Mick Hughes: Sports & Exercise Physiotherapist

31/01/2026

Save and share this post if you dont have any clinic tech

You can do a lot with no tech, as long as you respect the basics — especially a quiet knee.

Ep 3 of Micks ACL Rehab Room includes a simple, low-tech return-to-run screen (strength + calf + hops + symptoms) as well as LET and allograft rehab considerations

👉 Read via ACL Hub link in bio

What’s one thing that helped you most when you started running again after ACL?

Let’s build a little community thread 🫶👇

30/01/2026

Micks ACL Rehab Room Ep 3 is up (free blog edition this week) because... well...life happened and I didn't get to video record it 🤣

This week I cover:
LET / allografts / return to run framework with no tech

Read via ACL link Hub in bio

Comment your most unhinged ACL rehab moment so far 👇(No judgement here - we’re here for laughs and solidarity.)

29/01/2026

Quick personal one.

I had a follow-up with my psychologist yesterday that left with a simple but powerful reminder:

I need a third space.

Not work. Not family.

A place to learn, connect, and feel like a person outside my roles.

FYI: I'm not in a crisis (mid-life crisis). Life is good.

But I’ve still felt a bit flat at times, and I’m trying to respect that, and not something to ignore until it gets louder.

So I’m making a small, real change this year.

Ready for it? You might want to sit down.

I’m starting karate.

Not to become some mysterious zen warrior (lol), but to build community and do something that’s just for me.

I wrote a fuller reflection on this at my blog section of www.mickhughes.physio - I would love you to read it and share it around to anyone who might also need to read it.

Do you have a third space? Let me know below 👇

28/01/2026

We see our GPs, Dentists & Allied Health providers regularly for physical health, but we dont often (or we dont openly talk about) seeing Psychologists for our Mental Health.

Let's change that.

I also need to come up with another phrase other than "overwhelmingly positive" 🤣🤣

26/01/2026

First child: main character. Second child: comic relief 🤣

25/01/2026

3 hot tips for early ACLR rehab

- Don’t be pedantic about symmetrical bilateral loading early
- lean back with knee extensions in those quad tendon reconstructions
- dont compare yourself to others

Get the full breakdown in Mick's Rehab Room @ The ACL Hub

Click on the The ACL Hub link in bio

22/01/2026

The list is growing longer each week..

Nordics beat dynamic stretching in this 2025 RCT (male soccer players w/ hamstring shortness).

In 8 weeks the Nordic group improved: ROM ~16%, Y-balance ~16%, agility ~13% (and jump ~7% as a bonus).

Dose? 5 days/week for 8 weeks with a progressive Nordic plan.

Yes its a lot, and you certainly wouldn't do this program in-season but the widespread gains are impressive.

Full breakdown → Fast Physio Facts link in bio

21/01/2026

New little project from me: Mick’s ACL Hot Minute 🔥

Ep 1 is live - heavy loading was generally well tolerated, and BFR looks like a great back-up plan when the knee isn’t loving it as per Koc et al 2026

✅ Link here to watch: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFCmwGICxAzrJlQ-cEPpzaq_n9c5SP59G&si=dZ88EUZQeiyQkt8S

💬 Drop a comment: do you use BFR early, or only when needed?

18/01/2026

Early physio vs rest for adolescent spondylolysis:

✅ 21-point better function at 1 month
✅ ~38 days faster return to sport
✅ 3% vs 29% recurrence 😳

Ep 1 of Fast Physio Facts is live 👉 link below

Would love your feedback please + share it with your sports physio mate.

In this episode, Mick reviews a brand-new BJSM open access multicentre randomised trial (Selhorst et al., 2026) exploring a clinically common question in ado...

17/01/2026

I don’t have all the answers… but I do love helping people make rehab feel a bit clearer.

Send me your ACL rehab questions for the next Rehab Room episode.

💬 Comment or DM — whatever feels easiest.

16/01/2026

🚪 Mick’s Rehab Room is officially open.

Ep 1 is a quick ~20 mins where I unpack 3 real ACL rehab sticking points I see all the time:

▪️Patellar tendon graft site pain still flaring at 12 months
▪️Revision ACL + LET + meniscus work feeling slower than the first time
▪️16 months post-op and the single-leg jump still feels… flat

👉 Watch / read the summary at The ACL Hub link in my bio

💬 Comment your biggest rehab pain point so I can address it for Ep 2

15/01/2026

June 22, 2016 - my first ever post was on ankle sprains.

Safe & familiar.

“Surely nobody can argue with an ankle sprain, right?”

From there it was injury prevention, hamstrings, Achilles, PFJ… basically the lower-limb injuries I was living and breathing in clinic.

ACLs?

I avoided them for ages.

I genuinely thought: “Little old Mick from Tamworth with no skin in the research or pro sport game… who am I to be telling people how ACL rehab should be done?”

Somehow, that fear became the reason I kept posting; because people deserve clear, evidence-based guidance, not confusion and rehab folklore.

👉 If you’ve been here for any part of the journey, chuck a 🧡 in the comments and tell me how long you’ve been following.

Here's to 10 years of sharing evidence-based sports physio & musculoskeletal information and trying to make the physio world a better place - thanks for coming along for the ride 🙏