Your spine is one of the most commonly injured areas of your body during athletic activity, and that makes sense considering all the twisting, turning and stress that is put on the area during many sporting events. We’ve helped a lot of recreational and competitive athletes get back to the sport they love following a back injury, but it’s not as simple as just waiting for healing to run its course. Below, we share a checklist to help determine if you’re healthy enough to return to athletic activity after a spine injury.
Making A Safe Return To Sports After A Back Injury
If you can say yes to every bulleted item below, you can slowly start to return to athletic activity.
- You can move without pain or with minimal discomfort.
- You have full or nearly-full range of motion.
- You’ve been safely engaging muscles needed for optimal sport performance while you’ve been sidelined.
- You’ve worked on keeping your endurance near pre-injury levels while you work your way back from injury.
We’re going to break down each of these points a little further. The first two points can be lumped together, because if you’re going to return to sports, you should only do so if pain and immobility has almost fully resolved. It’s best to wait until you are pain free and have no range of motion limitations, but if we feel that enough pain has subsided, we may clear you for activity. When determining if you’ve reached this point, it’s not enough to gauge your pain and mobility when inactive, you need to perform some basic movements required of your sport to see how your body responds to activity. You may feel fine during daily activities, but pain may develop when you jump into athletic activity. That’s a sign you’re not quite ready to return to sports.
We’ll also group the second two items on the checklist together. It’s not enough for your injury to heal, you also need to ensure your spine and your whole body can handle the rigors of your sport. You may not have lost much fitness if you were only sidelined for a week with a muscle strain, but if you’ve been away from the game for months because of a serious injury or surgery, you need to restrengthen key muscle groups and ensure your endurance is nearing pre-injury levels. You’re not going to enjoy getting back on the field if you’re slower and winded more easily, so you need to care for your whole body while you’re recovering from a spine injury. We can help set you up with a fitness or physical therapy plan that strengthens key muscle groups and tests your endurance to help keep your body near sporting level while your spine heals.
If you can say yes to all the above points, and you’ve tested your body during simulated sporting actions and regained your strength and endurance, you can gradually work your way back into athletic activity. Don’t expect to participate for as long as normal, in fact, limit your minutes or your duration for the first couple sessions just to help ease your body back into activity. Eventually, you’ll be able to increase your activity and make your way back to full participation in your sport.
For assistance with any part of the process of returning to sports after a spine injury, reach out to the experienced medical team at Dr. Sinicropi’s office today.
