Training with an injury: can you, and how?
Ian van der Werf
25 August 2026Training with an injury rarely means stopping completely. With adjusted load and good guidance, moving smartly often helps your recovery.
Can you train with an injury?
Yes, usually you can, as long as you adjust the load and get good guidance. An injury rarely means stopping completely. Moving smartly around the complaint often helps your recovery, as long as you do not train through sharp or increasing pain. Complete rest often leaves you stiffer and weaker, while adjusted load stimulates the healing tissue to come back stronger.
Research into recovery from muscle, tendon and joint complaints shows that resting too long can slow recovery, while dosed, early movement actually restores function. The trick is to move around the cause, not through it.
Why moving often helps
Healing tissue responds to load. Calm, measured movement keeps your muscles, joints and fitness up to par, reduces stiffness and gives your body the stimulus to recover. Sitting still often does the opposite: strength and mobility decline, and the threshold to start again gets higher.
How to adjust your load
- Train around the complaint: choose exercises and movements that do not cause sharp or increasing pain.
- Temporarily lower the intensity or weight instead of stopping completely.
- Then build back up step by step, guided by what the complaint allows.
- Keep the muscles around the injury and the rest of your body active.
A mild, nagging pain that fades quickly is usually acceptable. Sharp, shooting or increasing pain is a sign to adjust or stop.
When to go back to the physiotherapist
- The complaint gets worse instead of better.
- You have sharp pain, tingling, loss of strength or a locking or giving-way feeling.
- The complaint keeps coming back as soon as you increase the load.
- You are not sure whether what you feel is safe.
In those cases a good assessment matters. A physiotherapist looks for the cause and decides with you what is safe.
A real example from our practice
My back kept playing up, and I thought I had better stop altogether for a while. But that only made me stiffer and more afraid to move. Here we first looked at where the complaint came from, and then we trained around it: lighter, smarter, with attention to my technique. Step by step I could do more. Now my back trains along instead of holding me back.
From complaint to building at de Werf
At de Werf, an injury does not have to bring you to a standstill. Because Physiotherapy and training are under one roof, we can let recovery and building run together. We look for the cause, adjust your load and build you back up in a targeted way. That way an injury becomes a starting point for smarter, stronger movement.
Training safely with your complaint
Not sure whether training is responsible? Schedule a no-obligation intake, and together we look at what works and what does not.
Read also:
Our coaching in injury recovery and physiotherapy.
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Frequently asked questions about training with an injury
Often yes, as long as you adjust the load and do not train through sharp or increasing pain. Complete rest is usually not needed and can even slow recovery.
Not if you train around the complaint and get guidance. It only becomes risky if you ignore pain signals or increase the load too quickly.
See a physiotherapist if the complaint worsens, returns when you add load, or comes with sharp pain, tingling or loss of strength.
A mild, nagging pain that fades quickly is usually acceptable. Sharp, shooting or increasing pain is a sign to adjust or stop.
Want to keep moving safely with your complaint?
Schedule a no-obligation intake at de Werf in The Hague. Together we look at the cause and decide what you can keep training safely.
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