Start with understanding
Being ready for an easy walk is different from being ready to run, land repeatedly, or sprint. A return plan should name the activity you are working toward.
After injury or time away, the starting point depends on the reason for the break, your current function, and any restrictions. Familiarity with a sport does not automatically establish current readiness.
MOVE is about building toward a useful goal. Discuss the steps with your rehabilitation clinician and coach rather than borrowing a calendar from someone with a different injury.
Video coming soon
Explore the written guide and illustrated lessons below.
Connect understanding to daily life
Define the finish line clearly
A comfortable neighborhood run, a jumping workout, and a competitive court session require different preparation. Tell your clinician which one matters to you. Include surfaces, footwear, session demands, and upcoming events. This helps identify what should be assessed before impact activity and what a meaningful return would look like.
Know which criteria apply to your injury
For a bone stress injury, clinicians may consider walking tolerance, local symptoms, strength and functional testing, and imaging when risk warrants it. Other injuries need different criteria. Do not turn a list from a running article into your own clearance test. Ask what you should be able to do before the next stage and how that decision will be reviewed.
Progress with a purpose
A useful progression makes it clear what is changing: the activity, amount, speed, or complexity. Keep the record simple enough to share, including the session and how you felt afterward. Your clinician can explain what response is acceptable and what should prompt a change. That agreement is more helpful than guessing whether any discomfort is safe.
Do not make a percentage your guarantee
A popular weekly increase rule cannot guarantee freedom from injury. Research in novice runners has not established the familiar ten-percent rule as protective. This does not mean uncontrolled increases are sensible; it means one number cannot replace an individual plan. New focal pain, worsening function, or symptoms that keep returning are reasons to pause the progression and get reassessed.
Educational information complements individual guidance. Your health history, goals, and examination determine appropriate care.
Build your understanding
Five ideas to build your understanding. Swipe, use the arrows, or focus the slides and use your keyboard.
Can I use the same return plan as a friend?
Their diagnosis, starting point, and goals may differ. Use the plan agreed with your own rehabilitation team.
Does a pain-free day mean I am ready?
It is useful information, but readiness may also depend on function, activity demands, and the reason for the break. Ask which criteria remain.
What the evidence means for you
Return criteria depend on injury risk
A 2024 scoping review of tibial bone stress injuries highlights walking tolerance, local symptoms, functional assessment, and risk-specific imaging before return to running.
Put it to use: Ask which criteria your clinician is using and why they fit your injury.
Keep in mind: Most included evidence was lower-level; these criteria are not universal for all injuries.
Sports Medicine (2024) →The ten-percent rule is not established protection
A randomized trial of 532 novice runners found no injury reduction from a longer graded program based on the ten-percent rule versus the comparison program.
Put it to use: Do not treat a weekly percentage as a substitute for an individualized plan.
Keep in mind: The trial studied novice runners, not injured athletes returning to jumping or sprinting.
Buist and colleagues, American Journal of Sports Medicine (2008) →