Healing Times

Key point: Understanding that different tissue takes different times to heal is key to avoiding injuries and managing your training.

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This section appears here to accelerate your understanding why injury might happen and why your training will look different when training different qualities. This section also appears just after the section on patellar tendinopathy to help you understand why that condition occurs.

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This chart shows the % of adaptation of different tissues over the course of time. As is evident, nerves, muscles, and bones adapt relatively quickly. This is why changes in these kinds of tissue can be seen in as little as 8-12 weeks. 

Tendons and ligaments, however, take far longer to achieve the same amount of adaptation. 

Below is a chart displaying similar information, but with regards to injuries.

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This is why tendinopathies take so much longer to heal, and why in training that stresses the tendons or cartilage must be progressed more slowly than training solely focused on the muscle.

Keep this knowledge in the back of your mind as you progress your rehab. It will guide your activity decision making and can help you understand any aspects of pain or swelling you are experiencing that you might otherwise write off as “random.” Doing this can be instrumental in getting back on track quickly without any emotional turmoil.

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¹ ProHealthSys. Muscle Tendon Growth Strengthen And Training Effect with Dr. Vizniak. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEXmGTRRwm0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Ftenniselbowclassroom.com%2F&source_ve_path=Mjg2NjY&feature=emb_logo

‍² The Prehab Guys. Tissue Healing Timelines. https://theprehabguys.com/tissue-healing-timelines/#