BCU is home to ground-breaking researchers and academics, who always strive to produce cutting-edge research to tackle important issues. Our faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences is no exception to this rule, and has produced several large research projects.
Now, Sports Scientist at Burton Albion Football Club and PhD candidate, Steven Rimmer, alongside Course Leader of Master’s by Research in Health Sciences, Dr Lewis Gough, have teamed up with Burton Albion Community Trust to help improve the health and wellbeing of individuals struggling with long COVID symptoms. The programme has also been invested in by the NHS as part of its £10 million investment across the UK into local health services.
Lewis said: “We know that Long Covid can have a seriously debilitating effect on fitness levels among people who previously didn’t exercise much but also among those who led very healthy, active lifestyles. We’ll be working with both categories to assess the impact Long Covid has had and to tailor exercise programmes accordingly to get them back on the road to recovery”.
Long COVID symptoms can include breathing difficulties, tiredness, fatigue, memory loss, brain fog, fever and more. The time period in which COVID turns into long COVID is after the symptoms have persisted for longer than 12 weeks.
Lewis and Steven work closely with a team of qualified fitness coaches to put together participant tailored 12-week physical activity plans, designed with each individual and adapted accordingly depending on fitness levels and person goals. The plans include a combination of aerobic, stability and mobility and strength-based exercises.
The 12 participants, who were referred by clinicians from the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, are from all walks of life: primary school teachers, health workers, property developers, mine workers and more.
The sessions are being delivered at local gym, with opportunities to also train at Burton Albion’s fitness suite at their home ground, the Pirelli Stadium, and while the main objective of the programme is to improve the fitness levels of those taking part, the team hope it will have wider social and community benefits.