Soft Tissue Injury

Soft tissue injury is just what the name implies: injury to any of the soft tissues of the body. Such injuries can occur in the skin, muscles, tendons and ligaments. They are commonly caused by overuse and impact.

Soft tissue injuries are common in athletes, but can happen to anyone and are often noticed after a long day of gardening, doing work around the house, and doing repetitive heavy lifting in the workplace.

While a great preventative measure is stretching before excessive exercise and paying attention to the body's warning signals, how many of us actually stretch before gardening or cleaning out the garage? And even well-trained athletes are notorious for not stretching properly. Then we feel the pain after it's too late.

Unfortunately, soft tissue injuries can take a long time to heal, often weeks, months or even years depending on the severity. Treating the injury quickly and properly is critical to aiding the body in the healing process.

What are the symptoms of soft tissue damage?

The severity and nature of soft tissue injury symptoms will vary depending on the cause and location. Besides the obvious pain you'll feel, other localized symptoms may include:

• inflammation in the affected area

• redness

• muscle spasms

• muscle weakness

• increase and decrease in pain depending on use and rest of affected area

How Does Whey Protein Support the Recovery from a Soft Tissue Injury?

Simply put, proteins such as those in whey are made up of amino acids. These amino acids help your body build muscle after a workout. They also get delivered to the muscle fibres and boost the recovery process post-injury.

Undenatured whey protein, a by-product of cheese production, has the highest known levels of branched chain amino acids of any natural food source. It's these high levels that give whey protein its reputation for being so effective at muscle tissue repair. In particular, the amino acids glutamine and leucine help to reduce soft tissue damage.

In short, if you've suffered a soft tissue injury and you want to speed up the recovery process, give your body the support it needs and take a high quality whey protein. After all, while you may not fully understand or be aware of the complex healing process going on inside your body, pain is your warning signal that something has gone wrong. So just know that your body is in major healing mode and needs your support. 

Any time the body is recovering from an injury, it requires huge amounts of energy to undertake the process and get you well again. And that requires good nutritional support including good protein. Your food is your fuel. So make sure it's premium grade.