Injuries and nutrition. Match it up!

24 May 2021
24 May 2021

Injuries and nutrition. Match it up!

On the eve of the corona relaxation, I have a conversation with the former physiotherapist of Roda JC. What strikes us is that more and more sports injuries occur and the cause seems clear to us. Most athletes have ever had a sports injury. Very annoying and often at the wrong time. One injury occurs spontaneously and the other starts with small unsuspecting complaints. A colic, a pain followed by a torn muscle, an inflammation, a broken bone or a whiplash.
The largest group of athletes are amateurs. It is precisely this group that has not been training or has been training to a limited extent for more than a year now. Normally, the amateur athlete mainly visited the doctor on Monday morning. Nowadays, an athlete comes to the doctor almost every day to have his injury assessed. Ultimately, the athlete will be referred to a physiotherapist.

Recognizing an injury
As an athlete you can learn to recognize an injury. A stuck muscle, problems with your joints, sticking in the muscles, getting out of bed less fit and headaches. These are all symptoms that indicate that your body does not agree with something. What many (professional) athletes realize too little is that nutrition plays an important role in the prevention of injuries. In individual sports such as fitness, swimming, running and cycling, injuries are lurking. Football and field hockey top the list in team sports.

The injuries you can get are:

• ACUTE INJURY
The injury that occurs spontaneously can be the result of a (too) high load, a fall, collision or incorrect load. Fractures and muscle tears are the most common in these types of injuries.

• INJURY FROM OVERLOAD
The moment you get an injury due to overload, it is often due to an excessive load after a period of inactivity. Just think of a korfball player who has stopped and starts again in a lower team 4 years later. He thinks he is still as good as 10 years ago and he wants to do the same.

• INJURY FROM OVERTRAINING
The body must recover after a physically demanding effort. If you are in good shape and you are doing enough recovery, then there is usually nothing to worry about. If this is not the case, the body will have more and more trouble with recovery and you can therefore suffer an injury from overtraining. Ultimately, more is broken down than built up in your body.

What now?
It is important to listen carefully to your body. Many people have gained extra corona kilos and are now starting to exercise again. When you exercise individually, it is important to talk to your trainer in the gym and agree on what is best. If you are going to train in team sport again, it is good to discuss the objectives with your teammates. Everyone has suffered from the corona measures. If you do get injured, it is good to adjust your diet. You can quickly gain a few pounds without realizing it. Unfortunately, inactivity will cause muscle mass breakdown very quickly. Studies by, among others, the university in Maastricht show that people with a bone fracture can quickly break down 1.5 kg of muscle mass. This means that your body is not only working on repairing the bone fracture, but that your body is also breaking down muscles. You certainly don’t want the latter. So it is advisable to adjust your intake and frequency according to the injury you have sustained. The more optimal that intake, the faster a recovery in the bone or tissue can take place.

Do you have an injury or do you want to know how to adjust your nutrition, please contact me. The Sports Nutrition Coach has the correct injury protocols in combination with nutrition and recovery.

Do you want to make a tasty protein-rich dish that is also nutritious? Then make this avocado!

Ingredients:

Preparation:

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André Mostard is a sports nutrition coach and has been active in the sports world for more than 30 years. André regularly writes a blog for ODS Vitaal with good practical tips to feel good! Sportvoedingscoach André Mostard