Injury Recovery Rates
Something that came up the other day when I was with a new client was the question of ‘how long should this take to heal’.
He had sprained his ankle whilst out running about four weeks previously and had attended hospital for an x-ray to rule out a fracture. Fortunately he had not fractured it, he was advised to rest and elevate the ankle but was not given any advice on what to expect. He was concerned that after what felt like a long time it should be okay and the swelling greatly reduced.
It led me to think that there are probably many people in a similar situation. We all have experience of straining a muscle and normally within a couple of weeks we are okay. Without going into all the science of this ligaments which are what you damage when spraining an ankle take longer – significantly longer. It is not an exact science and there are many variables such as severity of injury, age of person injured, steps they take to assist recovery and many others.
Generally though ligaments take about six to eight weeks before you will feel comfortable enough to start some light running. This is followed by a slow period of increased activity before some months later you can expect to be back where you were, so don’t despair if it seems to be taking a long time we can support the healing process and when you are able to use it again make sure that it will work effectively.
