Depending upon the type of injury you've had, your doctor may recommend bed rest for a day or so. But there are very few injuries in which total bed rest is recommended for recovery.

In fact, recovery for most injuries can be hindered by too little activity. Because of this, it's just as important to find out what activities you should be doing to promote recovery as it is to know the types of things you should not be doing. While recovering at home, it is important that you adhere to your doctors recommendations. These may include any restrictions on your activities, but also types of physical activities or exercises that will promote recovery.

So important is activity to recovery, that a link has been found between recovery time and whether or not a person is working or not. In fact, employees who return to work following an injury recover three times faster than those who recover at home. Disability management expert Richard Pimentel said it best when he instructed employers not to wait until their employees were back to 100 percent before allowing them back to work: "You don't get employees well to return them to work. You return them to work to get them well."

LWCC works with your treating physician and your employer to incorporate physical restrictions as well as activities recommended by your physician so your job can actually become part of your therapy.