Should You Rest an Injury or Keep Moving?
Imagine you’ve just injured your back lifting a heavy box. Or perhaps you’ve rolled your ankle playing netball, strained your calf during a run, or tweaked your shoulder in the gym. Your first instinct is probably the same as most people’s: “I should probably just rest it.”
It’s understandable. Pain feels like your body’s alarm system. If something hurts, our instinct is to protect it and wait until it feels normal again, so resting seems like the safest option.
The problem is that while rest is an important part of recovery, too much rest can sometimes delay it. On the other hand, pushing through significant pain and trying to “tough it out” isn’t the answer either.
So how do you know which approach is right? The answer lies somewhere in the middle.
Successful rehabilitation isn’t about choosing between complete rest or pushing through pain. It’s about understanding what your body needs at each stage of recovery and gradually finding your way back to normal movement.
What is an acute injury?
An acute injury is simply an injury that has happened recently, usually within the first few days or weeks. Examples include: rolling your ankle while playing sport, straining a muscle during a workout, hurting your back lifting something unexpectedly heavy. Or spraining your shoulder after a fall.
When an injury first occurs, your body immediately starts repairing the damaged tissues. Swelling, pain and stiffness are all normal parts of the body's natural healing process. While these symptoms can be uncomfortable, they’re actually your body’s way of protecting the injured area while it begins to recover. This is where rest becomes important.
But it’s important to understand what we mean by rest. Rest doesn’t always mean doing nothing. Many people picture complete bed rest when they think about recovering from an injury. Years ago, this was often recommended for many musculoskeletal conditions, particularly low back pain.
We now know that, for most injuries, complete inactivity is rarely the most effective approach. Instead, we often recommend relative rest. Relative rest simply means reducing or temporarily avoiding activities that significantly aggravate your symptoms while continuing to move in ways that your body can comfortably tolerate.
Let’s use an ankle sprain as an example.
Trying to play football the day after rolling your ankle probably isn’t a good idea. But spending the next three weeks on the couch because you’re worried about damaging it further isn’t ideal either. Instead, you might temporarily avoid running and jumping while gradually returning to walking, performing gentle mobility exercises, and keeping the rest of your body active. This allows the injured tissues to recover without the rest of your body becoming weaker and less conditioned.
When we stop moving completely, even for relatively short periods of time, several things begin to happen. Muscles become weaker. Joints become stiffer. Balance and coordination begin to decline. Fitness decreases. Perhaps most importantly, confidence starts to disappear.
Many people recovering from an injury don’t just lose physical strength-they begin to lose trust in their body. They become worried that every movement is causing damage. This fear often leads to even less movement, which further reduces strength and fitness. Before long, a cycle develops where avoiding activity actually makes returning to activity much harder. This is one of the reasons why modern rehabilitation aims to keep people moving wherever it is safe and appropriate to do so.
What about back pain?
Back pain is a perfect example of how our understanding of recovery has changed. In the past, prolonged bed rest was commonly prescribed after episodes of back pain. Today, we know that remaining gently active generally leads to better outcomes for most people.
That doesn’t mean ignoring severe pain or pretending nothing has happened. Instead, it means finding movements that are comfortable and gradually increasing what your body can tolerate. For some people, this might simply mean taking several short walks throughout the day instead of spending hours lying on the couch.
For others, it may involve changing positions more frequently, performing gentle rehabilitation exercises, or modifying daily activities until symptoms settle.
Movement doesn’t have to be intense to be beneficial. Sometimes small amounts of comfortable movement are exactly what the body needs.
What if the pain has been there for months? And you’ve already rested, and it’s still hurting?
Pain lasting longer than three months is often referred to as persistent pain.
By this stage, the original tissues have usually had plenty of time to heal.
However, that doesn’t always mean pain disappears. Sometimes strength has reduced. Sometimes fitness has declined.
Sometimes people have avoided certain movements for so long that those movements simply feel unfamiliar or threatening. In these situations, continuing to rest often isn’t the answer. Instead, rehabilitation usually focuses on gradually rebuilding capacity.
Capacity is simply your body’s ability to perform a task. The stronger, fitter and more confident your body becomes, the more it can tolerate everyday activities. This is why exercise rehabilitation plays such an important role in managing many long-term musculoskeletal conditions. One of the most common questions we hear is: “Can I still exercise?” In many cases, the answer is yes. The key is modifying your activity rather than avoiding it altogether.
For example: A runner with Achilles tendon pain may temporarily reduce their running while maintaining fitness through cycling or swimming. Someone with shoulder pain may avoid heavy overhead pressing while continuing lower body training and pain-free upper body exercises. A person recovering from back pain may temporarily reduce heavy lifting while continuing to walk, complete their rehabilitation exercises and gradually rebuild strength.
Instead of focusing on everything you can’t do, rehabilitation aims to identify everything you still can. This approach helps maintain fitness, confidence, and momentum throughout recovery. Recovery isn’t always a straight line One of the most frustrating parts of rehabilitation is that progress is rarely perfectly linear.
It’s common to have good days followed by more uncomfortable days. Many people immediately assume they’ve “gone backwards.” Fortunately, that’s often not the case. Temporary flare-ups can simply mean you’ve exceeded your current tolerance a little. Rather than viewing this as failure, it becomes useful information. Your body is telling you where your current limits are.
From there, your rehabilitation program can be adjusted so you continue progressing without repeatedly overloading the injured area. Recovery is often about gradually expanding what your body can comfortably tolerate over time. Every injury is different There is no single rule that applies to every injury.
Some injuries genuinely require periods of protection. Fractures, tendon ruptures, significant ligament injuries and many post-operative conditions often involve specific restrictions while tissues heal. Likewise, symptoms such as severe pain, progressive weakness, significant numbness, changes in bladder or bowel function, or major trauma should always be assessed by a healthcare professional.
This is why a personalised assessment is so important.
Two people with the same diagnosis may require completely different rehabilitation plans depending on their symptoms, fitness, work demands and goals. Finding the right balance One way we explain rehabilitation is to think of your body’s tolerance like a dimmer switch rather than an on/off button.
Your symptoms can become louder if you do too much too soon, especially after too little for too long. On the other hand, if you avoid movement altogether for weeks, your body's capacity gradually decreases. The goal is to find that sweet spot between the two.
Enough movement to promote recovery. Enough rest to let symptoms settle. You gradually gain confidence in your body and your ability to tolerate certain things over time, so activities you found were difficult in the beginning become easier and easier as your body recovers.
At Osteopathic Movement, we don’t want to just help relieve your symptoms we want you to understand where your symptoms came from, what your body can currently handle and work with you to develop a rehabilitation plan to get you back to living your life with as little or no fear. This may involve hands on treatment for pain relief and joint mobility, but will involve a considerable amount of education, rehabilitation exercises and progressive development of confidence in your body again.
Whether you're recovering from a recent injury or dealing with pain that's been lingering for months, rehabilitation is rarely about complete rest or simply pushing through it. It's about finding the right amount of movement at the right time.
Because while rest is an important part of recovery, movement is often what helps you get back to doing the things you love again.
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Written By Dr. Matthew Keys (B.Sci(Osteo), M.H.S (Osteopathy)) - Associate Osteopath, Osteopathic Movement, South Yarra.