Benefits of bone broth are vast, but one overlooked benefit is it’s physical and mental impact on your body. People tend to forget, bone broth is excellent for physical and mental recovery.
This article is an independent study on the effects of bone broth for physical and mental recovery. I’m not a scientist. I’m a trainer. I see about 100 people per week between teams, group classes and one on one appointments. This means what I’m about to say is through my own functional application of bone broth for recovery. It’s not a theory or a guess, it’s a conclusion based on myself and others that have enjoyed the benefits of bone broth for recovery.
Keep It Simple
I mean, what are we talking about here anyways? Bone broth right? Caveman food. Bones, water and some other stuff from the earth. It’s not rocket science, so let’s keep it simple. I like simple. Simple works well, is repeatable and tends to have a side effect of success. I could be biased as a practitioner of Zen meditation that simple works well, however, out of the 100 plus people I see per week, the one’s that succeed stick to a simple plan. Bone broth for recovery is part of the plan. For this particular independent study I used myself and a few friends and clients. Should we take a minute and find out what the study was and our results?
Nick’s Background
First off, let me introduce myself and provide a little background information so you can understand my physical activities and caloric output on a daily basis. I’m 33 years old, husband, father of 2 (4 year old boy who’s nuts, 1 year old girl who’s also nuts, in a good way), business owner (independent gym, manual labor, 60 hours per week), hockey player in a competitive high level men’s league and avid bodyweight and kettlebell practitioner. I’m 178lbs at 6’2 with a body fat percentage of 6%. 7 nights per week I sleep an average of 5.5 hours per night. For the sake of this study you should know my daily physical output.
Organized workouts:
Monday, Day 1 – Kettlebells and calisthenics – 600 calories
Tuesday, Day 2 – Same
Wednesday, Day 3 – Same
Thursday, Day 4 – Hockey game – 1200 calories
I lift heavy kettlebells and deadlifts in conjunction with body weight exercises, mainly core stuff. Typically a workout burns 600 calories. I don’t train for soreness, I train for function.
Accidental workouts:
Days 1 – 7: I don’t know how many calories but it’s gotta be a lot because I chase around 2 nut cases below the age of 5. This kicks my butt way more than any workout I’ve ever done including the secret service snatch test.
Days 1-6: I run a gym and teach with my body. As a result, I lift and move weights all day.
At this point in my life I don’t get much sleep, work long hours and function with high levels of physical activity on a daily basis. I don’t take supplements besides food based mutli vitamin, vit d/k combo and cod liver/butter oil combo. No protein or neon colored powders for me.
The Method
For 30 days I changed nothing in my nutrition or daily schedule except for drinking bone broth in the morning.
First thing in the morning at 4:15 am, 1 cup of bone broth down the hatch with my normal breakfast. Occasionally a second cup of bone broth down the hatch, usually after my hockey games. I have to say the results were not immediate which, to me is a good sign. Typically good things take time.
I should also add I forgot about this study while going about my daily routine until the day I felt it, so we can scratch placebo effect. All of a sudden after a couple weeks I noticed a change in my waking up. Normally it takes a few minutes of pep talk to get up when it’s cold, dark, quiet, 4am and I’m stiff as hell from last night’s game or long day. I noticed getting out of bed was a little bit easier. My joints needed less time to warm up, which makes it easier to program the mind for a happy and productive day. If I don’t have to pep talk with my joints, I can go right to pep talking my mind. This is good.
Gut Support
My stomach and digestion feels great. If your stomach is sound and healthy you tend to digest the stuff you need to recover better. Everything relates to the gut. Healthy gut, healthy everything.
Immune System Support
Your immune system demands healthy digestion to be at it’s best. Bone broth certainly helped in this area. How can I tell? One way is by feeling and I was and still am feeling great. Another is the the age-old survival technique of pee and poo. What’s your pee and poo telling you? A lot if you take a look. There’s a reason toddlers are fascinated with their pee and poo. It’s one of our natural born methods of survival to look at our pee and poo. Our waste tells us how we’re doing inside.
Findings
In conclusion, if you want to train harder you need to implement bone broth into your diet. Not any old stuff, but the good stuff. You need it to be gelatinous. Don’t’ try and turn it into something it’s not. What I mean is, just drink it or eat it. It’s not ice cream or cookies, so it’s not going to taste like ice cream or cookies. It’s bone broth. Who cares if it taste good or not, it’s good for you. I happen to thoroughly enjoy the flavor of it and the only reason I even mention the flavor is because I’ve heard others grumbles about the flavor. But really, who cares, it’s good for you. If you like feeling good and recovering faster, you’ll love the flavor of bone broth because it’ll do just that for you. More importantly, you’ll love bone broth because it makes you better. I’m not writing this to endorse Osso Good but I will say, they do make a good bone broth. It’s the best tasting one I’ve had yet and its gelatinous, which is what you want.
Nick Lynch, Owner of Superb Health MKE
About the author
Husband, father, son, brother, coach, trainer, business entrepreneur, fitness and nature lover. Nick is the founder and owner of Superb Health. He lives in Milwaukee, WI with his wife Natalie, son Weston and daughter Vera.
Benefits Of Bone Broth For Recovery
Collagen/Gelatin
Quality bone broth is super high in gelatin due to the long simmering of bones with not only marrow exposed, but connective tissues that when break down offer a ton of gelatin for our bone broth. Bone broth when cold should have the consistency of jello, it’s a sign of a high quality product and what makes bone broth so excellent for your gut and joint health.
Anti-Inflammatory
Bone broth is in nature naturally which is a huge benefit to recovery from surgery, sporting event or just life in general. Helps with joint, intestine inflammation. Amino acids glycine and proline are the reasons for this anti-inflammatory benefit.
Amino Acid Glycine
- Promotes Muscle Growth Glycine has been found to help inhibit the deterioration of muscle tissues and boosts muscle recovery. In fact, it’s known as an “anti-aging amino acid” because of how it helps maintain lean muscle into old age, stimulates the secretion of human growth hormone, prevents loss of cartilage in joints, and even improves daytime energy, physical performance and mental capabilities (all important for athletes).
- Repairs and Protects Joints and Cartilage Along with the other amino acids found in bone broth (especially proline), glycine plays a part in the formation of collagen, promoting the growth and function of joints, tendons and ligaments. One-third of collagen is composed of glycine, and collagen is crucial for forming connective tissue that keeps joints flexible and able to withstand shock.
- Feeds the Brain It supports cognitive performance and the central nervous system because of how it helps regulate the metabolic synthesis of certain nutrients that the brain uses for energy. It helps regulate nerve impulses throughout the body by balancing electrolyte levels, such as calcium, chloride and potassium.
Amino Acid Proline
- Protects Cardiovascular Health Proline helps your artery walls release fat buildup in the bloodstream, shrinking the fat in the arteries and minimizing fat accumulation. Proline is needed for tissue repair within the joints and arteries, plus it helps control blood pressure.