Injury Science
What an injury is, how each tissue gets injured and graded, how long healing takes, the factors that raise injury risk, and the rehab framework for healing (Rehab Science Part II).
What Is an Injury?
An injury is an identifiable physical disruption of musculoskeletal tissue. Injuries and pain are related but separable: you can be injured with pain, injured without pain, or in pain without injury. Symptoms and function, not scan images, are the best gauge of progress.
The Types of Injuries
Each tissue—muscle, fascia, tendon, ligament, joint capsule, cartilage, nerve and bone—has its own mechanism of injury, grading, signs, impairments and red flags for professional help. Matching symptoms to a tissue points you to the right protocol.
How Long Injuries Take to Heal
Healing time depends on severity, tissue type (blood supply), lifestyle and rehab. Tissue moves through inflammation (~72 h), maturation (to ~3 weeks) and remodelling (weeks to two years). The timelines are averages—symptoms and function decide when to progress, and phase 3 often continues well beyond healing.
Factors That Influence Injury
Injury risk factors are ranked in four groups—training, physical, mental and external—with training variables (load volume, load magnitude, biomechanics, warm-up) the most influential. Strength is the physical factor with the strongest link to injury risk.
How to Heal From Injury
Injury rehab follows the same three phases as pain rehab—pain management (inflammatory), range of motion and sensorimotor control (maturation), and resistance training (remodelling)—but progression also respects tissue type and healing time. Return to sport is graded, and the order of exercise strategies differs by tissue.