“Muscles tend to hog the spotlight when it comes to recovery and sports nutrition, but if you’ve ever injured a finger, then you know that your muscles are pretty useless without your tendons and ligaments. Tendons are thick bundles of collagen that connect muscle to bone and allow movement, while ligaments are flexible bundles of collagen that connect bone to bone and protect your joints. They have slightly different functions in the body, but they are both forms of connective tissue made up of collagen, elastin, proteoglycans (chains of sugars attached to proteins), and minerals like copper, manganese, and calcium.” –Aicacia Young, RDN
If you’ve ever had a finger injury, you know it’s not sweet, and that often times it’s a long, slow process to fully recover. The good news is there are nutrients you can make sure you’re including in your diet to help with the healing process.
This article from climbhealthy.com, talks about the vitamins and minerals that can be helpful in strengthening your tendons and ligaments and explains their specific functions in the body.
It also includes a list of the foods you can eat that correspond with the beneficial vitamins and minerals. To wrap it up, this article includes a super healthy Finger-Fortifying Kale Salad recipe. Delicious.
READ IT HERE: Foods That Strengthen Your Tendons and Ligaments
(photo courtesy of climbhealthy.com)
If you want more information like this from dietitian Aicacia Young, she just released an eBook on TrainingBeta all about nutrition for climbers, the Rock Climbing Nutrition eBook. It’s a 66-page digital nutrition guide packed with useful information including climbing and rest day guidelines, tips to prevent injuries and illnesses, sample meal plans, recipes, and so much more. It’s awesome!
Great! Like your blog
I must have eaten a pretty ligament loving diet as 10 weeks ago, instead of my medial ligament breaking in my knee, it broke off a big chunk of my femur. And i have a calcium rich diet too. Ligaments of steel!!!