How to Safely Return to Your Workouts After Physical Therapy

How to Safely Return to Your Workouts After Physical Therapy

Expert and Physical Therapist, Laura Christiansen, weighs in on how to safely return to workouts after completing physical therapy:

They say there are only two constants in life, death and taxes. I feel confident we can add body breakdown occurring as well. I have over 33 years of orthopedic experience as an orthopedic physical therapist as well a a rehab candidate/failure myself. One of the most frequently asked questions from active individuals is "when can I........".

Active people want to be active! I advise patients to allow the 2-4 weeks of soft tissue healing to take place, let your collagen fibers lay down the groundwork for appropriate scar tissue before aggravating it. Use ice, elevation and rest to allow this to happen. While in the resting phase we can always work other body parts. Tissue responds first to range of motion, having the full range pain-free will lead to the next step of strengthening our tissue. After you have achieved full range of motion and most of the strength to allow pain-free range, we can slowly add impact.

In reality what this may look like for a foot or knee injury; work the upper body without irritating the leg for 2 weeks, at week 2 add slow range of motion to the affected area. Around week 5-6 you can add strength in the pain-free motion, then adding impact at the end like low level jumping, a slow walk to jog program.

I always advise that we live in a first world country in the 21st century, find a good MD if you are not improving in 2 weeks. Find a good manual therapist to partner with, research shows 40% manual care and 60% appropriate exercise is the best way to recover.

If you live in the Charleston, SC area and are looking for a physical therapist, you can reach our to Laura on Facebook and Instagram @christiansenlaura

Cheers,

Heather McCreight