What if you possessed superhuman healing powers that allowed you to quickly recover from virtually any wound, illness or injury.
What if you were able to train as hard and as often as you want to, because you knew you had special healing powers that would allow 
you to recover at lighting speed?
What type of athlete would you be if your training was never held back because of muscle soreness or injury?
If you think superhuman recovery powers would help you becomes a faster, stronger or more powerful athlete, then keep reading. I am going tell you the advanced methods and insider secrets that the world’s top physicians, athletic trainers, and athletes use to recover at lighting speed, bounce back aches and pain and re-build damage connective tissue.
Interested in getting a step ahead of the competition? Try applying these advanced recovery techniques and watch your performance sore.
This is the first of a series of articles on how to speed up recovery. In this article I will be talking about cutting-edge nutrition strategies to enhance recovery.
Use Branched Chain and Essential Amino Acids
When most people hear about Amino Acids, they think of Amino Acids that are the building blocks of proteins. However, the role of Amino Acids goes way beyond building blocks – they are essential for the synthesis of proteins, enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters and numerous other metabolic pathways in the body.
How can these Amino Acids help you recover faster?
Phenylalanine has a pain-killing and antidepressant effect. This means you could be happier and feeling less pain after doing those killer hill workouts or crossfit sessions.
Valine, Isoleucine and Leucine, are both Essential and Branched Chain Amino Acids. These Essential Amino Acids can reduce the amount of damage to the muscles during exercise. This means these Amino Acids can help your muscles recover faster.
Serotonin is a brain neurotransmitter that can reduce pain and the amino acid Tryptophan is a precursor for serotonin. This means taking Tryptophan can increase your tolerance to pain and therefore you will feels less pain after a hard workout or race.
Histidine has some antioxidant properties. This means Histidine could help you fight off the cell damaging free radicals you produce during exercise,
Arginine is a vasodilator, which means it increases blood flow. There have been many studies that show Arginine is helpful for people with cardiovascular disease. Increased blood flow to your muscle will help reduce recovery time.
If I could only take one supplement, this would be one I would choose. These herbs are called “adaptogenic” because they regulate the body’s stress response. Let’s face it, training and racing is stressful. Now on top of all the training and racing you’re doing, let’s add in work and family life.
There are so many diseases that are related to stress. Stress affects your memory, your emotional stability, it’s a cause of depression, it lowers your immune system, it’s related cardiovascular disease, premature aging and even substance abuse.
Chinese Adaptogenic Herbs like Huperzine,(Club Moss), Reishi, Ashwaganda, Ecklonia, Cava, Epimedium, Cistanches, Gotu, Kola, Albizia and Flower can help regulate stress.
These herbs can also help reduce chronic inflammation, which of course will help you recovery faster.
A word of caution, make sure you purchase your adaptogenic herbs from a VERY reliable company. Chinese herbs have a history of being contaminated with chemicals and microbial organisms.
Transdermal Magnesium is a topical anti-inflammatory agent. Rubbing it directly into the muscles after an exercises session can rapidly accelerate healing. Magnesium is the god of anti-inflammatories. It’s just amazing stuff and the effect is almost immediate.
Many athletes are deficient in magnesium and don’t even know it. The added magnesium that you absorb into your skin can also help with muscle tightness and cramping.
In addition to topical magnesium, there are other topical products that can help you recover faster and reduce pain such as Trameel, Arnica, and Cryoderm.
Limit your use of NSAID like Ibuprofen
I know that this may go against what most people think. However, many anti-inflammatories like Ibuprophen cause some gestational issues and they can also potentially create a lot of stress on the kidneys and liver.
Your kidneys and liver are trying to flush toxins and chemical by-products associated with hard exercise. Taking NSAIDS can make their job more difficult, which can slow your recovery.
Any time that you tax the kidneys or the liver, you potentially hinder their ability to play their natural recurring role in recovery.
NSAIDS can also inhibit long term healing of soft tissue injuries.
Use Proteolytic Enzymes
Trypsin, Chymotrypsin, Papain, and Bromelain are Proteolytic Enzymes. These enzymes can help reduce the muscle inflammation associated with hard exercise.
In Europe and Japan, Proteolytic Enzymes or Protease are used to speed up healing from bodily injury or surgery. They’ve been doing this for years, incorporating enzyme therapies with mainstream medicine.
Lumbrokinase, Serrapeptase, Nattokinase, Wobenzyme, Bromelain or Vitazym+ are all products that contain Proteolytic Enzymes.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C goes way beyond helping people with colds. Vitamin C plays a critical role in collagen formation, and collagen is the primary component of connective tissue, and is essential for repair and healing.
To enhance recovery and to speed up healing, take 1000 mg of vitamin C a day.
Fish oils
Fish oils have also been shown to help reduce inflammation. With fish oils, you get what you pay for, so get a good medical grade fish oil from your doctor, chiropractor, or physical therapist.
Follow an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Avoid cereals, grains, and refined or processed sugar.
Eat dark skinned fruits/vegetables. Pomegranates, cherries, blueberries, plums, artichokes, spinach and broccoli are all great.
Eat cold-water fish like salmon and mackerel.
Eat nuts, such as walnuts, almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, and flaxseeds, these are effective anti-inflammatory foods.
In the next article on superhuman recovery, I will discuss more cutting edge modalities that can help speed up recovery such as Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMFT), Acupuncture and Dry Needling, Prolotherapy, Cold Laser, Electro-muscle Stimulation and Heart Rate Variability Testing.
Dr Jeff Banas is a Superhuman Performance Coach, a Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a 8 Time Ironman Triathlon Finisher.
In addition to running a Sports Therapy practice in Mesa, AZ, Dr. Jeff coaches and trains individuals for weight loss, muscle strength, wellness, and sports performance. For more information about Dr. Banas you can visit his website at www.BanasSportsTherapy.com or contact him directly at 480-633-6837 or drjeff@fatmantoironman.com
