Injury Recovery and Rehabilitation Exercises

If you’re used to exercising regularly, then it can be pretty disheartening when you’re sidelined due to an injury. Whether you perform moderate or more intense levels of exercise, an injury is still an injury and it needs time to recover.

Knowing how to safely return to exercise after injury is critical so you don’t do further damage or suffer a new injury altogether. With the right rehabilitation exercises, you can speed up your injury recovery time and get back to exercising regularly.

Injury Rehabilitation and Exercises

How you return to exercising really depends on the injury you’ve suffered—where the injury is located and how severe it is. Your existing level of health will also impact your recovery time and the rehabilitation progress you’ll make.

Below are some of the types of injury recovery exercises for specific types of injuries and what to expect as you return to exercise after your injury. These are exercises you can repeat multiple times daily to promote strength and rehabilitation.

It’s encouraged to review all rehabilitation and recovery exercises with a professional trainer or physician before diving in. Getting expert advice will ensure you’re not doing too much too soon.

1. Back Injury Recovery

Properly recovering from a back injury is critical to your spinal health. It ensures you maintain your mobility, posture and muscle strength so you can protect your spine. The key to recovering from a back injury is your core.

After having suffered a back injury, it’s important to focus on strengthening your core—a powerhouse muscle group consisting of over 30 muscles in your abdomen and low back. Having a strong core will reduce the risk of developing chronic pain from your injury and will mitigate the chance of reinjuring your back.

If you’re returning to exercise after an injury to your back, try these core strengthening moves:

Pelvic Tilts: Lie with your back flat on the floor, knees bent. Place your hands on your hip bones and slowly tilt your pelvis toward and then away from your rib cage. You’ll feel your low back lift. Continue this movement for one minute.
Bird Dogs: Begin on hands and knees with a tight core. Slowly extend one arm straight forward and the opposite leg straight behind, holding for 3-5 seconds. Bring your arm and leg back to center and switch sides. Repeat 6 times per side.

2. Shoulder Injury

Shoulder injuries such as bursitis or tendonitis can be chronic and take a long time to heal. They can cause severe pain and impact your quality of life, making it difficult to perform movements such as reaching, pulling or pushing.

Because shoulder injuries often occur due to overuse, such as from repetitive motions, it’s difficult to perform shoulder injury rehab right away. Your shoulder needs time to rest so it can actually get stronger before you start exercising again.

Once you’ve been cleared to begin using it again, shoulder injury rehab is the next step. You can rehabilitate and strengthen your shoulder muscle with the following exercises:

Pendulum: In a standing position bend forward at the waist and support yourself on a counter or chair with one arm. Let your injured arm hang down. Gently swing your arm back and forth, side to side, then in circles. Repeat on the other side. Perform this exercise 3 times daily.
Crossover Arm Stretch: Stand with shoulders straight and relaxed. Gently pull one arm straight across your chest. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and repeat on the other side.

3. Hamstring Injury

Hamstring strains can be incredibly painful and debilitating. Like shoulder injuries, if a hamstring injury isn’t properly rehabilitated, it can become a chronic or recurring problem. To properly rehabilitate your hamstring, it’s important to find ways way to continue to use it without straining it even more.

You can perform isometric hamstring exercises which flex the muscles without stretching them. Additionally, as part of hamstring injury rehab, you’ll want to strengthen your glutes. Because your hamstrings and glutes work together, having strong glute muscles can prevent future hamstring injuries.

To start your rehabilitation, try these two hamstring exercises after injury:

Single Leg Bridge: Lie on the ground, back flat and knees bent. Activate your glute muscles and raise one leg up. Keeping your leg raised, push into your heel and raise your hips off the floor. Keep your shoulders flat to the ground, and your core, glutes and hamstring engaged. Repeat 10 times on each side.
Hamstring Curl: Lie on your front with your legs straight. Place a pillow under your stomach if it’s more comfortable. Slowly bend the knee of your affected leg toward your buttock, stopping when you feel resistance. Continue this motion 8-12 times per side.

4. Groin Injury

Groin injuries can be caused by pulled or strained groin muscles (adductors). These injuries typically affect athletes and can recur if not properly treated.

After resting and icing a groin injury, you may decide to return to physical activity with some groin injury rehab exercises:

Adductor Squeeze: Lie down with your back flat on the ground. Raise bent legs so your shins are parallel with the floor. Place a soccer ball between your knees and squeeze them together until you feel your groin muscles activate. Hold the squeeze for 2 seconds. Release and repeat 10 times.
Side-Lying Leg Lift With Crossover: Lie down on the side of your injury. Bend your top leg and place your foot flat on the ground in front on your bottom leg. Keeping your bottom leg straight, slowly raise it up as far as it will go. Hold for 5 seconds and repeat 15 times. Switch sides and repeat for 2 sets.

5. Knee Injury

Knee injuries are very common as it’s one of the most used joints in the body—and the most susceptible to wear and tear. Initially following a knee injury, you’ll want to work on getting your range of motion back, and it’s advisable to work with a physiotherapist for this.

Chronic knee injuries can be rehabilitated by strengthening the muscles around the knee joint, which provide stability and mobility. Additionally, having strong hips takes pressure off the knee so it can continue to function properly.

To help rehabilitate, try the following knee strengthening exercises after injury:

Straight Leg Raises: Lie with your back flat on the ground, one knee bent and foot flat to the floor. Extend your other leg long and raise it slowly up to the height of your bent knee. Repeat 15 times per leg, 3 times daily.

Step-Ups: Standing on the bottom stair of a staircase, bend one knee and lightly touch the other foot to the floor behind you. Raise it back up. Repeat 15 times then switch legs. You can increase the height of the step-up as your knee feels stronger.

Tips for Safe Injury Recovery and Rehabilitation

It’s important to be cautious before diving into any injury recovery exercises. Achieving safe, sustainable rehabilitation should be the ultimate goal of any injury recovery program. Suffering an injury drastically increases your risk of developing a recurrence or even a new injury. We can mitigate these risks by being safe and smart about how we hard we push ourselves.

If you’re ready to rehabilitate, then here are some tips on safely returning to exercise after an injury:

1. Come Back Slow

One of the biggest mistakes that you can make when recovering from an injury is to get back to a full exercise routine too quickly. It’s wise to start off slowly—even slower than you feel is necessary—and gradually increase your exercise intensity. Coming back slowly helps you build confidence and prevent a recurring injury. It also gives you the opportunity to notice any changes and build better body awareness.

2. Undergo Therapy

If you’ve suffered a particularly bad injury or you’re experiencing chronic pain, it’s important to seek professional therapy to help you better understand what’s happening. Depending on your injury, you may wish to see a chiropractor or a physiotherapist or both. Chiropractors can help you alleviate chronic musculoskeletal pain, while physiotherapists can put together a rehabilitation plan for you. Getting an expert opinion can give you the reassurance to return to exercising safely.

3. Listen to Your Body

Not only is it important to listen to your physical symptoms (don’t ignore your pain), it’s also essential to listen to any emotional symptoms you may be experiencing. Injuries, and the chronic pain that accompanies them, can take a toll on your emotional wellbeing. You may feel frustrated and helpless that you’re not able to perform tasks like you used to. You may also feel anxious about returning to exercise for the fear of re-injuring yourself. Remember to practice self-compassion and get support as you need it.

Support for Injury Recovery from Relax The Back

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to healing any injury. Every injury recovery exercise program should be tailored to your unique diagnosis—including any support products you’ll need.

Relax The Back provides a variety of support products to help in your injury recovery. Having the right fitness and therapy products and devices ensures that you’ve got the support you need to safely rehabilitate your injury.

Shop our fitness and therapy products to find the right solutions for your injury recovery program.

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