Why this guide exists
"Wait until it stops hurting" is not a rehab plan.
Pain is one signal among many. It tells you something is irritated. It does not tell you the tissue is healed, the joint is stable, or the muscle around it can handle the demands of your sport.
Sport physiotherapy uses a phased model — acute care, early rehab, progressive loading, return-to-play testing — because each phase has its own decisions. The decisions are not arbitrary, and skipping any phase is the most common reason an injury keeps coming back.
This guide is the long version of what we explain in the first session. It is not a substitute for assessment by a regulated practitioner — your injury may not match any of the patterns described — but it should give you the right vocabulary to ask better questions of whoever is treating you.
Phases of rehab
Pick the phase you're in.
Phase 1
Acute phase
What to do in the first 48–72 hours after a sprain, strain, or impact — and what most internet advice still gets wrong.
Read this phasePhase 2
Early rehab
Once the acute swelling settles, the work shifts to range of motion, neuromuscular control, and undoing the guarding pattern around the injury.
Read this phasePhase 3
Progressive loading
Why three sets of clamshells will not get you back on the trail. How a physiotherapist decides when to add load, and what graded exposure actually looks like.
Read this phase
Going back to sport
The decision that ends rehab.
The final question is whether you can handle the demands of your sport, not whether the calendar says enough weeks have passed. Time-based return is the most common error in unsupervised rehab.
The thread through every phase
What changes between phases — and what stays the same.
- Reassessment at every visit. The plan moves when the findings move, not on a fixed schedule.
- Load follows symptom behaviour, not the calendar. A small flare-up is feedback, not failure.
- Active rehab leads. Passive modalities — laser, shockwave, manual therapy, IMS — support the active work, never replace it.
- Pain is one input among many. Range, strength symmetry, control, confidence, and tolerance to sport-specific loading all matter.
- Education is part of treatment. If you do not know why each exercise is in the plan, the plan is not finished yet.
Related reading
Where the hub meets the rest of the site.
Condition
Knee injury & ACL recovery
How the phased model applies to the longest, most criteria-driven rehab we see.
Condition
Runner's knee & IT band
A typical North Shore trail-runner case for graded exposure and gait work.
Services
What we offer in a session
Manual therapy, IMS, high-power laser, shockwave, TECAR — what each adds inside the phased plan.
Journal
Posts that go deeper
Plain-English posts on modalities, ICBC, and the decisions that come up in the clinic.
Ready for a real plan?