We all experience injuries at some point in our lives, whether through accidents, sports, surgery, or simply by asking too much of our bodies. The likelihood increases as we get older, and older adults heal more slowly than in their younger years. After an injury, it’s vital to follow an injury recovery program that helps you heal quickly. The specifics differ by injury, but a general injury recovery framework offers valuable advice to anyone who wants to accelerate rehabilitation and recovery.
What Are the 4 Stages of Injury Rehabilitation?
Medical professionals commonly divide the injury rehabilitation process into four stages: rest, rehabilitation, strength recovery, and return to normal activities. First, you must rest to prevent further damage. After experiencing an injury, your body begins to heal. This is likely the most painful phase, and you may experience inflammation. Your goal should be to help your body as much as possible by protecting the injury and resting so that you don’t undermine your body’s healing process.
Second, gentle exercise ensures you retain a good range of motion and functionality once healing is underway. In the past, medical professionals may have recommended complete bed rest for many injuries. Modern advice recognizes it’s better to exercise as soon as possible to ensure a full recovery. Sports physiotherapists call this stage protected reloading and reconditioning.
You must follow the advice of your doctor or physiotherapist where post-injury rehabilitation is concerned. Exercise is essential, but too much or the wrong type—overextending or otherwise stressing injury sites—can hurt your recovery and cause lasting damage.
Third, you should make efforts to recover your strength once healing has progressed sufficiently. Rest, while necessary, can lead to muscle loss and reduced strength. Your physiotherapist is likely to advise more strenuous targeted exercise.
Fourth, return to normal activities. By this point, the injury should be primarily healed, and you can resume your everyday lifestyle. As with the other stages, you should follow medical advice before starting sports and other activities that put your body under stress. You may be looking forward to getting back to normal, but you risk recurrent injury or worse if your body isn’t ready.
For injuries in older adults, this stage is particularly important. When people become accustomed to, for example, relying on a wheelchair or lift chair, they may be unenthusiastic about giving up the assistance. If they don’t, their muscle condition and strength may be permanently reduced.
Many physiotherapists also mention a fifth stage: injury prevention. You should avoid the behaviors that caused the injury in the first place. For example, if sitting or lying too long in a particular position exacerbates your back injury, you may want to invest in an ergonomic chair or an adjustable bed and mattress to help you sleep in a less damaging position.
5 Tips to Accelerate Injury Recovery
Let’s look at five tips that can help you to recover more quickly from a wide variety of injuries.
Follow Medical Advice
We have already mentioned the importance of following medical advice, but it bears repeating. Your doctor and physiotherapist know more about your injury and circumstances than any generic resource. If you want to make a full recovery in the shortest time, listen to their advice and follow the rehabilitation process they recommend.
Eat and Drink Healthily
Food and drink are the fuel your body needs to recover from injury. Eat a balanced and nutritious diet and drink plenty of water.
Manage Bodily Stresses and Strains
In the early stages of recovery, you should avoid putting too much stress on your body, especially the injured area. Your doctor may suggest using a splint, cast, back brace, or wheelchair to aid recovery. For some injuries, a home hospital bed is a big help: a modern home hospital bed with motorized adjustments will help you sit up, lie down, and get into and out of bed without improper exertion.
Get Out of Bed for Gentle Exercise
People who are injured often resist exercise and physiotherapy because they find it painful, frustrating, or inconvenient. They may also believe complete bed rest is the best way to accelerate the healing process. As we previously mentioned, exercise is an essential part of recovery. If you don’t exercise in line with medical advice, you will heal more slowly and may not fully recover.
It is possible to exercise even if your injury makes it impossible to get out of bed. We covered exercising from your bed in earlier articles, including 5 Exercises to Do From Your Home Hospital Bed and 6 Activities for Bedridden Patients.
Don’t Rush Your Recovery
Recovery takes time, and you have to give your body the time it needs to heal and gradually recover its strength. You may find it frustrating, but a gradual and controlled return to your pre-injury lifestyle is the best way to heal and maintain your health and fitness over the long term.
How Long Do Injuries Take to Heal?
The time an injury takes to heal depends on its severity and type, as well as your age and fitness. Injury recovery times range from a couple of weeks for minor sprains to many weeks for serious bone breakages. The same variation is true of surgical injuries: a simple surgery may take less than a month to heal, whereas major surgeries can take many months.
It’s not possible to give a one-size-fits-all answer to this question, so we’ll link to a few resources:
- Average Healing Times for Common Sports Injuries
- How Long Does It Take a Surgical Incision to Heal?
- How long does it take to recover from a soft tissue injury?
To learn more about how a home hospital bed helps with injury recovery and rehabilitation, contact an adjustable bed expert today.
