October 2, 2026

Getting injured is frustrating, especially when you’re used to being active. Maybe you rolled your ankle during a soccer game. Your knee started bothering you halfway through a run. You felt something pull while lifting at the gym. Or perhaps there wasn’t one obvious moment at all—the discomfort just kept getting worse until you finally had to stop. Whatever happened, most people eventually arrive at the same question: When can I get back to my sport or workout? It’s tempting to use pain as the answer. If it doesn’t hurt anymore, you must be ready, right? Not always. Getting back to activity after a sports injury is less about waiting for a particular number of days and more about making sure your body is ready for what you’re asking it to do again. Walking around without pain is one thing. Running five kilometres, changing direction on a soccer field, lifting a heavy barbell, or playing an hour of tennis is somethi Book An Appointment First, Figure Out What You’re Actually Dealing With Not every sports injury announces itself dramatically. Sometimes it’s obvious. You land awkwardly, twist your ankle and immediately know something isn’t right. Other problems creep up on you. Your shoulder feels a little sore after a workout. You ignore it. A week later, overhead exercises are uncomfortable. Your knee starts aching near the end of your runs, but feels fine the next morning, so you keep training. Eventually, the discomfort shows up earlier and earlier. How an injury started can tell you a lot about what needs to happen next. It also helps to think about what has changed recently. Did you suddenly increase your running distance? Add heavier weights? Start playing a sport again after taking the winter off? Change your training schedule? Sometimes the injured area is only one piece of the story. A physiotherapy assessment can help make sense of what’s going on, particularly when pain isn’t improving, keeps returning, or is starting to change the way you move. And if you’ve had a significant injury, can’t put weight through an arm or leg, notice major swelling or deformity, or are dealing with severe or worsening pain, it’s important to seek appropriate medical attention rather than trying to push through it. Rest Helps, but Recovery Usually Doesn’t End There When something hurts, the instinct is often to stop using it completely. For a short period, modifying the activity that’s aggravating an injury can make sense. Trying to run through a painful ankle or repeatedly lifting through shoulder pain isn’t a great recovery strategy. But neither is spending weeks waiting for everything to magically feel normal again. As the injury settles, appropriate movement can become an important part of getting back to normal. That might begin with something very simple: moving a stiff joint more comfortably, walking without favouring one side, or doing basic exercises that don’t aggravate your symptoms. What you do early in recovery probably won’t look anything like your normal workout. That’s okay. The point isn’t to prove that you’re still fit. It’s Feeling Better and Being Ready Are Two Different Things This is where a lot of people get caught. Imagine you’ve taken two weeks off because of knee pain. By the end of the second week, walking feels fine and the knee hasn’t bothered you for several days. So Saturday morning arrives and you decide to test it with your usual run. Five kilometres later, the knee hurts again. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve gone all the way back to square one. It may simply mean the jump from everyday activity to your normal training load was too big. Sports and workouts ask much more of the body than regular daily movement. A knee that feels perfectly comfortable walking around the grocery store still has to tolerate hundreds or thousands of repeated steps during a run. An ankle that feels fine around the house may respond very differently when you’re jumping or changing direction. A shoulder that doesn’t hurt while getting dressed may not be ready for your previous bench press. This is why “it doesn’t hurt anymore” shouldn’t be the only test for returning to activity. Build Back What the Injury Took Away Time away from an activity can affect more than pain. You may lose some strength. A joint may become stiff. Your balance may feel different. You might unconsciously favour the uninjured side. Sometimes you simply stop trusting the injured area. Recovery should address the things that have actually changed. For someone with an ankle injury, that could mean working on movement, calf strength and balance before returning to running or court sports. For someone with a shoulder problem, it may mean gradually rebuilding comfortable movement and strength before loading the shoulder heavily again. The exercises should also start looking more like the activity you’re trying to return to as you progress. A runner eventually needs to tolerate running. A soccer player needs to be comfortable accelerating, stopping and changing direction. Someone returning to the gym needs to progressively handle resistance again. You don’t necessarily start there—but that’s where the process should eventually lead. Don’t Go From Zero Straight Back to 100% One of the easiest mistakes to make after an injury is returning at exactly the level you left. If you ran 20 kilometres a week before getting injured, you don’t necessarily need to start back at 20. If you were lifting a particular weight before your shoulder started hurting, that number doesn’t need to be your first workout back. Your previous workload is a destination, not necessarily your starting point. A runner might begin with shorter distances or walk-run intervals. Someone returning to the gym might use lighter resistance or fewer sets. A recreational athlete may start with part of a practice before playing an entire game. Then see what happens. How did you feel during the activity? A few hours later? The following morning? Your body’s response gives you useful information about whether that