Nutrition During Serious Injury

Many individuals get lost when they become injured, especially lost with the nutrition plan they should follow. Many think the simple way and say “fuck it, I’m just going to be relaxed about it, and just eat what I want until I am 100% healed again”, and some just think “I am going to completely remove this macro-nutrition from my diet, just because I don’t want to get fat.” Both of these are the WRONG WAY on how to do things, but completely understandable when the individual doesn’t have the guidance on what to follow. Well, me being a bodybuilder that has just recently gone through two very serious surgical injuries that needed time and patience to get through, this is what I did.

Active Recovery

First off, I decided right off the bat that I was NOT going to sit on my ass and wait until I was healed to get back into the gym; no that wasn’t going to be me. Three days after surgery I went back into the trenches, and kept on “moving” and “working”. I did the things that I could, and just kept my body going with “active recovery”. Keep the blood pumping and moving throughout the body, so that nutrient delivery was consistently happening each and every day during my recovery process; also this was a BIG mental break for me, as many can drift into depression while injured, since their bodies/physiques will slowly start going downward, as it did for my in many ways.

Nutrition

The nutrition aspect was simple for me, “keep eating clean but allow stress relief foods in when I earned them or really craved them”; my plan was to not suffer mentally and physically during this time. If I wanted something, I had it, but I didn’t go overboard; I just had enough, and that was it. But I told myself that, “if I’m training in the gym today, get 4-5 good clean meals in. Keep the carbs in with meal 1, and around the workout, and that’s it. The other meals were protein, fats, and fiber.” That kept me feeling good, and the body producing good healing nutrients flowing throughout my body, because as we know when we are sick or hurt, the body needs fuel to fight, heal and recover; so give it what it needs to do the work. Sure there is a calorie requirement adjustment, usually decrease, since the energy you are expending throughout the day is less then what it was prior to your injury, but that’s OK. If you don’t want to get super fat, soft, or fluffy, just decrease your calories (usually in the form of carbs and some fats, as those are your energy macro-nutrients, and you don’t need as much energy throughout the day since you aren’t training as you were), and keep it simple.

Patience is really important to have when going through serious injury recovery periods. It took me a total of 6-8 months to be 100% again, and for a good 3-4 months of that it was really slow. But in the end, your body and physique will come back to the way it, it did for me and I feel great right now. Don’t listen to those people that say “Your body will never be the same again” blah blah blah. If you did the right things like 1) Got a great surgeon 2) Got a great physical therapist 3) Kept good nutrients for recovery going through your body 4) Kept active as best as possible, then your final outcome will be just fine. I am not experience anything that many said I would, and I training at full-steam these days.

So to sum it up:

1. Eat clean
2. On training days, make sure to get 3-5 good clean meals in
3. If you crave something, have it. Keep your mental-state happy and healthy. Use this recovery time to give your “hardcore” self a break to a degree
4. Keep active, so that you can have your body move the nutrients throughout your body. Nutrient delivery happens in the blood, so get that blood moving with being active as much, and as best, as possible.