The number of people who don’t make it back from injury is both alarming and depressing
Sky high numbers of everyday athletes don't ever recover fully from sports injuries, research has found.
More than half of people with common knee, ankle and hip injuries are unable to get back to their previous levels of fitness, a host of studies show.
And for those that do, it takes years to finally regain their strength and ability.
As may be expected, elite athletes are much more likely to return to their peak, and experts simply put this down to the availability of specialist treatment and training.
Studies in recreational athletes are not as common as those on professional athletes, despite everyday sportspeople making up the vast majority of injury cases.
Shoreditch's Come Back Club - a new rehab fitness class for everyday athletes, using technology usually only accessible to elite sportsmen and women - has combed through a number of studies and found that:
54% of people who had anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) surgery returned to pre-injury levels, and it look almost three years for the majority of those athletes to get there.
In some studies of recreational athletes, return to pre-injury levels for ACL patients is as low as 24%. Young women are worst affected.
Recreational basketball players with a history of ankle injury are almost five times more likely to sustain an ankle injury again compared to non-injured teammates. This study found the majority didn’t seek professional help for their conditions.
57% of athletes who had hip surgery for a femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) returned to their pre-injury sport level. For most of them, it took 2.3 years to get there.
Recreational athletes are seriously impacted by injury, the Come Back Club says, with knock-on problems potentially putting pressure on the NHS in later life for both physical ailments and mental strains. In fact, up to a fifth of people are found to suffer stress after an injury, at levels comparable to those receiving treatment for mental illness.
In a bid to scale the numbers of everyday athletes returning to fitness, physiotherapists at Warrior Sports Rehab have carefully devised the Come Back Club. Combining the latest technology with expert physio knowledge, the Come Back Club gives recreational sportsmen and women access to treatment and techniques used by elite athletes for the first time, such as electrostimulation and blood flow restriction.
Tom Bradley, founder of the Come Back Club and Warrior Sports Rehab, said:
“These studies paint a painful picture of once-active men and women not receiving the rehab they need, which can affect their long-term physical health, and their mental wellbeing as well. So why is it a professional footballer can be out injured one week, and scoring goals the next? Recovery in elite athletes is much faster and maintained because they have a team of experts around them and the best kit and practises research has uncovered. “
“We don’t see why these methods can’t be available to everyone. The Come Back Club has been carrying out its own research and found patients completing our classes are getting stronger within weeks - not years.
“We've developed a full timetable of classes which, for the price of two physio sessions, can provide weeks of rehab that can transform recovery.
“It’s been proven that injured athletes who show apprehension, fear or anxiety are at a much greater risk of reinjury so it’s really important to us to give our athletes the confidence to get back to doing what they love, keep them healthy for the long term, and stop them becoming another statistic.”
The Come Back Club offers a range of classes including its key technology-driven rehab class, carefully designed HIIT classes and yoga. Find out more here.
