140: What If Recovery Began Before Injury?

Our bodies possess remarkable healing intelligence that can work faster and more effectively when properly supported through an integrative approach to recovery. The key is understanding that true recovery begins long before injury occurs, with maintenance being just as crucial as repair in building resilience.

• Nervous system maintenance creates balance between sympathetic and parasympathetic states through breathwork, intentional movement, and tools like contrast therapy
• Nutritional foundations prevent silent deterioration of joints, muscles, and fascia by addressing deficiencies in key nutrients
• Regular detoxification prevents chronic inflammation through seasonal cleanses, cruciferous vegetables, and practices like rebounding
• The repair process begins by clearing inflammation through eliminating inflammatory triggers and using targeted supplements
• Rebuilding the terrain requires supporting cellular regeneration with collagen, zinc/copper, vitamin C, and gentle load-bearing movement
• Integration addresses both physical and emotional aspects of injury through visualization and maintaining social connections
• Your skeletal structure completely regenerates approximately every five years, highlighting the importance of ongoing support

Grab the Rapid Recovery Blueprint linked in the show notes to get tools, tests and protocols. If you're ready for one-to-one support, you'll find a link to book a recovery consult below.

Chapters

• 0:00 Injury Doesn't Discriminate
• 2:04 Maintenance: Building Resilience Before Injury
• 4:56 Nutritional Foundations for Recovery
• 6:18 Detoxification as Injury Prevention
• 8:38 Repair Process: Accelerating Healing
• 10:58 Rebuilding the Terrain After Injury
• 14:22 Integration and Rewiring Emotional Imprints
• 15:30 Final Thoughts: Your Recovery Journey

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Whether it's a sprained ankle from your last workout, a herniated disc from years behind the desk or a full body trauma from a high impact car wreck injury doesn't discriminate. One moment you're fine. The next your world shifts and suddenly you're in pain. You're frustrated, maybe even questioning if you'll ever feel strong again. But here's the truth, if you'll ever feel strong again. But here's the truth your body is designed to heal powerfully, intelligently and often faster than you may think. That is if we've created the right environment. Stay tuned.

Speaker 1: 0:37

Hello, I'm Jeffrey Mort. If you're like most entrepreneurs, you're busy taking care of business. Yet who's taking care of you? If you're ready to take your energy and performance to the next level in your life and your business, then this podcast is for you, because today you're going to start breaking boundaries of your mind, body and business with integrative health, and when you do that, your possibilities are limitless. I'm grateful you're here. Yes, always grateful for you joining me on the Breaking Boundaries podcast. If you have any questions for me, you can use the send us a message feature in there and I'd be happy to answer your questions live on an upcoming episode.

Speaker 1: 1:19

In today's episode, we're diving deep into the high-performance integrative health approach to rapid recovery. Yes, I'm Jeffrey Mort, your personal high-performance health coach, and, like I said, I'm so grateful that you're here today how to bounce back faster, prevent re-injury and build a body that doesn't just heal but becomes more resilient over time. And here's the twist true recovery doesn't begin after you get hurt. It starts long before. So let's break it down into two powerful phases One's going to be maintenance and one's going to be repair. So we're talking about maintenance. Resilience is built, it's not borrowed. Most people think recovery starts after that injury, but by then you're already behind the curve. The best time to heal is before you're hurt, and I know that sounds strange. Right, but think about it. Athletes don't just train to perform, they train to prevent breakdown. High performance health is no different. So we're going to look at three key elements of injury proofing your life. The first one is nervous system maintenance. That's right. Most people don't think of injury prevention starting with the nervous system. But when your central nervous system, your CNS, is balanced meaning it's balanced between you know it's not sympathetic nervous system dominant or parasympathetic nervous system dominant, it's balanced between the both your body is in a state of readiness, not defense, and that means faster reflexes, better tissue regeneration and fewer inflammatory responses to things like daily stress.

Speaker 1: 3:19

Now, a few things that can be done here is practice. Breath work is absolutely amazing for building that CNS resilience. Daily movement and I'm not just talking about lack of being sedentary, I'm talking about intentional movement. Things like Tai Chi, qigong, walking are amazing. And then circadian rhythm alignment We'll talk a little bit more about that one coming up and then using tools like heart rate variability tracking.

Speaker 1: 3:49

Red light therapy is absolutely amazing. So is contrast therapy, or simply, you know, if you don't have the means or the availability for the resources for contrast therapy, that would be, uh, like a cold immersion system and an infrared sauna. Uh, you can simply do hot, cold shower cycles to regulate the stress load. That works amazing too. You know, having, uh, having the water without being burned, and the temperature should be limited in your shower so that you don't actually get physical burns Uh, but as hot as you can take it, for as long as you can take it, and then as cold as you can stand, for, uh, as long as you can stand, you know, maybe, maybe not as long as you can stand, We'll, we'll say um, you know, five breaths, 10 breaths. I like to count it in breaths than seconds so that, um, I'm focusing on my, my breath. And so those hot and cold shower cycles. Really, it regulates that stress load, creates resilience, reduces inflammation. So many benefits to it, as well as the mental resilience aspect.

Speaker 1: 4:55

Next, nutritional foundations. This is one of my favorite topics here. You know that you can't repair what you don't feed. Meaning if you're deficient in magnesium or omega-3s or B vitamins or lacking things like collagen and quality protein, your joints, your muscles and your fascia are silently deteriorating. And just talking about the fascia there for a second, I'm going to do an episode strictly on the fascia coming up, because it's absolutely amazing. It used to just be thought of as like a connective tissue and now there are experts that are saying the fascia is considered to be an organ of the body. So we'll do a full episode on that and how important it is and how to support it. But ways that you can support it quickly know your joints, your muscles, your fascia is daily foundational protocols. They're not extras, they are your cellular insurance plan, and I'm not talking about your cell phone, I'm talking about every cell in your body, all 30 or 50 trillion of them somewhere in between. There it's a great insurance plan for cellular health. And then focusing on An anti-inflammatory nutrition plan to keep your internal environment recovery ready Very, very important.

Speaker 1: 6:14

And then next, detoxification as injury prevention. That's right. An overloaded liver, sluggish lymphatic system and toxic tissues set the stage for chronic inflammation. That low-grade inflammation is the silent killer which slows recovery and invites injury. So regular seasonal functional medicine detoxes. I'm actually doing one right now. I'm right in the middle of my two-and-a-half-day liquid fast using daily greens. So you know, really dark, leafy green vegetables, cruciferous vegetables from the cruciferous vegetable family, meaning broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, asparagus, bok choy, like any of those are absolutely amazing because they contain compounds in them that are going to help your body detoxify.

Speaker 1: 7:05

Have access or have your own infrared sauna. Highly recommended. I love the Therasage 360. Plus, it's infrared and red light therapy Absolutely amazing. It's portable, it's affordable One of the best health investments I've ever made for myself.

Speaker 1: 7:21

Quality hydration, so making sure you're drinking filtered water, half your body weight in ounces. Supercharge your water with lemon and sea salt and if you want to take it to the next level, we can talk about hydrogen water as well, and that's you know what I consider quality hydration and then, of course, rebounding. What's rebounding? It's just simply jumping on, basically a mini trampoline, and if you don't have one of those, you can just bounce up and down on the ground. It's a little harder on the joints, so it's great to get a rebounder. You can pick one up on Amazon for about $50 or more.

Speaker 1: 7:53

Great way to help your body to stay clean and primed and ready to heal at a moment's notice. You know, I'm not going to lie here. Maintenance isn't glamorous. There's nothing you know sexy about health maintenance whatsoever. But it's where the real magic lives, because nobody doesn lives, because nobody wants to be laid up or injured or unable to perform at their occupation that they may or may not love.

Speaker 1: 8:20

You don't wait to brush your teeth until you get a cavity. That's really how it boils down. So why wait to support your recovery system until something breaks? It just doesn't make sense. So now, recovery that restores and not just rebuilds. This is the repair process. Let's say the injury has already happened, whether minor or major. What's next? The conventional path is usually okay we'll ice it, we'll rest it, maybe some pain meds, we'll wait and we'll hope for the best. But what if you could accelerate healing and restore function using your body's own built-in repair intelligence. Well, here's how we support that from the inside out.

Speaker 1: 9:04

The first phase is to clear the inflammation and reset the signals. We want to eliminate sugar, eliminate alcohol and process foods immediately. We really shouldn't be doing those things anyways, but if a person is, that's the first thing that needs to go, because those create that low-grade inflammation. And then using short-term anti-inflammatory support like things like curcumin, bromelain, omega-3s, magnesium Absolutely amazing. We have a great product called Inflammasoothe with our partner Equal Life Absolutely amazing for soothing inflammation. It has that curcumin, it has that bromelain, and then we can add in a daily omega-3 support capsule probably three grams per day during recovery. Daily omega-3 support capsule probably three grams per day during recovery, and then a full spectrum magnesium maybe one at lunch and two at dinner, and then some magnesium glycinate before bed. Would be an absolutely amazing anti-inflammatory support.

Speaker 1: 10:02

And then bringing in some neuro rehab techniques like vagal toning, vagal nerve toning, gentle cranial sacral therapy. That was absolutely instrumental for me, healing from some just lifelong traumas and releasing that energy or somatic movement to reset the central nervous system trauma. I always like to use the analogy that if we can put a symphony on a plastic vinyl record, then it really makes sense that an impact like a car wreck or something along those lines can imprint that instantaneous energy into the cells of the body and that needs to be released. Craniosacral therapy is a great way to do that.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Phase two we want to rebuild the terrain. We want to support muscle tissue and cellular regeneration with things like high-quality collagen. Zinc is absolutely amazing. Probably. Add in a little bit of copper there in the right ratio. Vitamin c probably as ascorbic acid, maybe about a gram per day, maybe even in this case you could go two to five grams per day, as long as it's not causing any bowel motility issues. Adding in some silica and, of course, amino acids are all going to be fantastic for supporting that tissue and cellular regeneration.

Speaker 1: 11:35

Now, if energy was due to a deficiency, like stress fractures or ligament tears, we would probably want to start with testing. We probably run what's called the minerals and metals test. This is the hair tissue mineral analysis to assess root causes and correct those imbalances. We want to make sure that maybe too much calcium or phosphorus is not being pulled away from the bones and that could cause, you know, easy stress fractures, and then we'll know exactly how to supplement once we do that test, so that we can be supporting the body and avoid those things. You know, you don't. You don't have to be old and brittle to have brittle bones, or old and frail, I should say, to have brittle bones. That can happen just from a simple nutrient deficiency, like not enough magnesium. The body is actually going to pull that calcium out of um, out of the bones, to be able to make up for that. The body is um. You know it's going to use what it has for what it needs as often as it can or needs to, and sometimes that causes deficiencies elsewhere in the body. So we want to test, make sure we don't have deficiencies or toxicities for that matter, and then take action accordingly.

Speaker 1: 12:47

And then, last, on this rebuild the terrain. Phase two part is to incorporate gentle load bearing movement. Now, I know you know if you're in a, you know, rough and tough industry, that gentle load bearing movement might not be something that you have time for. But honestly, if you're already injured you really don't have time for further setbacks. And that gradual load-bearing exercise, gradual exercise program that we have is absolutely amazing for that rebuilding. You know, when I first started, you may or may not know, my lead domino into the wellness industry was Tai Chi and Qigong and I quickly realized how those exercises helped to build bone density and strength and conditioning Absolutely amazing. And it also stimulates growth for the muscles and the bones.

Speaker 1: 13:41

Keep in mind, you know you don't get one skeleton for life. Your skeleton is no different than your skin cells, your blood cells. It has a cellular life cycle called apoptosis, programmed cellular death. Your skin cells regenerate on a daily basis. Your blood cells regenerate about every 120 days. Your skeleton regenerates between a little bit slower, but probably every five years. You actually have a new skeletal structure in your body. So if you can support that regeneration system, you're going to be much better off, much more resilient and avoid things like stress, fractures, broken ribs and other things like that.

Speaker 1: 14:19

And then phase three integrate and rewire. Every injury carries a physical and emotional imprint. As I was talking about the symphony on a vinyl record, we want to use this phase to address both physical and emotional. So things like visualization, hypnotherapy or neurolinguistic programming can actually help to reframe trauma. And then continue foundational support and gradually reintroduce movement Sunlight don't forget that Sunlight as a nutrient that is absolutely crucial for regenerating cells in the body, for hormone production and so much. And then, of course, don't forget about or rule out social connection, and I'm not talking about social media. Don't forget about or rule out social connection. And I'm not talking about social media, I'm talking about actual deep level social connections and maybe revisiting with friends and family that mean a lot to you. So this integrative path doesn't just heal tissue, it restores trust in your body.

Speaker 1: 15:21

So, wrapping things up here, your body remembers. Here's what I want you to remember. You don't need to wait for the next injury or burnout, breakdown or diagnosis to start your recovery journey. Daily, functional level maintenance builds your recovery reserve and when life hits hard and it will your body already knows what to do. Whether you're a weekend warrior, a busy professional, a full-time athlete or coming out of a life-altering trauma, you're built to bounce back. And let's not just recover, let's rebuild stronger. If you want a step-by-step integrative roadmap for maintenance and recovery, you can grab the rapid recovery blueprint, linked in the show notes. You'll get tools, tests and protocols. I've used with everyone from athletes to accident survivors. And if you're ready for one-to-one support, let's talk. You'll find a link to book a recovery consult below in the show notes Until next time, remember your body is your greatest ally. Stay strong, stay resilient and keep breaking boundaries. Bye-bye everybody.