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Healing is a Process
The Three Phases of Healing
After an injury, your body begins to heal in three separate and distinct phases – the Inflammatory Phase, the Repair Phase and the Remodeling Phase. For the best long-term results and recovery from injury, it is essential that your body heals properly and receives the correct type of care appropriate during each phase.
Inflammatory Phase
When your body is injured, the healing process begins almost immediately with pain and swelling – the Inflammatory Phase. Causing pain is often your body’s only way of telling you something isn’t right. The Inflammatory Phase of Healing typically lasts from 0 to 3 days but can be much longer depending upon the severity of injury. Essentially, your body is trying to immobilize the injured areas and prevent you from injuring yourself further.
Repair Phase
The second phase of healing is called the Repair Phase. During this time, your body begins putting down “glue” in the injured tissues that were torn, broken or in need of healing. This process can last up to 6 months, and during this time, more aggressive treatment, such as Physical Therapy and other types of active rehabilitative procedures, may be contraindicated. Why? The injured tissues are not strong enough and not yet healed, so they are not yet ready to be stretched and strengthened.
This is why starting Physical Therapy too soon following an injury can actually make your condition worse, impede the healing process and can even cause setbacks in your recovery, meaning a longer treatment time to achieve the same outcome.
Remodelling Phase
In the final phase of healing, the Remodeling Phase, body tissues have healed adequately and can now begin to be strengthened through more intense physical Rehabilitation and Active Care. The Remodelling phase of healing typically lasts from 6 months to 1 year.
Exercises and Stretching
As you begin to feel better, we start to incorporate specific Home Exercises and Stretches that stimulate the injured tissues to heal, strengthen and align properly. Remember, as scar tissue is laid down, it’s like your body is filling in the gaps in the torn tissues with glue. Unfortunately, scar tissue is quite inferior to the body’s original tissue and is not nearly as flexible nor as strong as the tissue it’s replacing. This also makes it more prone to re-injury.
If you have ever had a bad cut, scrape or burn, you quickly noticed that the replacement tissue formed was definitely not the same as the original and surrounding tissues. It looks a little different, feels a little different, and may even be thicker, smoother and commonly, more sensitive to touch.