Hi friends,

Have you ever rushed back to your favorite activity after an injury, only to get hurt again? As a physical therapist, I see this happen constantly.

Many injuries I treat occur because of training errors—doing too much, too soon, or too frequently. This same mistake often happens when people rush to resume their activities after recovery.

Here's why this happens: We typically feel better before our body is actually better. Pain usually disappears before tissues regain their full strength and capacity.

To safely get back to your sport, you need a strategic approach:

Step 1: Set your ultimate goal - It could be running a marathon, playing tennis 3 days a week, or squatting 315 pounds. The more specific the better.

Step 2: Break it into smaller milestones - Create a gradual progression that builds your body's capacity.

Step 3: Follow the plan patiently - Resist the urge to skip ahead, even when you feel good. It’s the days and sessions where you feel the best and push yourself too hard when injuries occur.

The SAID principle (Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands) tells us that our bodies adapt specifically to the stresses we place on them. However, this requires:

• Appropriate progressive loading

• Adequate rest between sessions

• Proper nutrition to rebuild tissues

Finding the right balance is challenging. We need enough stress to create positive adaptations (stronger tissues) without causing breakdown.

What inspired this week’s newsletter edition is that I'm currently returning to running after rehabbing a knee injury and thought it may be helpful for you to see the process.

While I might feel capable of running 4 miles now, I know that running that distance without building up to it slowly would flare up my knee.

Instead, I've created a plan to reach my ultimate goal of running 10 miles continuously by the end of summer. Here are the first 8 weeks of that plan: