AN ANSWER TO LONG-COVID: EMBED A COVID-19 REHABILITATION PROGRAMME IN TO YOUR CLUB SERVICES

We have talked a lot as an industry about the role fitness and good health play in the prevention of the worst symptoms someone who endures COVID-19 might experience, but we’ve talked a lot less about the role we can play as a sector in the rehabilitation of someone who’s had COVID-19. In fact, we are positioned do both really well. 

When it comes to the health benefits of physical activity and exercise generally and in the context of COVID-19, there is a conversation that we can have with the whole population, right now, and one made all the easier by digital technology. But, when it comes to rehabilitating individuals from COVID-19, how big is that population? How many people need our help? 

On March 23 2020, there were 967 daily cases of COVID-19. By November 12 this rose to 33,470. Whilst some will argue this rise in figures is because testing has become far more prevalent, regardless, more than 1.32m people in the UK have contracted COVID-19. 

Whilst one death from COVID-19 is one death too many, what is encouraging is that very few people die from COVID-19. In the UK 99 - 99.5% of individuals who are diagnosed with COVID-19 will survive. And a growing percentage of this group are being classed as what we now commonly refer to as "long-haulers.” In July’s Active Uprising, we presented the common side-effects and heavy risks of COVID-19 and Long-COVID, which can include cardiovascular disease, stroke and neurological dysfunction; the potential damage is far more profound than an acute cough, fever, and period of isolation. 

Hence the impact of COVID-19 is more associated with long-term rehabilitation and recovery than it is mortality. 

It’s important to note that many individuals who are not hospitalised as a result of COVID-19, or who may not have been formally diagnosed by their GP, receive no immediate professional medical attention, and instead are asked to self-medicate and convalesce in isolation at home. All across the world there are people who have already experienced COVID-19 that are in need of support, and who have lacked the necessary guidance required with regards to regaining their health. Daily, we at CAWS speak with, and witness, thousands of comments from individuals who contracted COVID-19 as far back as March, and still today are continuing to experience the debilitating effects of the virus. These can range from headaches to breathlessness, chronic fatigue, depression, through to hair loss and in some instances, far worse. One of the major overriding concerns for this group is that their situation is not going to improve, and that they will ‘be like this forever’. 

Those who have endured COVID-19 and had a relationship with regular exercise prior to being infected, are particularly keen to return to exercise again but without the body’s necessary restoration, returning too early to exercise can aggravate an already ‘damaged’ system, and in some instances can trigger a dormant virus and induce a regression in their health.

This situation is affecting individuals’ quality of life, emotional state, careers, and family-life, as well as their health status, and making them more vulnerable to developing more complicated chronic conditions further down the road.  

As you might expect, many individuals are losing hope, and in an effort to improve their situation they are reading unfiltered comments on social media and self-prescribing exercise, dietary changes and supplement use, and through no fault of their own making ill-informed choices that, in a lot of cases, negatively impact their outcome. 

Those who try and fail, fall into a limbo of wanting “to start again, but don’t know when to start” as they “don’t want to set it off again,” and hence do nothing through fear of making an already difficult situation even worse. 

This, of course, is not dissimilar to what we often see when individuals try to navigate their way through exercise and physical activity in general terms without the support of their local club or professional. But the effects are far more pronounced in the context of COVID-19 for those struggling to recover. A significant aspect of effective recovery from COVID-19 is managing the pace of rehabilitation and return to activity. That is extremely difficult for an individual to self-manage without understanding effective progress markers, exercise physiology, and the pathology of COVID-19. 

The good news is that our sector is able to step-in and help. As a profession, we have the club infrastructure and workforce equipped to handle the complete rehabilitation of someone from COVID-19, post their acute phase, and right the way through for the rest of their lifetime. We simply need to make sure we have the specific knowledge to work with complex clients in the context of COVID-19. 

As the rate of infection continues to increase, this very current crisis is quickly becoming a much bigger future crisis as more of the population find themselves in this compromised situation in the wake of the spread of the virus. 

When CAWS set out as an education company back in May this year, we never wanted to merely ‘sell education.’ We always wanted to make a bigger impact on the sector. In the context of COVID-19, and with the help of ukactive, CIMSPA, EuropeActive, and key strategic partners and all club operators, that ambition now looks like this: our goal is growing the Skills Registry of trainers and coaches that are competent and confident and have the knowledge and skillset to rehabilitate individuals away from COVID-19. They may be existing club members and clients, but there’s an entire population out there who we don’t currently serve that also need our help to get well. 

This is a huge opportunity for us as a sector to welcome a wider population into our facilities and restate our position as a sector, and leaders in the global campaign of health improvement. Second to that, it is an opportunity to extend our club services with a ready-made solution for audiences, at a time when we are being forced to adapt commercially and look for new ways to sustain income and stay evermore relevant.  

This may sound as though it will be easier said than done, but in the UK, we’ve already started. 

In early October we launched the RebuildTM training programme for clubs, trainers and coaches to best understand the pathology of COVID-19, and the right early assessment protocols and exercise prescription in the context of the virus. This programme not only teaches our industry workforce how to rehabilitate an individual out of COVID-19 (in-person or online), but also how best to bring or return them to full-time exercise. 

The concepts and principles that a coach or trainer will learn through this process has a significant amount of application and is a real segue to managing all clients with chronic disease, either bought on by COVID-19 or for those already coping with co-morbidities. 

Our priority is that as we as an industry open our doors to the thousands of individuals seeking help, we aim to have enough certified coaches across our sector who are ready to receive everyone at once. We are working hard with the NHS, local primary care and rehabilitation groups, schools, universities and COVID-19 survivor groups to identify areas of the country that need our sector’s help the most, to make sure that we have RebuildTM certified coaches in those areas. 

This is exactly what our industry is about. This is the start of addressing COVID-19. This is the start of helping people to rebuild, to recover, and get on a better track so we can make sure that COVID-19 becomes a part of people’s pasts. In the midst of the fight to keep our clubs and studios open during government restrictions, there is no better way to respond than by being a direct solution; actively preventing the worst type of symptoms, and wholly managing the country’s rehabilitation — which we can start doing right now. Let’s take this situation and turn it in to a tale of overcoming, and better health on the far side.

HOW YOU CAN TAKE ACTION

We need your help to grow the Skills Registry of certified individuals who can facilitate COVID-19 rehabilitation across our communities. Certification costs from as little as £70.00 per club to train up to 15 coaches. 

To find out more about the RebuildTM training programme for coaches, the strategy that sits behind this, and how to join up the dots in our communities between clubs, families, schools, employers and community care, you can join ukactive, Dr Col, and I on next Friday’s webinar, November 20 at 11am. The link to the call is here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_g7Owkz3gSe20_6u_40p_QA

... or you can contact me directly at melspooner@cawsgroup.com or on +44 7792 204825.