Everyone wants a date. Here is the honest range, why the first two weeks feel slower than they should, and the one stage almost everybody cuts short.
A mild strain usually settles in two to three weeks. A more significant one takes six to eight. Those numbers cover most of what walks through the door, and they assume you are not doing anything particularly demanding in the meantime.
The first few days are noisy. Things swell, things hurt, and it is hard to tell whether you are recovering or making it worse. You are almost always recovering. Rest and gentle movement beat immobilisation for most strains.
The stage people cut short is the last one. Pain goes, you feel normal, and you stop. But the tissue has not finished organising itself, and the strength you lost while resting has not come back. Then you return to the activity at full speed and it happens again, in the same place.
That final phase is where we spend most of our time: loading the muscle harder than the activity will, repeatedly, until returning feels unremarkable. Boring is the goal. If coming back feels like a decision, you are not ready yet.
