When it comes to preventing injury in your exercise routine are you thinking about joint inflammation? Some of the leading causes of injury during exercise can be attributed to already inflamed joints or a pre-existing injury that hasn’t manifested itself fully. There are couple ways that you can prevent further injury by decreasing systemic inflammation;

1) Maintain a diet in anti-inflammatory antioxidant rich foods such as dark leafy greens, berries and lean omega-3 rich proteins such as fish. Stay away from grains and refined sugars and avoid dairy products. In fact, if you do a detox cleanse and ONLY eat these foods, you’ll see a significant improvement in inflammation.

2) Elevate the injury above your heart. Often times an injury will send an increased amount of inflammatory receptors via the bloodstream to the injured area. The idea is when you’re injured your body will send the receptors and create inflammation causing increased blood flow to repair damaged tissue. But sometimes the toxicity doesn’t get pushed back to the heart and it sits in the injury site, creating swelling and impeding the process. An easy solution is to elevate the injury above your heart, aiding the blood flow back to be cleaned and recirculated. The more you help your blood flow to circulate through the injury site, the faster you’ll recuperate. If you’re exercising while injured, a smart idea would be to exercise first then ice and elevate after.

3) Another way of battling systemic inflammation is to take a supplement that aids and liver support. Your liver is a unique organ in that it allows your blood to flow through it and processes out all the toxins that your body does not need. Think of it as a coffee filter that filters out only the good stuff. Some supplements that Have been shown to decrease inflammation in your liver are milk thistle, dandelion root, beets and Tumeric. My favorite supplement brand, Now Vitamins, carries a liver detoxifier and regenerator support vitamin that actively aids in this process.