S&C Tips: Considering All Factors including Nutrition and Physiology

Here is a quick little tip for any of you strength coaches, physical therapists, doctors or just anyone in general for that matter!

Identifying the Problem from all Factors

Have you ever had an injury or an athlete come to you with injury, whether that’s a hamstring tear, patella issue, or back pain?

One thing as a coach when doing an assessment, we must consider everything that is going on. That would include looking at posture, body alignment, injury history, nutrition, body physiology, activity or sport played, etc. Lots of times the nutritional and physiological components get neglected and this problematic. The reason being is because if the hormonal system gets out of WACK, recovery, and rehabilitation is going to be difficult! And things actually may get worse! Not what we want.

Often, one complaint you will see with a person who is strongly orthopedic or bi0mechanically based when treating someone is the potential lack of considering nutrition and physiology. They don’t consider that their poor choice of diet may have influenced their injury or they don’t consider the influence that their current diet may play in their recovery. This is often one major limitation when working with an individual like this. They don’t consider all aspects that may prevent an injury or enhance performance. Now, that’s not too say all orthopedic or bio-mechanical experts don’t consider nutrition and physiology.

For instance, an orthopedic expert may understand that consuming certain high-inflammatory foods may impact someone’s recovery from an ACL injury. Some do understand particular things like this, and that’s what separates the best performance and rehab coaches from the mediocre, at least that’s my opinion. Someone may think otherwise, but someone who can understand every factor that influences performance and then put it all together into a program is a real genius in my eyes. 

Therefore, this is a rather shorter post, but I just wanted to highlight the importance of considering other factors such as nutrition and physiology that often get ignored during various biomechanical injury. If one can understand the nutrition and physiology components when treating an injury, it can make the difference in an individual’s recovery and performance. Ultimately, the point I’m trying to make is too NEVER overlook the importance of nutrition and physiology. Always consider every factor when treating someone or looking to enhance an individual’s performance!

Salute,

Remi