After receiving regenerative injection therapy you may be tempted to return to activity quickly. Or you may feel you should rest for a prolonged period of time. Either way, it’s important to understand that the healing process is gradual. Even though your regenerative injection recovery may feel slow, your body will heal much faster than it would have without treatment. You just have to remember you’re not going to restore your mobility overnight.
What to expect immediately after your injections
It is normal to have some pain and swelling in the injection area after prolotherapy. Usually the discomfort ends after 48 hours but in some cases can last as long as 2 weeks. Some pain and swelling are a routine part of your regenerative injection recovery. If you have any questions or concerns, however, call us and we can help you with your individual healing process.
On the other hand, a complete absence of pain does not equate to a full recovery. It’s easy to assume the lack of pain means you’ve completely healed and you can jump back into your workouts. A lack of pain can mean the inflammatory period has ended. However, the tissues regenerating in your body are still in a weakened state. They need to be strengthened gradually before they can withstand more stressful physical movements.
Exercise guidelines
Remember, regenerative injections mimic a “mini-injury” in order to create a wound-repair response. Therefore all increases in movement duration and intensity should be done gradually. You need to be mindful of how your body responds to each step up in activity. It’s very important to not jump ahead too fast or you could re-injure yourself causing your healing time to be prolonged.
Your symptoms and pain levels will guide you on how quickly you can progress through each movement. That’s why there’s overlap between the stages outlined below.
Here is your roadmap to regenerative injection recovery:
Making Progress
Many of you will receive a series of injections over the course of several months. Each time you visit us for your treatments the cycle will restart and, as improvement occurs, you will progress through each stage more quickly.
Photo of runner by Andrew Dinh on Unsplash
