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Understanding Injury

by | Jan 21, 2025

patient with leg injury
You were going about your day and something happened that pushes your life in a very different direction that you intended or wanted. Injuries do just that. They are inconvenient, challenging, and, for the most part, painful. They can affect work, hobbies, sleep, family dynamics, and the rest of life. The reality is most of us (your clinical team included) have, and will, experience injuries at some point in time. They are quite common and when they happen, there’s no way to rewind and go back, you can only go forward.
The human body is resilient and can heal from many different and complicated injuries. Healing is different from recovery and when you are working on understanding your injury, you should be using them as separate processes. There are 4 stages of healing and recovery and for each consider these strategies.
First, let’s review the healing and recovery process that your body went through to get you to where you are now:
  • Protection phase – the first 7 days after an injury
    The Goal of Healing and Recovery – To prevent further damage and let your body begin the healing process, and manage inflammation and pain.

Symptoms: It’s only just happened. You might have swelling or bruising and pain or symptoms are top of mind. This is where “rest and protect” can be helpful. The R.I.C.E.R. Protocol – Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevate, and Referral – might be used for initial treatment for soft tissue and breaks. The M.E.T.H. protocol – Movement, Elevation, Traction and Heat – is another option which aims to work with your body’s natural healing mechanisms. Imaging may be requested to get a better idea of the extent of your injury and guide the treatment plan. *Passive treatment is more useful and directed at identifying the extent of injury and supporting the body’s natural healing processes while managing inflammation and pain. Other protocols may be suggested by your initial treatment team.

  • Repair Phase – After the Protection Phase, up to 6 weeks
    The Goal: Recovering your range of motion and strength

Throughout this phase, your body is laying down scar tissue and the need to “protect” the injured area is lessened. Starting gentle movement and appropriate exercises for your injury will help the tissues begin to tolerate load. You should continue to be aware of your injury and symptoms to make sure you do not excessively overload the tissue and cause re-injury. The protocol(s) you used in the Protection Phase may still be useful in this stage for managing swelling and symptoms.

You should continue to exercise and move the rest of your body in this stage to maintain your overall strength, conditioning, and functional abilities.

A combination of *passive and **active treatment is used in this phase to manage symptoms and promote recovery.

  • Remodeling phase – Between 2 weeks and 6 months post-injury
    The Goal – Loading tissues to minimize muscle loss and build strength

Your scar tissue is learning how to act like the tissue is replaced. Loading through exercise will produce additional tissue to strengthen and support the healed scar tissue. It will also influence how your body adapts and to what extent you can return to your normal functional activities in life.

Which exercises are recommended depend on your location and severity of your injury. Progress is dependent on your consistency and returning to pre-injury ability takes commitment AND perseverance – but it pays off.

It is usually surprising for most people how their injury or surgery has impacted their strength, endurance or functional abilities.

**Active treatment is prioritized for initiating long-term symptom management strategies with *passive treatment for short-term symptom relief.

 

  • Functional Phase/Process (and Ongoing Remodeling) – After 2 weeks post injury
    The Goal – To recover your function for specific tasks (at work or with hobbies, leisure, sport) and life

Actually, this starts relatively early and continues until you are satisfied with what you are able to do. It is not a “true” phase of recovery as much as it is a process to go through that requires consistency and commitment to exercise to progress or maintain function. Your goals become important for exercise selection as you are mimicking work or life activities while managing your symptoms.

“Functional,” refers to the tasks you are working towards doing. The reliance on your team becomes less as you discover symptom management strategies, and have actionable points to work on and toward your specific (S.M.A.R.T.E.R.) goals. This is not to say flare ups, symptoms, and bumps in the road to recovery don’t occur in this process. In the beginning, your team is there to support you; yet, as you progress, you will be managing these things on your own through exercise and other learned symptom management strategies.

**Active treatments are encouraged to promote independence, confidence, and ongoing long term management strategies

 

training with ball with professional personal trainer

Remember That The Stages of Injury and Recovery Overlap

As you can see, the length of these phases overlap. This is because some of each phase’s goals can be worked on at the same time (i.e., strength, range of motion, and function). Also, there are other factors that might influence what stage of recovery you are in, including, but limited to:
  • Lifestyle (smoking, drinking, stress management, sleep quality, how physically active you were prior to injury)
  • Medical history and co-existing medical conditions
  • The complexity and severity of your injury
  • Other injuries (managed or unmanaged)
  • How well you followed the protocols and recommendations for your injury
  • How diligent you have been with your exercises

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