When Should You Get Back into Running Following A Car Accident Injury?

You’re running, perhaps trying to lose weight or preparing for a race. Maybe you do it for personal enjoyment. Whatever the case, you’re hitting your goals and staying disciplined until one day out of nowhere you suffer a life altering injury from a car accident.

Depending on your personality, you may be quick to want to get back into any physical activity you were doing, but many car injury doctors would heavily advise against this. The reason being you may hurt yourself more and stifle your ability to get back into running. Being aware of this, there are a couple of things that will guide you in knowing when the right time to get back to physical activity is after a car wreck.

See A Specialist

The first thing you’ll want to do after getting into a car accident or suffering a significant injury is to get checked by a doctor. Depending on the extent of your injuries, your doctor will explain what you need to do to correct the injury and heal properly. Often times doctors will recommend physical therapy, chiropractic care, or orthopedic care. If you have extensive injuries you may need multiple experts to take a look at you, this can begin to get expensive especially if your insurance provider is reluctant to cough up. It’s for cases like this that contacting a Lakeland car accident lawyer (or another elsewhere more relevant) is key, an experienced lawyer can handle the legal jargon with your insurance provider and other parties involved in the accident in order to see you fairly compensated. Getting the right compensation paid out can be life changing in opening up your options when it comes to affording your recovery, so it’s definitely something you should consider if you want top quality care to recover after your accident.

If you need to find a good chiropractor, search for a chiropractic clinic like this one in Marietta, Georgia. Once you undergo a treatment plan and start to see improvement, your chiropractor or physician will clear you for certain activities. Running and exercising will be on that list. Trust their professional opinion.

Make Sure There is No Pain or Discomfort

While you can wait for a specialist to clear you, ultimately you’ll also need to listen to your body. If you are cleared but begin experiencing pain doing something that used to not bother you, this may be a sign of tenderness or swelling. Your body is still trying to recover. Don’t fight these feelings or sensations by brushing off the pain. Instead, listen and feel what your body is trying to tell you and respond to that.

The key to restarting your fitness journey is to take it slow. There’s no need to rush the process or start challenging yourself off the bat. If you choose to begin working out again, do ‘easier’ exercises to ease back into it. Your body will thank you!

How Long on Average Should A Person Expect to Be Out?

Again, this question will change on a case by case basis. Some people only suffer neck injuries and need whiplash treatment while others can experience disc herniations, fractures, concussions, and much worse.

However, you’re reading this to know an approximation of when most people return back to life as usual. Most people are back into the swing of things with no symptoms anywhere from 2 weeks to 3 months. Some cases are fewer; for example a whiplash injury may only take a couple days to feel normal again. A more severe injury could require 3-6 months of physical therapy and rehabilitation.

Always make sure you feel no pain, have been cleared by a doctor, and take it easy when getting back into running. The last thing you would want is to hurt yourself further and cause an injury down the road that has trouble recovering properly.

Author Bio: Isaiah Ram is a writer, digital marketer, and musician from Atlanta, Georgia. He works with orthopaedic clinics and is an advocate of all things health and fitness related. In his free time, he works with Beyond in exporting raw cashews from West Africa. His dream is to help develop third world countries and create sustainable living.