Rehabilitation support to assist you from injury to returning to movement and sport

Recovering your strength and mobility after injury

All of us, at some stage in our lives, are likely to get an injury which limits our ability to move like normal.

Depending on the severity of the injury, time and rest may eventually heal minor injuries, but for more serious injuries, a medical intervention followed by a rehabilitation plan is needed to ensure we can return to a normal life.

Your rehabilitation plan is made together with a doctor and/or physiotherapist and will consist of treatment combined with an exercise plan. To make sure you do the various exercises correctly, it’s always a good idea to make sure you have an exercise expert to assist you with the plan.

As your body recovers, they will also help you adapt the plan to your ability level.

The aim is to rebuild muscle strength, endurance, flexibility and mobility to assist your body in regaining its full form and function.

In this post, I’ll take you through what is considered the 4 phases of rehabilitation to prevent relapse.

Rest and Protect — acute phase

The first step in rehabilitation is to control the pain and potential swelling. This is best done by stopping the activities which caused the inflammation and damage in the first place.

During this phase it’s essential to give your body time to rest and recover.

Some injuries will also benefit from the use of ice and elevation, or with pain and/inflammation management medication. Your physician will be able to guide you on what is most appropriate for your injury.

Recover Your Motion

During the second phase it’s time to start mobilising your body again.

Based on your rehabilitation plan your exercise expert will guide you through soft tissue and joint mobilisation exercises.

It’s important to understand that if you start exercising too early or take your stretches too far, you risk slowing the healing process or even making your injury worse.

Recover your strength

It can be hard mentally and physically to feel how an injury impacts your muscles and physique negatively.

That’s why an important part of the rehabilitation plan is to minimise the muscle and endurance loss by incorporating exercises that don't aggravate the injury, but still maintain your cardiovascular endurance and muscles to be as healthy and strong as possible.

Recover your Function

The last phase is all about recovering your full function after the injury.

Exercises will be tailored to focus on areas like coordination and balance, as well as strength training to support your specific sport and overall body so you can get back to doing what you love.

Are you looking for rehabilitation support?

If you have injured yourself and are looking for support with your rehabilitation plan, we’re here to help.

At Wellness in Motion, we work alongside highly respected and qualified physiotherapists.

Once they have given you the clearance to start the rehabilitation program, our wellness coaches, exercise scientists and physiologists will support and guide you through the program. This way you ensure that you’re not doing further harm to your body.

Contact us to hear more about how we can help you recover from an injury.

Johannah

Founder of Wellness in Motion