When you injure yourself, it can be tempting to stop moving completely and give your body as much rest as possible. For many years, this was common advice for soft tissue injuries such as sprains, strains and other acute injuries.
But our understanding of injury management has changed.
Modern acute injury management has moved towards a more active approach, including the PEACE & LOVE framework. Rather than automatically recommending complete rest, the focus is on helping you find the right amount of movement and activity for your injury and your stage of recovery.
Rest isn't always the answer
This doesn't mean you should push through an injury or ignore pain. In the early stages following an injury, your body needs time to settle and recover.
However, complete rest for too long can sometimes mean that you lose strength, movement and confidence. Your body also needs an appropriate amount of stimulus to adapt.
The key is finding the balance between doing too much and doing too little.
Depending on your injury, this might mean continuing with some everyday activities, doing gentle movements, modifying your exercise, or gradually introducing more load as your symptoms allow.
What is appropriate will be different for everyone.
Why movement can be part of recovery
Your body is designed to adapt to the demands placed on it. As an injury starts to settle, gradually exposing the affected area to movement and load can help rebuild strength, mobility and tolerance.
Think of it as giving your body the right amount of work at the right time.
Too much too soon can aggravate your symptoms, while doing very little for an extended period may leave you deconditioned and less prepared to return to your normal activities.
A physiotherapist can help you work out where that balance sits for you.
What is PEACE & LOVE?
PEACE & LOVE is a framework used to guide the management of many soft tissue injuries.
PEACE focuses on the early stages after an injury:
Protect – temporarily reduce or modify activities that significantly increase your symptoms.
Elevate – where appropriate, elevate the injured area to help manage swelling.
Avoid anti-inflammatories – the framework encourages caution around routine use of anti-inflammatory medication because inflammation is part of the body's natural healing process. Medication decisions should always be discussed with your doctor or pharmacist.
Compress – compression can be useful for managing swelling and providing support.
Educate – understanding your injury and what you can safely do is an important part of recovery.
LOVE focuses on what comes next:
Load – gradually put appropriate load through the injured area.
Optimism – confidence and a positive understanding of your recovery can be helpful.
Vascularisation – maintain or gradually introduce cardiovascular activity where appropriate.
Exercise – progressively restore movement, strength, balance and function.
The important point isn't necessarily remembering every part of the acronym. It's understanding that recovery isn't simply about waiting for an injury to heal.
So, how much should you be doing?
This is where things can get a little more complicated.
An activity that is appropriate for one person may be too much for someone else. The type and severity of the injury, how long ago it happened, your general fitness, your symptoms and what you need to get back to all play a part.
For example, returning to a desk job may require a very different approach from returning to running, playing sport, working on a farm or doing a physically demanding job.
Your physiotherapist can assess your injury and help you work out what you can continue doing, what might need to be modified, and when it is appropriate to start increasing your activity.
The goal is getting you back to what matters
Good injury management isn't about resting until you feel completely normal and then suddenly returning to everything you were doing before.
For many injuries, recovery is a gradual process of rebuilding your movement, strength and confidence.
The aim is to give your body the right amount of stimulus to adapt, while allowing symptoms to settle and avoiding unnecessary setbacks.
If you've recently injured yourself and aren't sure whether you should rest, keep moving or start exercising again, talk to one of our physiotherapists.
We can help you understand your injury and make a recovery plan that suits you, your goals and the activities you want to get back to.