Reporter Han Bing reported that the sports rehabilitation technology of professional sports has always been constantly improving, from ultra-low temperature cabins to fascia guns, so that modern professional athletes can have a longer professional life than their predecessors. Among the dazzling sports rehabilitation high-tech products, the most popular among athletes is a pair of loose and easy to carry "pants". In recent years, pneumatic compression pants have been rapidly popularized in the field of professional sports in Europe and the United States, and have almost become an indispensable high-tech equipment for athletes to relax and recover from muscle injuries after daily training.
This "pants", which looks like an astronaut's loose spacesuit and like boots, was born in the United States like most other high-tech sports rehabilitation products, and was first popularized in the four major professional leagues in North America, and then landed in Europe. Stars such as Neymar, Bale, former Chelsea captain Cahill, former Paris Saint-Germain captain Thiago Silva and other stars have posted photos on social networks using pneumatic compression pants to help recover from leg injuries, which is also the best advertisement for this high-tech product.
Pants that massage
Before the advent of pneumatic compression pants, after 90 minutes of play, players had to drag their stiff legs back to the locker room, waiting in line for a massage from a physiotherapist, or relieving muscle fatigue through ice packs and other ways, as well as injuries that had already occurred. But Stoke City echelon player Ryan Brent, who suffered a severe cruciate ligament tear in his knee at the age of 16, changed the tradition of sports rehabilitation in professional football in England and even in Europe.
At that time, the physical therapist in Stoke City gave him traditional rehabilitation advice: resting, ice, pressurizing and lifting the injured leg, and the recovery period was up to 12 months. Stoke City's training base also offered Brent a machine to put pressure on his legs, but the teenager hopes to recover as soon as possible and continue his professional football dreams.
During his recovery, Brent continued to search the Internet for more treatments until he found MormaTec in Massachusetts, USA. The company, which produces aerodynamic compression pants that contribute to rapid recovery, was well known in North American professional sports in 2010, but is still a rarity in European professional football. Brent ordered a pair of pneumatic compression pants, and the NormaTec pneumatic compression pants that came across the ocean not only completely changed Brent's life, but also opened up the market for European professional players for the American company.
Brent was not a successful professional, but NormaTec's pneumatic compression pants quickly became popular in Europe, becoming one of the most successful sports rehabilitation high-tech products. The 5-part pants are air compression devices that help athletes regain muscle vitality faster after training and relieve muscle fatigue by reducing muscle soreness and improving blood circulation. In short, this is a 24-hour, ready massage treatment. It squeezes from the ankle up to the quadriceps muscles, expelling lactic acid and toxins produced after high-intensity exercise out of the muscle tissue. Accelerated blood circulation carries more oxygenated blood, which helps players relieve muscle fiber fatigue in time, reduce the risk of muscle injury, and accelerate recovery after muscle injury.
After benefiting from NormaTec's pneumatic compression pants, Brent began renting out his pneumatic compression pants from his teammates and then saw career prospects after his professional career. Although he was not a success on the pitch, constantly being loaned to lower league teams by Stoke City, he was a successful sports rehabilitation equipment agent off the pitch – he is already the general agent of the American company in the United Kingdom.
In 2016, British boxing champion Joshua dialed Brent's phone in the hope of getting these "magical pants". Brent and NormaTec's team in the UK travelled to the UK Sports Institute in Sheffield to provide vital services to the company's most influential clients in the UK. NormaTec's pneumatic compression pants range in price from £1,600 to £4,500, but it's not a problem at all for Joshua, who won the WBA Boxing Champion's golden belt in victory over Klitschenko and a £15 million bonus. He used pneumatic compression pants to relieve arm muscle fatigue, and the effect was obvious.
Three unique technologies
Former Chelsea captain John Terry is also a loyal customer of NormaTec products, and as Aston Villa enters the twilight of his career, pneumatic compression pants are a must after every training session. Terry's teammate at Villa lent him a pair of pneumatic compression pants to try on, and the feel-good former Chelsea superstar contacted Brent and successfully purchased a set. In the Premier League that year, Thiago Silva, Pogba, Henderson and Valencia were all pneumatic compression pants customers of NormTec. In continental Europe, giant stars such as Bell and Neymar are also often used.
Brent said many players would "massage" NormaTec's pneumatic compression pants for 45 minutes to 1 hour in the comfort of their homes while watching Premier League highlights or playing football games. Pneumatic compression pants are perfect for post-training recovery, and many athletes use it every day to reduce the heaviness of their legs. Others like to use it on race day mornings to get a pre-match massage to keep their legs alive during subsequent matches and reduce the chance of injury.
NormaTec's pulsed massage technique was invented by a Ph.D. in bioengineering in the United States, using 3 techniques to maximize the body's recovery. Dynamic compression pulse technology can more effectively mimic the muscle explosive force of the legs or arms, and can greatly enhance the flow of body fluids and metabolites from the limbs after strenuous exercise. Both the human veins and lymphatic vessels have check valves that prevent fluid from returning, and NormaTec also prevents fluids from flowing in the wrong direction by maintaining pressure. This increase in pressure is a step-by-step gradient that provides maximum pressure in each area wrapped in pneumatic compression pants.
The third technique is distal release, because the extension of static pressure may be harmful to the normal internal circulation of the body, once it is no longer necessary to maintain pressure to prevent reflux, the pulse technology will release the holding pressure of each area, so that each part of the limb can get the maximum rest time, and there is no obvious long-term stagnation between internal circulation, ensuring the normal flow frequency of the human circulation.
NormaTec was acquired by Hyperice, a top North American sports rehabilitation company, in 2020, further expanding the latter's market share in the sports rehabilitation space. The fascia gun, familiar to sports fans, is the company's main product, and in May Last May, Dortmund superstar Haaland became the company's global face. Although pneumatic compression pants are expensive, they have become the mainstream standing rehabilitation products in the world's professional sports world, and have also entered China in recent years. Like other high-tech sports rehabilitation products, it is a powerful tool for professional athletes to prolong their sports life.