Rest, Stretch, Repeat? Why That’s Not Enough to Return to Sport Safely

For many people recovering from joint, tendon, or muscle pain, the most common advice is to rest, stretch, and slowly resume activity when symptoms improve.

In the early stages of recovery, these strategies can be helpful. However, when relied on exclusively, they rarely provide enough stimulus to support a full return to sport or recreational activity — particularly for those involved in multi-directional, impact-based, or rotational sports such as padel, tennis, or golf. This article explores why rest and mobility work alone are often insufficient, and what is required to truly restore capacity for sport.

Often rest and mobility work alone aren't insufficient to return to sport.

Understanding the Recovery Process

There are two distinct phases in musculoskeletal rehabilitation:

1. Symptom Management: Reducing pain, inflammation, and restoring basic function

2. Capacity Restoration: Improving strength, movement control, and tissue tolerance to meet sport-specific demands

   
   

Most people successfully complete the first phase — often with physiotherapy input — but do not progress fully through the second phase. This is where recurring injuries, compensatory movement patterns, or decreased performance begin to show up.

The Demands of Sport and Activity

Returning to sport or active hobbies requires your body to meet complex demands, including:

• Force absorption across multiple joints

• Rotational control (especially in racquet sports)

• Deceleration and re-acceleration

• Coordination of upper and lower body movements

• Tolerance to fatigue, impact, and unpredictable movement

  
  

These are skills and capacities that cannot be trained with stretching or isolated exercises alone. They require graded, task-specific strength and neuromuscular training.

Acceleration and deceleration can't be trained by stretching and isolation exercises alone.

Why Low-Load Exercises Often Fall Short

Many rehab programs start with low-load exercises such as clamshells, TheraBand external rotations, or bodyweight bridges. While these are important in the early stages, they do not provide enough load or specificity to prepare tissues and joints for high-demand movement. If strength, control, or coordination are not rebuilt to meet sport-level demands, the result is often:

• Recurrent pain

• Early fatigue or instability

• Loss of confidence in movement

• Persistent avoidance of specific tasks (e.g. overhead reach, deceleration, or lunging)

Capacity vs. Pain: A Key Distinction

Pain often occurs when the physical demand exceeds your current capacity.

For example, a player returning to padel after shoulder discomfort may be pain-free during light training. But under game conditions — when speed, force, and repetition increase — the shoulder becomes overloaded again. The absence of pain during light activity does not guarantee readiness for full sport exposure.

A Better Approach: Load-Progressive Return to Sport

An effective return-to-sport plan should include:

• Movement screening and strength testing relevant to the sport

• Progressive strength training focused on force production, endurance, and control

• Sport-specific drills that replicate real movement demands (e.g. lateral lunging, single-leg stability, rotational strength)

• Monitoring of training load and recovery capacity

  
  

This approach is not just for elite athletes. Anyone looking to resume sport, prevent injury recurrence, or build long-term movement confidence can benefit from structured rehabilitation beyond symptom resolution.

Conclusion: Rebuilding Matters More Than Resting

• Rest and stretching reduce symptoms, but do not rebuild resilience

• Return to sport requires more than pain-free movement — it requires restored capacity, control, and coordination

• Long-term recovery relies on a structured, progressive approach to strength, not just isolated rehab drills

• A thorough assessment of joint mobility, movement quality, and load tolerance can guide safe return

  
  

If you’ve experienced recurring discomfort after returning to sport, or feel unsure about what your body can tolerate, it may be worth revisiting your rehab process — not to manage symptoms, but to build the capacity your sport demands.