Did you know that a good diet can help you prevent injuries? The truth is that it is essential that an athlete follow a pattern of eating healthy and nutritious for your body is in perfect condition for the practice of physical exercise.
It is for this reason that we are going to discover how diet influences sports injuries so that, thus, you know everything you can do to prepare your body for sports.
The best diet to prevent sports injuries
If your body is nourished, full of vitamins and minerals and hydrated, you will make it strong and work perfectly, right? Well, if you practice sports, it will be essential that you bet on quality eating habits to ensure that your joints, bones and muscles are in top shape.
It is for this reason that, if you follow a poor diet and do sports, you can increase the risk of suffering sports injuries since your body will not be so strong and internally prepared as to withstand depending on which exercises.
For this reason, below we are going to discover the diet to prevent sports injuries that you have to follow if you want to prevent any ailment in the future.
The nutrients that every athlete needs
Thanks to the food we eat, our body is full of nutrients that help the body function properly and our organs are at full capacity. But if you do sports you will need to fill your diet with certain types of extra nutrients to avoid the most common injuries when training in the gym, and that will help you keep your muscles and joints in perfect condition.
Here we leave you the essential nutrients to avoid injuries and that an athlete needs to have in their diet:
- Iron : the lack of iron is the most common deficiency in athletes and, therefore, you will have to include more foods with this mineral in your diet
- Calcium : having a diet low in calcium can greatly affect bone health and, therefore, put us at higher risk of injury
- Magnesium and Zinc
- Group B vitamins
- Carbohydrates: remember that, as soon as we finish doing sports, our body’s glycogen stores are at very low levels and, therefore, it is recommended to include carbohydrate intake after training to restore this wear and tear.
Examples of foods to avoid injuries
And now we review the list of ideal foods to avoid muscle injuries and that you can start taking from today, always with the recommendation of your doctor or nutritionist:
- Blue Fish
- Pineapple, papaya
- Lemon
- Onion and garlic
- Squid, cuttlefish
- Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, etc.
- Jelly
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Yoghurt
- Pasta, rice , bread
Hydration is very important to prevent injuries
But it is not only important to eat correctly to avoid injuries, but another of the guidelines to prevent sports injuries is that you must have your body properly hydrated to prevent our body from being damaged by sports. Therefore, every athlete must always be hydrated during their training so as not to injure themselves and, in addition, follow these tips that will help them to be 100% healthy:
- Never wait to be thirsty: thirst is a sign of dehydration, therefore, take sips of water during your workout so that your body is never short of water
- Distribute the liquid well: Another essential trick that can help you distribute the water well is that you drink 50 ml of water before exercise, another 50 ml in the middle and another 50 ml at the end of the training. In this way, you guarantee that you have filled your body with the water it has lost during exercise.
- Add a pinch of salt to the water: an ideal trick to replenish mineral salts is to add a little salt to the water you drink when you finish training. You can also choose to have isotonic drinks.
With all these tips you will get your body fully prepared to exercise safely and without risk of injury.
