Whether you play sports, workout, or were involved an accident, recovering from an injury can be a long process. While certain injuries can take longer to heal than others, there are ways that you can help speed up the process. If you want to know how to heal injured joints faster, keep on reading.

Schedule Massage Therapy

Massaging the muscles surrounding the injured joint can help you get quick relief from the pain, and speed up your healing process. The trick is to use a topical ointment or liniment during the massage which can help make your muscles stronger and repair faster. However, in order to avoid further injury, you should refrain from getting a deep tissue massage if there is any swelling still present.

Eat the Right Foods

Food is not only tasty, but it can contain the nutrients that your body needs in order to function properly. When you eat well, your body can regenerate the cells that it needs in order to heal itself. Foods that are packed with vitamin C and vitamin A such as kale, citrus fruits, spinach, et cetera, can help your body produce more white blood cells, fight infection and more.

Performing the Right Exercises

While you might think that the last thing you should do is exercise when you have an injured joint, when done properly, exercising an injured joint can be very beneficial. You want to perform exercises that focus on total range of motion before you can begin working to strengthen the muscle. These range of motion exercises are important to your healing process as they help prevent your muscles from contracting and becoming immobile.

Get Plenty of Rest

Because your body performs all of its repair work, cell regeneration, et cetera while you are asleep, getting proper rest is imperative for your healing process. You must be sure that you are getting at least six hours of uninterrupted sleep every night along with eating and drinking well. This combination can help your body do what it is intended to do, which is take care of itself. However, no matter how well you eat or how many massages you get, all of your efforts start to work when your body is at rest.

Undergo Cryotherapy

Although this terminology might not be very familiar to you, cryotherapy is simply the process of icing down the muscle. This is typically done at the beginning stage of the injury as it is applied on areas that are swollen. The application of ice can help to reduce any apparent swelling as well as redness. By applying ice for a few minutes each hour, you can reduce swelling tremendously and help speed up your recovery.

Wear Compression Garments

The last thing you want is to end up causing more damage by moving the injured area too much or too quickly. With the use of compression garments, you can restrict movement in that area, so it can heal properly. These garments can also help to increase circulation in the affected area, which can also help with recovery.

Take Supplements

Although there are lots of foods you can eat that are rich in nutrients and help with cellular repair, taking supplements can help speed up that process as well. Chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine are supplements that are great for repairing cartilage in the knees. If you have injured your ACL, vitamin C supplements can help with cartilage and bone formation as well as strengthen your immune system. There are a number of supplements available that can work well for your specific injury, and help you recover much faster.

What to Expect

One of the first things you are likely to experience after having suffered an injury is swelling. By eating the right foods as well as implementing treatments, you can help to reduce this rather quickly. Once the swelling goes down, you should begin working on total range of motion and then strengthening your muscles. Depending on the type of injury sustained, you might need to do physical therapy as well.

If you want to know how to heal injured joints faster without the use of supplements, you can focus on specific food groups as well as manual therapy. Your healing will progress in stages, and each phase must be performed properly. As your recovery progresses, make sure you listen to your therapist as well as your body in order to heal properly. Rushing the process can cause your injury to heal poorly, so you should follow your treatment program precisely.