How long to regain fitness after injury?

[Anonymous]

DC is a distance runner and was out for 4 weeks with an injury, followed by 4 weeks of slowly increasing activity. The injury is now 100% healed, but strength and overall fitness are not.

How long did it take your athlete to get back to pre-injury performance?

[Anonymous]

I think this varies so much based on the age of the kid and where the injury is. My daughter had a pretty serious injury and was sidelined for most of a year. (She was able to participate in a limited way, but lost a ton of muscle mass and skills). It took her about as long as she was out to get back to where she started.

That was a weird case, of course. But for more regular things like sprains (particularly ankle or knee) the usual fully healed time is 10-12 weeks. They can participate sooner without damage, but not to the same leve.

[Anonymous]

My DD (also a runner) and was out with a stress fracture for 8 weeks and then a non-running activity of biking and swimming for 4 weeks before a return to a gradual increase in mileage. It took about 3 months to fully return to pre-injury times. However, I think there was also a mental piece of fearing a re-injury. It was hard. Working with PT/sports rehab longer than what was ordered was the most helpful.

[Anonymous]

Even something minor like a sprained ankle seems to need several months to get back to normal

[Anonymous]

My kid had knee surgery as a sophomore and never felt like she fully was exactly the same as prior.

[Anonymous]

It's very injury dependent. We all thought my cousin was done when she badly broke her leg in college during a tournament but she managed to compete in the Olympics post rehab. It's important to listen to doctors and PT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD (also a runner) and was out with a stress fracture for 8 weeks and then a non-running activity of biking and swimming for 4 weeks before a return to a gradual increase in mileage. It took about 3 months to fully return to pre-injury times. However, I think there was also a mental piece of fearing a re-injury. It was hard. Working with PT/sports rehab longer than what was ordered was the most helpful.

I think it varies by athlete and injury. My twin, a 3:38 1500 guy when that was really fast, pronated quite a bit and struggled with plantar fasciitis. It took him 30 days to get back in shape. Third in the ACC in XC and the first American too. 30 days after fasciitis. Lower mileage in general is helpful to recovery time. I was no slouch but his 35/40 miles a week was blindingly intense. Too much for me. He chose his school for low mileage- almost unthinkable today. You have to know your own body. We raced a lot more than tiday - we had dual meets mid week and used them as training sessions which also knocked the rust off.

[Anonymous]

I don't think stress fracture is equal to plantar fasciitis in injury recovery.

So it depends on injury and recovery time.

[Anonymous]

OP back to report. It was a clean break (not stress fracture). The first PP was spot on - time to recover was around 7 weeks, so just about equal to time off (4 weeks) + ramp up (3 weeks).