general health and performance, like physical activity and growth, energy metabolism, red blood cell metabolism, and antioxidants functionality.

Supplements can also help ensure you are getting all the micros you need, such as Gnarly Iron , Gnarly Mg Citrate , and Gnarly D3.

For overall health and nutrition, we should start with a strong foundation of energy from calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients. Consistency will also help stabilize blood sugar. If you try to perform in a fasted state, your blood sugar dips and concentration declines, so you won't even be able to perform at your best.

This doesn't necessarily mean meal planning as that can cause food fatigue, but a good idea is to make a master list of meals and then pull from that list for groceries each week. This takes out guesswork and stress of trying to figure out what to eat for each meal each day. Time your meals to boost performance and increase calories to decrease energy deficiencies.

A protein-rich snack or shake before bed is a good idea to prevent muscle degradation overnight and muscle soreness the next day. It can also be dangerous because you may compensate by pushing yourself in ways that could cause injuries. Also, if you're buzzed while performing, your judgement will be impaired which exposes us and those around us to injury.

A healthy recommendation would be to limit consumption to two drinks per day for men, and one drink per day for women, but still take that with a grain of salt because even small doses of alcohol can have a long-term impact on health.

This is because the body will typically choose to pull protein from muscles for energy first, because we need fat for organ and cell protection. So by restricting calories, we lose muscle mass, strength and power, we are more at risk for musculoskeletal injuries, and all our hard work goes down drain.

Caitlin is a functional sports nutritionist who specializes in climbing nutrition. She works with climbers to develop effective nutrition plans for long-term health and performance. She believes that nutrition is the missing puzzle piece for athletes that plays a major role in achieving goals, preventing injuries, and supporting the body to continue climbing for years to come!

Shop All. Shop By Usage. Everyday Products. Pre-Workout Products. Performance Products. Recovery Products. Shop By Activity. Shop By Function. Gear and Accessories. Refer a Friend. Get Started. The Gnarly System. Our Story. Nutritional considerations and strategies to facilitate injury recovery and rehabilitation.

J Athletic Training. Close G, Sale C, Baar K, et al. Nutrition for the prevention and treatment of injuries in track and field athletes.

Int J Sport Nutr Exerc Metab. Team USA website. Accessed January 10, Johnston APW, Burke DG, MacNeil LG, Candow DG. Effect of creatine supplementation during cast-induced immobilization on the preservation of muscle mass, strength, and endurance. J Strength Cond Res. Holick MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, et al.

Evaluation, treatment, and prevention of vitamin D deficiency: an Endocrine Society clinical practice guideline. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. Owens DJ, Allison R, Close GL.

Vitamin D and the athlete: current perspectives and new challenges. Sports Med. Mountjoy M, Sundgot-Borgen J, Burke L, et al. The IOC consensus statement: beyond the female athlete triad—relative energy deficiency in sport RED-S.

Br J Sports Med. Sale C, Elliott-Sale KJ. Nutrition and athlete bone health. Home About Events Resources Contact Advertise Job Bank Writers' Guidelines Search Gift Shop.

Haakonssen EC, Ross ML, Knight EJ, et al. The effects of a calcium-rich pre-exercise meal on biomarkers of calcium homeostasis in competitive female cyclists: a randomised crossover trial. PLoS One. Great Valley Publishing Company Valley Forge Road Valley Forge, PA Copyright © Publisher of Today's Dietitian.

All rights reserved. Home About Contact. Advertise Gift Shop Archive. Reprints Writers' Guidelines. Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions. Certain types of fat are also essential ingredients in compounds that participate in the inflammation process, which can keep small injuries from becoming big ones.

In a recent study from the University of Buffalo, 86 female runners were interviewed about their eating habits and current injury status.

Their level of fat intake turned out to be the single best dietary predictor of injury status, with the women who ate the least fat being the most likely to have an existing injury. Make sure that no more than 10 percent of your total daily calories come from saturated fat, and try to consume twice as much unsaturated fat as saturated fat.

Also, do your best to hit a daily target of 3, mg of omega-3 essential fats. Keep the calcium coming. Bone strains and stress fractures are uncommon in swimming and cycling, but quite common in running—especially for those with low bone density.

The recommended daily intake of calcium is 1, to 1, mg. But the average adult consumes only to mg daily.

Interested to know how your diet and nutrition can help you prevent and recover from injuries? Caitlin Holmes, a functional sports nutritionist, discusses the importance of nutrition for athletes, nutritional strategies to prevent injuries, how to utilize nutrition as a rehab tool, and why energy deficits increase risk of injury and slow recovery.

She also provides recommendations on how to implement these concepts for long-term health and injury prevention. We need calories! These are vitamins and minerals: what we need in smaller amounts for proper body functioning and metabolic processes.

Micros support general health and performance, like physical activity and growth, energy metabolism, red blood cell metabolism, and antioxidants functionality. Supplements can also help ensure you are getting all the micros you need, such as Gnarly Iron , Gnarly Mg Citrate , and Gnarly D3.

For overall health and nutrition, we should start with a strong foundation of energy from calories, macronutrients, and micronutrients. Consistency will also help stabilize blood sugar. If you try to perform in a fasted state, your blood sugar dips and concentration declines, so you won't even be able to perform at your best.

This doesn't necessarily mean meal planning as that can cause food fatigue, but a good idea is to make a master list of meals and then pull from that list for groceries each week. This takes out guesswork and stress of trying to figure out what to eat for each meal each day.

Time your meals to boost performance and increase calories to decrease energy deficiencies. A protein-rich snack or shake before bed is a good idea to prevent muscle degradation overnight and muscle soreness the next day.

It can also be dangerous because you may compensate by pushing yourself in ways that could cause injuries. Also, if you're buzzed while performing, your judgement will be impaired which exposes us and those around us to injury. A healthy recommendation would be to limit consumption to two drinks per day for men, and one drink per day for women, but still take that with a grain of salt because even small doses of alcohol can have a long-term impact on health.

This is because the body will typically choose to pull protein from muscles for energy first, because we need fat for organ and cell protection.

So by restricting calories, we lose muscle mass, strength and power, we are more at risk for musculoskeletal injuries, and all our hard work goes down drain. Caitlin is a functional sports nutritionist who specializes in climbing nutrition. She works with climbers to develop effective nutrition plans for long-term health and performance.

She believes that nutrition is the missing puzzle piece for athletes that plays a major role in achieving goals, preventing injuries, and supporting the body to continue climbing for years to come! Shop All. Shop By Usage. Everyday Products. Pre-Workout Products. Performance Products. Recovery Products.

Shop By Activity. Shop By Function. Gear and Accessories. Refer a Friend. Get Started. The Gnarly System. Our Story. Insufficient energy intake like during periods of deliberate weight loss may accentuate fatigue and impair recovery.

When the diet lacks enough calories to support the body during periods of intense training, nutrients may be sourced from within the body to support physiological functions.

For example, when dietary protein is inadequate, skeletal muscle may be broken down to fuel protein requirements, thus reducing lean muscle mass and increasing muscle injury risk. It is important for adequate energy intake to provide the nutrients required to fuel exercise and recover optimally.

Recovering from exercise is essential to help repair any damaged tissues and replenish energy stores to fuel repeated exercise performance.

Dietary protein is known for its role in lean tissue repair and growth so it is recommended to consume g after training, as part of a daily intake of 1. Alongside protein, post-exercise carbohydrate ingestion is also advocated to promote muscle glycogen synthesis to perform subsequent high-intensity training.

For sports performance dietary protein and carbohydrates get the headlines for their role in protein synthesis and energy availability, however dietary fat is equally important for performance health.

Overconsumption of certain fats may negatively influence injury risk, due to the pro-inflammatory properties of excessive trans and omega-6 fatty acids. Anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids should be prioritised to promote immune function, protein synthesis, brain function and recovery from exercise.

Saturated fat intake should also be controlled; it is important for anabolic hormone production and structuring cell membranes, but too much may impair performance and increase fat mass due to its high calorie value.

Diets that lack important nutrients leave the body in a state of nutrient deficiency that can impair physiological function and cause injury.

Following this phase, minimizing excessive inflammation via dietary interventions may help accelerate the recovery process and get athletes back on the playing field more quickly.

Treating and Preventing Soft Tissue Injuries Soft tissue injuries can be acute or chronic overuse and may include damage to muscle, ligament, and tendon. However, it should be noted that these studies have limitations, given there are obvious structural differences between a muscle tear and exercise-induced muscle damage.

Changes in energy requirements and nutrients to help with muscle repair also must be considered. There are several potential nutrition strategies that may help treat—or possibly prevent—soft tissue injuries by reducing inflammation, promoting healing, or decreasing the loss of lean tissue.

However, in the absence of a dietary deficiency, some of the following nutrition interventions have limited research to support a benefit.

RDs must gain a better understanding of changes in energy demands. For example, while recovering from injury, some athletes may want to decrease energy intake, given that energy expenditure is lower. However, adequate energy availability is needed to support healing. Increased protein may not prevent muscle injury, but higher protein intakes 1.

An emphasis on equal protein distribution throughout the day will help attenuate muscle mass loss. RDs should emphasize a diet rich in high-quality protein from whole food sources, but a protein supplement can be an easy and effective way to meet protein needs during the recovery period.

For example, whey protein contains the highest amount of leucine 2. If an athlete chooses a plant-based protein supplement, about 40 g of soy or pea protein—the highest quality of the plant-based options—is needed to match the 2.

Carbohydrates provide energy for healing during injury recovery. Omega-3 fatty acids, such as olive oil, fish, flaxseeds, nuts, and avocado, may decrease the extent of prolonged inflammation after the initial inflammatory phase , which can be counterproductive to recovery.

However, this is based on studies examining inflammation and function after exercise-induced muscle damage. Given the potential risk of mercury contamination in fish oil supplements, the quality of fish oil should be taken into consideration. Creatine has been shown to be one of the most effective supplements for increasing lean body mass when combined with exercise.

Diets rich in fruits and vegetables provide polyphenols and micronutrients, each of which can help speed the recovery process. For example, polyphenols may help decrease muscle damage caused by inflammation. While these strategies provide more benefits for the muscle, vitamin C and gelatin have been suggested to stimulate greater collagen synthesis following a tendon or ligament injury.

Active individuals should focus on a food-first approach before supplementation. Keep in mind that for many of these findings, more research is needed to examine the benefits of the role of macro- and micronutrients in the prevention of or recovery from muscle injuries.

Bone Injury Treatment and Prevention Bone strength is determined earlier in life, yet bone loss occurs as a natural part of the aging process. Due to bone-related consequences ie, reduced calcium absorption and bone mineral density associated with a higher incidence of relative energy deficiency in sport syndrome, stress fractures are more common in active females.

Although there are many nutrients that play a role in bone health, the following nutrition factors may help support bone health and aid in the recovery and healing from bone injuries. Many female athlete triad and relative energy deficiency in sport studies have found that reductions in energy availability, especially if chronic, have been shown to reduce hormones estrogen, testosterone that are vital to bone formation and resorption.

Protein plays a role in the production of hormones that affect bone health and provide structure for the bone matrix. Adequate protein intake ~1.

Contrary to previous beliefs, protein intakes higher than the recommended daily intake have no negative impact on bone health if calcium intake is adequate. In fact, although more research is needed, higher protein intakes have been shown to have a small, beneficial impact on bone.