The guidelines are well known and quite clear: Teens who experience a concussion should not be allowed to return to contact, collision, or any high-risk activities like vigorous sports until symptoms of the concussion have resolved. Subsymptom activity—activity that does not result in headache, dizziness, or other symptoms—is allowed. In fact, more recent research suggests that quickly returning to light activity, like brisk walking, may be beneficial.
A new study, this time a randomized controlled trial (RCT) in teens who had experienced a sport-related concussion within the previous 10 days, provides even more evidence. The trial participants were randomly assigned to either a structured stretching program or a treatment program that emphasized aerobic exercise up until the point of experiencing symptoms.
The main goal was to determine the number of days until recovery—defined as the ability to exercise "to exhaustion" without experiencing any concussion symptoms—for teens in both groups. Teens in the exercise group hit that milestone by 13 days (on average) compared with the 17 days it took for the adolescents in the stretching-program arm. Even after adjusting for age, sex, concussion history, and time from injury to enrollment, the aerobic exercise group recovered faster. Seven of the kids in the stretching group had "delayed recovery" (> 30 days) compared with two in the exercise group, a difference that was not statistically significant.
