How Long Does It Take to Get Back to Training After a Soft-Tissue Injury?

If you have pulled your hamstring muscle working out or sprained your ACL playing football, you have probably thought about how long it will take until you can get back to activity.

This answer depends on what type of injury it is, the severity, and how well your body heals with therapies and rehab.

What Is a Soft-Tissue Injury?

These types of injuries primarily affect your muscles, tendons, ligaments, fascia, or nerves and/or blood vessels. They often occur suddenly like a rolled ankle stepping off a curb incorrectly, or over-use stress from a job that requires repetitive movements every day. Sometimes this can also occur from working out too often without proper rest time or poor movement mechanics.

Generally, a less severe injury will likely improve over a few days to around 1-2 weeks, which a more moderate injury can take several weeks to a month. Severe injuries can take several months to heal.

The main takeaway from this is to understand that feeling improvements does not necessarily mean your body is ready to take training back to its full intensity.

When Can You Start Training Again?

Upon potentially returning to your normal activity, movement should feel comfortable. You should also have relative strength, mobility, and flexibility in the injured tissue.

The key is to gradually increase activity intensity over several sessions, instead of just jumping back into your normal routine. In the initial phase, try starting with a lower weight, less reps, shorter workout time, or exercises that have lower impact.

As the injured site starts to feel more improved, you can start to increase each of these variables.

Do Not Rush

The most common mistake following injury is taking the workouts back to full intensity way too soon.

Just because there is less pain with movement, the injured area might still require some time to build back up strength and handle the heavier load. Doing too much too soon can cause an additional injury or some aggravation of the current issue.

Soreness following your initial return is common. Caution should be taken if there is any swelling, weakness or pain.

How Chiropractic Care Can Help

Chiropractic can be a great addition to your recovery for many soft tissue injuries. Depending on your unique situation, most treatments can include adjustments, manual therapy, shockwave therapy, stretching, and specific strengthening exercises.

Pain reduction is only part of the goal. It is most beneficial for optimal healing to restore movement and strength of the area so that your activities can be performed safely and correctly.

Back to Training

Each return to activity timeline is different for everyone. Instead of following a time-based schedule, pay attention to how your body is feeling and handling the stressors being placed back on it.

If you have an injury that is keeping you doing the things you love, Carpe Diem Chiropractic can help to evaluate and run certain tests to assess what exactly is going on. We will then create a plan for how to get you back safely.