Road to Recovery: Safely Returning to Exercise Post-Injury

Recovering from an injury can feel like crossing a bridge that abruptly stops in the middle – you've completed physical therapy, received medical clearance, but now what? This critical gap between rehabilitation and returning to your regular fitness routine is where many people stumble, often rushing back too quickly or without proper guidance.

The journey back to exercise after injury demands respect for your body's unique healing timeline. As I share from both professional expertise and personal experience, the standard recovery windows doctors provide (like "8-12 weeks") are merely guidelines – some heal faster, others slower. The key is understanding that your recovery journey belongs only to you, regardless of how quickly others might bounce back from similar injuries.

This episode walks you through the essential steps for safely returning to activity: securing proper medical clearance, working with movement specialists who can spot compensatory patterns, implementing a truly gradual progression, and perhaps most importantly, developing the patience to honor your body's signals. I offer practical examples using runners returning to their mileage, explaining how alternating walking and running segments allows the body to rebuild strength systematically rather than risking reinjury through immediate high-intensity workouts.

The mental challenges often prove more difficult than the physical ones during recovery. Progress comes in waves – improvement followed by temporary setbacks – requiring a positive mindset that trusts in your body's capacity to heal. Whether you're currently navigating injury recovery or want to prepare yourself for future setbacks, this episode provides the framework for a successful return to the activities you love. Ready to rebuild your strength safely? Join my upcoming 11-Minute Fitness Challenge or reach out for personalized guidance on your fitness journey!

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome and Introduction to Injury Recovery
• 1:50 Getting Medical Clearance First
• 3:30 Starting Slow After Injury
• 6:30 Listening to Your Body's Signals
• 9:20 Staying Positive During Recovery
• 10:20 Episode Closing and Upcoming Challenge

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of why Not Wellness. You know me, I am your movement specialist, Kat Corchado. You know I get asked a lot of questions all the time from clients, from people who are potential clients, from people who just want to know. Like my husband, He'll ask questions sometimes. So I want to delve into a topic that many of us have pondered at some point, even me how soon after an injury can someone start exercising again and what precautions should be in place? Great question.

Speaker 1: 0:42

So before we dive into that, it's crucial to remember that everybody's body and every injury is different. We all heal differently. So when the doctor says, oh, eight to 12 weeks, some people might take them four weeks or seven weeks, or 12 weeks or 16 weeks, depending upon the injury. So just because you and your friend had the same injury doesn't mean that you are both going to heal equally. So the information I'm going to provide to you today should not replace professional medical advice, and please always consult with a healthcare professional before making any decisions about your health and fitness routine, especially after an injury. All right, so you've been injured, you have the surgery or maybe not surgery. But if you did both of you, whether you had surgery or not. You're going to go through PT, which I've heard can be brutal, and you have been signed off by your doctor. Your PT says you're good to go. Now what? There's this blank space. So you've been working out, working out, working out injury, recover from the injury, and then it's like a bridge that stops in the middle and you're just like wait, where do we go from here? So the first step is always ask your doctor is it okay? Even though they said just make sure that you get that clearance, and your doctor is going to help you assess your condition and determine if and when it's safe for you to start exercising again. This is a critical step because starting too soon can lead to further injury and delay your recovery. So you've got the green light from your doctor. The next step is to consider working with a movement specialist, hello, or a personal trainer or a Pilates instructor or whatever. That is, Someone who is going to watch your body and only your body, Kind of letting you know what's going on.

Speaker 1: 2:55

Now, what I've seen a lot of times is the injury heals, but you've been putting so much. How can I say this? So your other side, your opposite side, has been doing so much work and now it's suffering a little bit. So a personal trainer, a movement specialist or a Pilates instructor can look at your body and say, okay, this side you need to stretch, this side needs strengthening or whatever that is or could be for you. So you go to your PT, you get the clearance. You go to your doctor, you get the clearance and working with a professional can help you to avoid re-injuring yourself.

Speaker 1: 3:39

So how many times and I've done this, I'm confessing you get an injury and you go right back to the same intensity, the same weight, whatever that is. Maybe it's running, You've been running five, eight, 10 miles and you go right back to what happens. Your body says, excuse me, but now we're not doing this right now. And so you know, you get all these other things happening. Your body's like whoa, what just happened? So you have to get into this slowly.

Speaker 1: 4:14

Let's take a runner, for instance. You've been cleared, you're working with your PT or personal trainer, whatever that is for you, and you want to get back to your 10 miles that you've been doing. Maybe, I don't know, maybe you're doing 10 miles over the week, Maybe you're doing 10 mile runs on the weekend. We'll just call 10 miles. Are you just going to get out there and run the same pace? Oh no, you might just get out there and walk. Maybe you need to walk a little bit. Walk five miles, seven miles, 10 miles, See how you feel, and always wait two days after your workout. Why that? Delayed onset, muscle soreness or other things that could show up. The walk was fine. You say, okay, what's next? Maybe you do a whole lot of walking and maybe a little bit of running, and then it's a little less walking and more running and pretty soon you're running a mile or two or five.

Speaker 1: 5:18

You've got to be slowly. Take this slowly and you've got to be aware of it. Does it suck? Sure, Cause you want to just get out there and do the thing. I know, Cause I've done that too. But you have to understand what your body's been through. So when you start exercising again, it's essential to listen to your body. How many times have I said this? Do you guys hear it? The first 40 times? That's okay, Cause I'm going to keep saying it until you guys get it. Your body is going to tell you what you're capable of doing. So start slow, Gradually, increase the intensity of your workouts. If you feel pain, you stop and rest. Remember, it's okay to have some discomfort, but pain is a sign that you're pushing your body too hard. That's why I said wait two days until after your first workout to see how you're feeling and even moving forward until you're right back to normal.

Speaker 1: 6:19

It's also crucial to warm up before each workout. Now I'm kind of on the fence about this. If you have an injury, by all means do what you need to do Foam rolling, dynamic workout or not. Warm up I'm sorry, not workout, but warm up, dynamic warm up, you know, foam rolling, those things that you need to do to get that injured side, whatever that is, for you to start to feel a little bit better. So I'm going to put in here not just warm up before the workout, but do what you need to do to get that part of your body to feel good, but definitely always stretch and cool down afterwards. See, that's the part we're missing. We think, ah, I don't need to stretch, yeah, you do Not so much before if you were just, you know, didn't have an injury and say you know, if it's warm outside, start off slow and then gradually increase your pace if you're a runner or whatever it may be you're doing On an injury, do what you got to do. If you have some PT exercises you have to do prior, then do those.

Speaker 1: 7:28

Also, you want to be able to understand that you have to have proper nutrition and hydration before, during and after. Specifically, if you're a runner, and even I'm going to say, in any workout you should be drinking water. So, for instance, if you have a 16 ounce container of water, that after that workout it should be drinking water. So, for instance, if you have a 16 ounce container of water, that after that workout it should be either gone or almost gone. I'm just putting it out there, Just saying so.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Lastly, here's the part that we tend to fall back on or it tends to just fall away is stay positive. Your body's going to make an improvement and then backtrack and make an improvement and then backtrack, and then eventually you're going to notice there isn't so much backtrack anymore that it just keeps feeling better and better. If you are consistently in pain, if you are always you know backtracking then maybe it's time to go get it checked with your doctor and make sure that you're recovering on a schedule that's appropriate for your body, but also understand that your body has to do this in increments. Stay positive. That's the hardest part of this. All you think it's never going to end, it does. But if I'm always thinking it's always going to hurt, it's always going to feel bad, then guess what it probably will. But if I have a positive outlook and say, you know what, my body's going to get better when my body is ready to do it, but in the meantime, you're helping your body get there. So that's all for today's episode, and remember your health is your wealth.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I also want to invite you if you are wondering whether or not you can come back after an injury and you need someone to talk to about it, Reach out to me. Let's have a conversation. Let's find out how we can get you back to what you're doing. If you also are interested, I'd love to have you try a free week of small space Pilates. We do weight training, stretching, some Pilates, but mostly weight training, Because women, we need this. But let's talk about your fitness. And also, while I'm here, I'm having a Keep it Moving 11-Minute Fitness Challenge coming up the 19th through the 22nd 19, 22nd, either 22nd or 23rd, Monday through Friday. All you have to do is show up. You don't need anything. So smallspacefailiescom forward slash challenge. All it costs you is your email. So until then, you know me, keep it moving and you'll hear from me soon again. Take care Bye.