News

Zamar Press Release - January 2007

Bolton Wanderer’s Secret is out! 

During the past three seasons the facts remain that Bolton Wanderers have had less injuries than any other team in the Barclays Premiership.  This is one of the main reasons why the Reebok outfit are consistently amongst the elite of English football.  What is the secret behind Bolton Wanderers’ excellent prevention of injury policy?

In the world of professional sport and fitness, prevention and repairs of injuries is everything, if your players aspire to greatness then Zamar’s innovative hot and cold therapy system, is designed to help prevent injuries as well as greatly speeding up recovery times.

The ZAMAR system provides cold and heat treatment, combined with massage therapy, to improve circulation and promote healing. It is designed to help reduce and prevent joints problems, muscular strains and soreness. The machine is non-invasive and can be used both prior to and following competition for general maintenance of all the critical areas such as the legs, arms and shoulders, as well as to help with recovery from an injury.

The system consists of a portable machine, similar to a small fridge, which is attached to treatment wraps via hoses. The machine pumps a liquid called Glycol through the hoses into treatment wraps, which are fitted onto the player with Velcro fastenings. These wraps are soft and form fitting and they mould around the area being treated.

The machine is designed to be mobile so it can be used in the treatment room or used as an essential tool on matchdays on pitchside or in the dug out

The system is available in a choice of hot and cold or cold only options with treatment temperatures of between –80 C to +450 C the machine has programmable cycles to give continuous temperatures or a combination of hot and cold treatment for as many cycles as required when treating an injury or problem.

Bolton Wanderers FC is so convinced of the benefits of the Zamar hot and cold therapy that it has become an established part of the first team’s training programme.  The system is used on a daily basis by the Club’s medical team. The beauty of Zamar’s product is that it speeds up the recovery process and gets players back on the field and ready for action. 

“We have been extremely successful using the Zamar device as part of our treatment and rehabilitation programme for some time,” explains Mark Taylor, Head of Sports Medicine & Exercise Science at Bolton Wanderers FC. 

“The product is proven in greatly speeding recovery time of injuries sustained by our professionals. It is also an excellent way to revitalise tired legs and aid recovery.

“Three seasons ago I was asked if I would test the prototype of a brand new machine that was being developed. The unit arrived at our training ground at Euxton and we installed it in the physiotherapy suite and started to use it.  Shortly after this, one of the first team players Nicky Hunt sustained a heavy contact injury to the lower shin and ankle during a match against Manchester City.  He was treated with the Zamar machine on the day of the injury for three consecutive days. The resulting bruising was substantially less than similar injuries treated previously with ice cubes or chemical ice packs.  Nicky returned to full training and was extremely pleased at the speed of symptomatic relief. 
“The benefits for the football club are that the player wasn’t forced to miss the next match and was available for selection without any real concerns.”

“We also had an excellent result with the second player that we treated, Kevin Nolan who had a haematoma (blood clot) to his calf area.  He was treated four times over a four-hour period and then continued applying treatment at home for the rest of the evening.  The intensity and versatility of the machine again accelerated the recovery of this player who was able to do an active warm down the next day with no pain. 

“These are only two examples of the many successful treatments that we have carried out using Zamarwhere the accelerated response of player’s injuries are evident.”   

“The unique and very positive benefits of the Zamar system are quickly evident to users and it is a great tool to have for assisting in preparation, rehabilitation and recovery from injury,” explained Patrick Riley, Managing Director of 3T Ltd (Temperature Therapy Treatments) the company behind Zamar in the UK.

“When we started out we contacted a number of different people, first was Bolton Wanderers and then Bradford Bulls and the FA.  We gave each of them a machine and asked them to test it for us.  We also asked for any ideas or suggestions on how to improve the system that they might have.  Everyone involved in the testing were extremely pleased with the results that the machine archived, non-more so than Mark Taylor who has been key to the development of the unit with many of the current features such as the adjustable massage function and extensive temperature ranges and the development of new treatment wraps being requested by him. 

We were invited to demonstrate the unit at the annual FA conference on sports injuries 2005 prior to our launch, Mark was our guest of honour along with Anna Everard who was then the senior physiotherapist at Bradford Bulls” 

The Bolton players are already converted to the ZAMAR way and players like Danish striker Henrik Pedersen are impressed with the results,

“It is always frustrating when you sustain an injury.  The most important aspect for a player is finding ways at speeding up recovery to get back into to training as quickly as possible.  With the Zamar system the recovery process is now quicker than ever. The rehabilitation time can now be substantially reduced thus helping professionals getting back on the pitch at a more rapid rate.”