If we are regular in our routine with exercise and physical activity, an injury is bound to happen at some point. They can be very minor, like an ankle roll, that takes a day or two to feel normal, or larger injuries, such as sprains, strains, breaks, bruises, concussions, and more. If exercise is something that led to the injury, how important is exercise to injury recovery? Well, no matter how the injury occurred, exercise and movement could and should be an important part of your recovery. Certainly, timelines and expectations will vary depending on the nature of the injury, however, most recovery timelines benefit from exercise.
How to determine where to start recovery
Many factors affect the rate of recovery from an injury, and in many instances, recovery is not a linear process but can feel rather random. To know if/when to start up with exercise again, there are some signs and guidelines to follow. How do you know when to start exercising again? Depending on the severity of the injury, getting physician approval, and/or working with other providers like physical therapists, can help determine not only when you are physically ready, but mentally ready too. The risk of returning to exercise too early is making the injury worse and further delaying your recovery timeline, so starting at the right time is very important. Working with medical professionals to look for signs like improved pain, swelling, and stiffness can influence when you are ready to start recovery.
Mental preparations
In some cases, you may be feeling mentally ready, but not get clearance from your doctor, and it is important to heed those warnings. And in other cases, you may be given clearance, but do not mentally feel ready. Another step in the recovery process is mental preparation. Do you know why or how you got injured, and is there something to be done differently next time to avoid the injury? Do you listen and respond to your body, or do you continually push the limits? Ways of preventing further or another injury are good to reflect on, and sometimes there was not anything you did wrong to cause the injury, and that in and of itself may give you pause to exercise again. During recovery, it is important to stay positive as this will aid the recovery, and not focus on the losses of time and momentum during recovery.
Starting recovery
When you have determined you are ready for exercise it is best to start low and slow. At any stage during a break in exercise habits, you should not return to the intensity of your last exercise session. This is true even for acute illness, if you have a cold and are taking a few days to a week break, you should not return to high-intensity exercise at the same level you were at. There will likely be some losses in fitness during this time, however small. A general rule is starting at 50% or less of your normal level of activity, but again this is injury-dependent. As you become consistent with exercise and remain pain-free, you can start to increase by about 10% every week to every few weeks based on how you respond. In these instances of returning to exercise, be sure you are dedicated to your warm-up and cool-down portions of the workout as this can be a specific way to focus on supporting your injury and minimize the risk of making it worse.
Listen for changes and mix it up
As you return to exercise, it may be in a different form than you are used to. In recovery, this is a good time to cross-train, where you are engaging in two or more forms of exercise to improve performance in one area. This helps to work on major muscle groups of the body by building strength and keeping you moving during recovery. Maybe you are a runner, but you are not cleared for running or impact yet, but you have been cleared for low-impact exercises like swimming or biking. Trying new forms or doing multiple forms of activity can be part of your recovery journey.
Through the recovery, and even when not dealing with an injury, an important reminder is to listen to your body. Part of being a good listener is not overriding feelings of discomfort, pain, swelling, etcetera, but responding to how your exercise routine may be going. Perhaps you need more rest days than you did before, or maybe you cannot exercise as long, or at as high of an intensity as you once used to. That is okay. Learning what is a little bit of discomfort that is tolerable in your healing is an ideal pathway to discover where your current conditioning can restart from, versus pushing past pain to get back to the previous conditioning level which will likely make the injury worse, delay recovery, and in some instances cause permanent damage. If you experience pain for an hour to multiple hours after exercise, consider taking several days rest before returning to a workout, and when you do be sure the intensity level is less than the previous workout to ensure you are feeling good going forward.
Injuries can be a frustrating process, from dealing with the initial event itself to full recovery. Remember to remain positive and use your body as a guide as you work on recovering.
Kimberly Burke is a lecturer in the Department of Health and Exercise Science and the director of the Adult Fitness Program at Colorado State University. Adult Fitness offers exercise opportunities for employees of CSU as well as community members while providing hands-on learning experiences for health promotion students. To learn more, see the Adult Fitness Program website
