Don’t allow joint pain or muscle soreness to stop you from participating in an active lifestyle. If you’re an athlete who enjoys all sports, or loves a hard workout at the gym, you should know that muscle soreness comes with the territory. This common nuisance is what causes many people to discontinue exercising or participating in sports. After waking up the next day to aches and pains, people try to mask the discomfort with over-the-counter medication that can have little to no affect. Well it’s time to put the pain medicine down and speed up your recovery after a tough workout, with food!
Consuming food enriched with protein and antioxidants reduces soreness and promotes your active lifestyle. These types of food not only aid in a faster recovery time, but help you lose weight faster by eating a healthier diet. What can be better than that? So let’s take a look at these miracle foods so you can start soothing muscle soreness today!
Read this month’s healthy recipe on how to prepare an open-faced prosciutto and plum sandwich for yourself on the DreamBody blog.
Repair Muscle with Protein
Protein is an essential nutrient for anyone who is involved in an active lifestyle. Consuming the appropriate amount of protein after an intense workout helps soothe soreness in your body and heal damaged muscle fibers. Protein comes in a variety of forms because everyone exercises for a different reason. While some people want to build a large amount of muscle fast, their protein intake exceeds others who take it simply for muscle recovery. You can find out just how much protein you should consume depending on your lifestyle goal. Just enter your bodyweight into this protein calculator, and let the professionals from Bodybuilding.com tell you the recommended amount of protein to take daily.
Consuming a post workout meal is very important—whether you’re hungry or not. So make sure your meal contains a high amount of protein so your body can build muscle and reduce soreness. The quicker you eat your post workout meal, the better. The recommended time to consume protein after a workout is 30 to 45 minutes. So take your time to find a meal packed with protein that you and your body will enjoy.
Foods Containing Protein
So what are these miracle foods we are talking about, full of protein to help sooth sore muscles? Here is a list of foods that you can sink your teeth into post workout!
Meats
Beef
Turkey Breast
Chicken Breast
Tuna
Ham
Salmon
Dairy/Eggs
Eggs
Cottage Cheese
Yogurt (low fat)
Soymilk
Skim milk
Whole milk
Fruits and Vegetables
Oranges
Bananas
Carrots
Apples
Green Beans
Sticking to this list as a guide to prepare your post workout meal is a great first step to help soothe sore muscles and aid in a faster recovery. Find out if required supplements are missing from your diet and why you need them by reading the Why Are Supplements Becoming Necessary for Healthy Living? DreamBody article.
Reduce Muscle Damage with Antioxidants
Antioxidant-rich fruits significantly reduce muscle damage caused by exercise, which ultimately decreases the amount of soreness you may experience after a workout. Antioxidants have various anti-inflammatory compounds that help remove waste throughout the body. By removing waste produced during a workout, your body can repair tissue more effectively. Didn’t know fruit had more benefits than a decent dose of Vitamin D, did you? Well antioxidant fruit also increases a person’s metabolism enabling you to lose fat faster!
Antioxidant-rich Fruits
The key to consuming these fruits is to eat their concentrated form, especially on days you work out. Here are a list of fruit classified as antioxidants and can supply you with all the nutrition you need to repair muscle damage and smooth muscle soreness.
Berries
Wild Blueberries
Cranberries
Blackberries
Other Fruits
Apples
Oranges
Mangos
Pineapples
Peaches
Tip: Enjoy fruit dried or frozen while paying close attention to portion sizes and added sugar.
Eliminate Joint Pain Permanently with Prolotherapy
Whether the pain occurs from an intense workout or old age, our bodies sometimes have a difficult time healing damaged joints or muscles. Prolotherapy, also known as Regenerative Injection Therapy (RIT), helps stimulate the body’s natural healing methods to improve troubling aches and pains. The doctors at DreamBody are trained professionals on Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) and unmanipulated Adult Stem Cell Prolotherapy. With the help of these two alternatives for surgery and pain medication, you can be back on your feet enjoying the active lifestyle you have learned to love!
How Does Prolotherapy Work?
Prolotherapy is done by injecting natural substances directly into the damaged tissue to increase the production of growth factors. The injection stimulates the body’s natural healing mechanism to lay down new, strong collagen fibers and cells by triggering a controlled inflammation in the body. Prolotherapy is a non-invasive procedure and can be treated on any joint or muscle group that may be causing you pain.
Patients typically notice an improvement in muscle function and pain reduction in as little as two weeks, post treatment. Most people return for two to six regenerative injection treatments to achieve their desired results every three to six weeks. Our office is located in Scottsdale, making your future visits back to the office easy and convenient. Want more information? Read our Prolotherapy 101: An Introductory Guide for more of an in depth explanation on this treatment and find out if it is right for you.
In The End
Don’t settle with muscle soreness or joint pain, control it! Whether you soothe your muscle pain by eating protein, indulging in antioxidant-rich berries, or prefer to eliminate pain with prolotherapy, you can be on your way to enjoying the activities you love to do pain-free! Book a consultation today and see how DreamBody can help manage your pain permanently with prolotherapy!
