April 2025
Recent globalisation has meant that performers are experiencing increased demands of their sport in order to be at the top of their game, whether this be through the intensity of training, technical or cognitive skills, competition frequency, or game congestion. With this, the prevalence of injuries has escalated at every sporting level, which can be consequential to an athlete's career (Pfirrman et al., 2016). Recovery from exercise-induced injury may be considered to have two main stages.
1. Healing and recovery stage: Characterised by an initial inflammatory response, subsequent wound healing, and reduced activity. More severe injuries may also experience limb immobilisation and reduced activity levels. Here, we promote nutritional strategies to minimise muscle loss.
2. Rehabilitation and return to play: This usually coincides with nutrition recommendations similar to that of increased muscle growth
So, how can we utilise 'periodised nutrition' to help influence these above stages, and speed up the recovery process of injury?
Maintain Energy Balance
As expected, maintaining an appropriate energy intake plays an important role in the recovery process following injury. Many individuals believe that energy intake should be reduced, due to less expenditure through physical activity. However, it has been shown that expenditure does not reduce as much as expected, as the healing process itself requires a lot of energy, depending on severity/duration. This means that many individuals tend to result in a negative energy balance, meaning the loss of muscle mass and other physiological functions may be exacerbated. On the flip side, a large positive energy balance is also undesirable as this could lead to negative alterations in body composition. Even with a positive energy balance, there may be an acceleration of muscle loss due to systemic inflammation, especially within the initial healing stages, plus an increase in fat mass.
Tip one:
Keep daily calorie intake similar and monitor any changes in body weight to ensure energy balance throughout the healing process. There are many free prediction equations available online, one of which you can find TDEE Calculator - Total Daily Energy Expenditure . Rather than tracking your calories every day to ensure you are in energy balance, an alternative option is to monitor bodyweight several times a week and observe any large changes over a period of time. Daily fluctuations can be as much as 1kg, which are natural, but if bodyweight is consistently increasing or decreasing it may be a sign you are not in a state of energy balance.
Maintain a High Protein Intake
Injuries resulting in limb immobilisation are harmful to muscle mass and tendon functioning. In addition to this, muscle oxidative functioning and metabolic flexibility are also impaired with muscle disuse including anabolic resistance (Papadopoulou, 2020). With this, it is important we consciously increase muscle protein synthesis (MPS) to reduce net loss. Supplementation of essential amino acids (EAA) has been shown to be the most important factor in MPS stimulation. However, given their high cost, focusing on overall daily protein intake is currently preferred as a countermeasure for inactivity-induced muscle loss.
Tip Two:
Aim for 2-2.5g/kg of protein every day to help increase MPS (Tipton, 2015). Keep in mind that if calories are reduced, protein intake will be reduced proportionally (unless a conscious effort is made to keep it high). Take a read of our 'All About Protein' blog here to see other reasons why protein is important within our diet and tips on how you can meet high recommendations.
Supplements
Following injury there may be a need for supplementation in the diet, we have already spoken about Amino Acids to increase MPS but several other supplements may play a crucial role in injury rehabilitation.
Omega-3: Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, are essential nutrients in neuronal cell function and neurotransmission, as well as inflammatory responses. With this, studies have found that consumption of omega-3 following injury can help to reduce oxidative damage following surgery (Vidmar et al., 2016) . In addition to these benefits, supplementation with omega 3s is suggested to increase anabolic sensitivity to amino acids, perhaps offsetting the anabolic resistance we see following injury (Papadopoulou, 2020)
Creatine: The effectiveness of creatine for strength and power gains is well known in the nutrition literature, however creatine may also have a direct impact on muscle following injury. Creatine may support faster recovery between exercise bouts, attenuating muscle fatigue during rehabilitation, furthermore when combined with resistance training, creatine may stimulate markers of muscle hypertrophy and reduce atrophy, suggesting its use as an effective strategy for preserving muscle mass during the rehabilitation phase (Smith et al., 2025).
Curcumin: A highly pleiotropic molecule with anti-inflammatory/oxidant properties. Studies have shown that consumption of curcumin may reduce an individual's pain and feelings of fatigue following injury.
Collagen: Is the most abundant protein in the human body and the predominant component of tendon and ligaments. Found in food sources such as bone broth and egg whites, to achieve optimal daily intakes from food sources is difficult, therefore collagen peptide supplementation may have benefits on reducing inflammation and pain following injury, especially injury relating to connective tissues in the body (Khatri et al., 2021; Kviatkovsky et al., 2023).
Tip Three:
There is some evidence that supplements can help with the injury recovery process on a situational basis. Sticking to a balanced whole-food approach will help to ensure an appropriate intake of various vitamins and minerals, which each play a vital role in recovery (bone health, antioxidants, muscle contraction, etc).
We have worked with hundreds of clients who are wanting to get their nutritional intake nailed consistently, and most importantly - sustainably.
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References
Papadopoulou, S. K. (2020). Rehabilitation nutrition for injury recovery of athletes: the role of macronutrient intake. Nutrients, 12(8), 2449.
Vidmar, M. F., Siqueira, L. O., Brito, V. B., Martins, C. A. D. Q., Pimentel, G. L., Almeida, C. R. D., Telles de Rods. L.H. & Silva, M. F. (2016). Supplementation with omega-3 after reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament. Revista Brasileira de Medicina do Esporte, 22, 131-137.
Tipton, K. D. (2015). Nutritional support for exercise-induced injuries. Sports Medicine, 45(Suppl 1), 93-104.
Smith, M. J., Hoffman, N. J., Jose, A. J. S., Burke, L. M., & Opar, D. A. (2025). Nutritional Interventions to Attenuate Quadriceps Muscle Deficits following Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury and Reconstruction. Sports Medicine, 1-28.
Pfirrmann, D., Herbst, M., Ingelfinger, P., Simon, P., & Tug, S. (2016). Analysis of Injury Incidences in Male Professional Adult and Elite Youth Soccer Players: A Systematic Review. Journal of athletic training, 51(5), 410–424. https://doi.org/10.4085/1062-6050-51.6.03
Kviatkovsky, S. A., Hickner, R. C., Cabre, H. E., Small, S. D., & Ormsbee, M. J. (2023). Collagen peptides supplementation improves function, pain, and physical and mental outcomes in active adults. Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 20(1), 2243252. https://doi.org/10.1080/15502783.2023.2243252
Khatri, M., Naughton, R. J., Clifford, T., Harper, L. D., & Corr, L. (2021). The effects of collagen peptide supplementation on body composition, collagen synthesis, and recovery from joint injury and exercise: a systematic review. Amino acids, 53(10), 1493-1506.
