Beware of McHenry Trampolines!

Exercise is valuable. Moving is great. Moving exercise on a trampoline is...dicey.

OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is an advocate of exercise. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic encourages all of our patients and families of patients to exercise. It’s great for everyone’s overall health. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic also cautions McHenry families and patients to exercise to one’s capacity, warm up, and build up slowly when trying any new exercise routine. But when it comes to trampolines for exercise and/or for fun, OrthoIllinois Chiropractic cautions trampoline lovers a little more earnestly due to the risks of injury.

McHenry trampoline fans often challenge OrthoIllinois Chiropractic when we express caution. So it was nice that this latest article was published. It documents just what types of injuries are related with trampolines from a long-term point of view. This study compiled statistics of emergency department visits due to trampoline injuries from 2002 to 2011. Did you know that there were an estimated 1,002,735 visits for trampoline-related injuries? Wow! 288,876 (29.0%) of those visits were for fractures. The average age of the kids with fractures was 9.5 years. 51.7% were male. 95.1% of these trampoline-induced fractures occurred at home. (1) The statistics of the body parts that are injured go on and on. You would be dumbfounded. And beyond the bodily injury, the financial costs are incredible: $1.002 billion for all trampoline injuries in this 10 year period: $408 million alone for fractures. (1) Even though we’re not sure how many actually occur on McHenry trampolines specifically, these numbers are astounding!

So OrthoIllinois Chiropractic hates to wreck a (perceived) good time for its McHenry trampoline enthusiasts, but it’s risky. Some of our McHenry patients find this hard to believe because there are big trampoline public exercise/play facilities and trampoline exercise classes popping up everywhere. Jumping is fun. Trampoline jumping can be competitive. Bottomline: Trampoline jumping may be dangerous, especially for young McHenry kids. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic encourages exercise and fun, but simpler, on-the-ground activities are encouraged!

Contact OrthoIllinois Chiropractic for all your McHenry chiropractic services. And don’t worry that we’ll scold you (too much!) for trampoline fun, but you may hear us share some concern. That’s all!