Sports Injury Recovery: When to Rest vs. When to Move
Navigate injury recovery with expert guidance on when rest is necessary and when movement aids healing.
Finding the Balance in Recovery
You have just tweaked something during your run, twisted an ankle playing basketball, or felt a pop in your shoulder at the gym. Your first instinct might be to stop all activity and rest until it feels better. While that impulse is understandable, research now shows that the right kind of movement is often crucial for optimal healing.
Understanding when to rest and when to move can make a significant difference in how quickly and completely you recover. Let us help you navigate this balance.
Why Complete Rest Is Not Always the Answer
For decades, the standard advice was RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation. Extended rest was seen as essential for healing. But while protecting an injury initially makes sense, prolonged immobilization comes with its own problems.
When you stop moving an injured area entirely, muscles begin to weaken and shrink. Joints stiffen as they lose mobility. Surprisingly, tissue healing actually slows without appropriate movement stimulating blood flow. And the longer you stay inactive, the longer your return to normal activity takes.
The Modern Approach to Injury Recovery
Current evidence supports a two-phase approach known as PEACE and LOVE.
PEACE guides the immediate period after injury: Protect from further damage, Elevate the injured area, Avoid anti-inflammatory medications initially (they can slow early healing), Compress to manage swelling, and Educate yourself about realistic recovery expectations.
LOVE takes over once the initial acute phase passes: Load the tissue gradually with appropriate movement, maintain Optimism since your mindset genuinely affects recovery, promote Vascularization by getting blood flowing through gentle activity, and use Exercise to restore full function.
Signs That Rest Is What You Need
Stop activity and seek professional assessment if you experience sharp or severe pain, swelling that continues worsening, inability to bear weight, a joint that feels unstable or gives way, or numbness and tingling.
Signs That Gentle Movement Will Help
Movement is typically beneficial when pain is mild and manageable, swelling has stabilized or is decreasing, you can move through at least partial range of motion, and activity does not make your pain worse afterward.
How a Physiotherapist Guides Your Recovery
Working with a physiotherapist removes the guesswork from injury recovery. We accurately assess how severe your injury is, develop a graduated plan for returning to activity, strengthen the muscles surrounding the injury to provide better support, and help prevent reinjury through proper rehabilitation.
Getting Back to What You Love
Do not let uncertainty about your injury delay your recovery or keep you sidelined longer than necessary. Book an assessment with our sports physiotherapy team for expert guidance on your path back to activity.