What if your life depended on balance & proprioception?

Balance is the ability to keep your centre of mass over your base of support.

Proprioception is the ability of your body to know where your limbs are in space.

This is breath-taking!

                   

In August of 2015 Spencer Seabrooke set the world record for the world's longest ever free solo slackline 290m high 64m wide in British Colombia, Canada.

How much balance training are you doing in your workouts?

Try replacing Squats with single leg squats or 'Pistol squats' to challenge your balance in a functional position:

                    

Have you ever tried slacklining?

Slacklining is a great way to enhance your balance and proprioception training.

Not only is it fun but it is also super-addictive.

There is no need to go as high as Spencer though, you can start with the slackline just off the floor.

Add some balance work into your programming today. 

You never know, one day your life might depend upon it!

Spencer Seabrooke, the Bulletproofbodies Team salute you.

CrossFit Meridian Regionals 2017 was all about the Teams

                 

The Team Event at Regionals is always the highlight because it is about more than just the individuals, particularly in the last event, which was the notorious "worm."

Two British Teams competing to get to the CrossFit Games were CrossFit JST led by Steve Fawcet and CrossFit Espri de Corps lead by Tom Wyles.

This was the first time that a British Team made it through to the CrossFit Games.

                      

Team JST won the Team event, which means they are the first British Team to reach the CrossFit Games.

Not only did JST have an amazing team, they also had the most fantastic supporters in the stadium!

Team EDC came a respectable 9th place, which meant that there were TWO British Teams in the Top Ten.

We were happy to provide Physiotherapy Treament to both Teams.

Below Alex Rees using Compex to aid recovery post workout.

CrossFit JST and CrossFit Esprit de Corps, the Bulletproofbodies team salute you both.

CrossFit Regionals, Pectoral tears and Decline Bench Press

So, there has been lots of speculation about why there have been so many Pectoral tears at CrossFit Regionals.

Having just been part of Athletes Services at Meridian Regionals our main aim was to reduce Pectoral tears.

The Men seemed to be getting the tears and not the women.

The exercise in question was Kipping Ring Dips.

Julien Pineu is a CrossFit Coach at CrossFit Invictus (He also does Strongman) 

but he knows a thing or two about Training and discusses the differences between 

Athletes in the Americas and in Europe.

                   

Julien talks about two factors:

Homeostasis and Hormesis

Hormesis is favourable response to stress.

Homeostasis is the body seeking to gain balance. 

"All the programs out there are based on hormesis; how am I going to create the right amount of stress to elicit the response that I want.

Most athletes develop problems because they focus on programmes that give them results in a specific areas, but longer term it will always lead to injuries, or at least getting stuck because they don’t take into account evolution and how the body actually works.

So the problem is more the way that the athlete looks at training, rather than the training itself.

Secondary to this, for CrossFit specifically, the main problem I see is latissimus Dorsi and Hamstrings.

The certain planes of movement that CrossFit tends to work within, lead athletes toward imbalances in these areas."

Julien Pineau, the Bulletproofbodies Team Salute you!

Check out the StrongFit channel:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Strongfit

Athlete Services at the CrossFit Meridian Regionals Madrid 2017

It was three amazing days of CrossFit Athletes from Europe, Africa and the Middle East competing to get to the CrossFit Games 2017 in the USA.

             

As ever the Athlete Services were there to keep the athletes going and treat any injuries over the three day period.

The Athlete services team are totally International with Chiropractors, Osteopaths, Physiotherapists and Sports Therapists from all over the World.

This was a chance to use the new IAST (Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue) from Rocktape, the Rockblades.

This year we also had a chance to help athletes recover with the Compex 8.0.

Obviously we were still taping athletes with the only tape to use for CrossFit, Rocktape to help athletes to go stronger for longer.

Pectoral tears were a major concern to lots of athletes after 25 pectoral tears occurred in the US Regions.

We only had a few Pectoral tears which is a significant reduction and will help silence the critics about possible steroid use.

I would like to think that Athlete Services helped contribute to a reduction in this particular muscle injury.

However, all athletes we cautious of this injury so adjusted both their training and strategies accordingly.

The Bulletproofbodies Team would like to thank everyone of out therapeutic friends and well done to the fantastic Medical at CrossFit Meridian Regionals 2017.