Animal experimentation models are a necessary prerequisite to human trials for the use of regenerative medicine in the treatment of spinal cord injuries. Considerable effort is required for the generation of a consistent and reproducible methodology to incur an injury and evaluate the results. The traumatic contusion model has been accepted as a model that closely mimics a typical human traumatic injury, and here we detail step by step an approach to generate a reproducible lesion in rats. Acute cell transplantation by intramedullar or intrathecal administration is described for regenerative interventions. The same model is suitable to design subacute or chronic therapeutic approaches by interventions 1 week or 1 month after lesion.