In my chiropractic practice, I noted a substantial difference in how one patient could heal much faster than another could, even if they had similar injuries.
I have observed this mostly in the soft tissue (muscles, ligaments, and tendons) and joint injuries suffered by people in motor vehicle accidents. For example, if you take two different people that were of the same sex, relatively the same age and size, both receiving similar injuries in the same accident, why don’t they heal in relatively the same time period? If one person remains active while they are healing and the other person does not, the active person will generally get better faster and to a greater degree.

If you are unlucky enough to be in a motor vehicle accident, generally you will suffer from varying degrees of a whiplash. The joints of your neck and upper back will be sprained and swollen. The muscles, tendons, and ligaments will be stretched and microscopic tears will likely occur. If the accident was serious, fractures should be ruled out by taking X-rays. Then, a good physical examination by your chiropractor should be completed. Once this is done, you should rest for a period of time until the acute phase of the injuries has passed (the swelling starts to decrease, the severe muscle spasms begin to subside, and the person is able to move adequately).

As soon as you feel good enough, you should get moving. I realize this goes against the old train of thought that if your neck or back hurts, don’t move it. Years ago, when someone suffered a whiplash, they were told to wear a cervical collar for six weeks to immobilize the neck. More recent research has shown that this may actually prolong the pain and suffering. New studies are showing that the muscles, ligaments, and joints will mostly heal on their own. However, if you stretch and maintain the strength of these areas in a controlled and supervised manner, the healing will occur faster and to a greater extent.

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