by rocktapeuk | Jun 7, 2017 | Uncategorised
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/@MSD_Prosportmassage April 29th, 30th and May 1st Perranporth Beach, Cornwall The English National Surfing Championships have always been a highlight of the national surfing calendar, and this year was to be no different. Having been recently appointed as the head of Health and Fitness for Surfing England, this was a great opportunity for me to work with Surfing England and spend some time with the management and the surfers. Now it would not be an English bank holiday weekend if we did not have the typical English weather, from one extreme to another. That is exactly what we experienced. We arrived late on the Thursday night and checked into our caravan at the Perran Sands Resort. We headed to the to contest site first thing Friday morning. greeted with beautiful sunshine it was the ideal weather to set up our brand new easy up tent and treatment area. The waves were not great at this time, but the afternoon saw enough size for the contest to get udnerway. The slow start to the contest allowed me to treat several surfers before their heats. It is a common miss conception that surfing is soft on the body, on the contrary it is very physically demanding and we come across all kinds of injuries and muscular skeletal issues. The level of surfing at this event was very high, so it is easy to see how intense the demand on the body is. With the high performance aggressive manoeuvres being performed by the elite surfers, a lot of stress and impact is going through the hips and lower limbs. This...
by rocktapeuk | May 24, 2017 | Uncategorised
Trail running has a ton of benefits for practitioners of the sport, as well as some unique challenges and injuries. Probably the main problem trail runners face is an acute ankle sprain, and taping may help prevent sprains and can certainly be helpful in the aftermath. Of course, trail runners are just as prone to the chronic knee and hip problems other runners face, too. Uneven terrain makes falls more prevalent and gives trail runners a higher need to protect their lower legs, especially, and doing so also helps with those tight single-track sections that may put you in proximity to thorny plants or all our “poisonous” friends like ivy, elm and oak. Protecting your shins and lower legs from these sorts of plants as well as protecting them from falls or scrabbles over fallen trees, rocks and other obstacles is the domain of RockTape’s excellent RockGuards shin protectors. Originally designed to help CrossFit athletes protect their shins during deadlifts, box jumps and rope climbs, RockGuards were quickly adopted by obstacle course racers and trail runners alike. RockGuards offer a lightly padded, highly protective front side that will take pretty hard impacts from obstacles or falls while running. The back is a breathable mesh that doesn’t hold water, so you’ll stay cooler than you would with a full running pant/tight. RockGuards also have zippers so, depending on your footwear, you may be able to get them on and off over shoes. If not, wearing them for a full run is a heck of a lot better than scratched, bashed shins or running into poison ivy and getting the post-run...
by rocktapeuk | May 23, 2017 | Uncategorised
This summer Libby Kerr and Lisa Trollope are attempting a continuous round of the Munros (all the mountains in Scotland over 3,000 feet). We’ll be summiting all 282 mountains, cycling between them and throwing in a little bit of kayaking. This will involve 1,000 miles of running, 1,000 miles of cycling and 149,000m ascent -17 x the height of Everest (eek!)! This feat has only been completed by three other women in the past with a fastest known time of 113 days. We plan to complete the challenge within 80 days, blogging and filming our adventure to inspire other women to get out into the mountains and to get active. Our first Munro will be Ben More on the Isle of Mull at the start of July and we’ll work our way around Scotland to end on Ben Hope in the north in mid September. This challenge is going to be tough on our bodies, and this is where RockTape comes in! Libby has experienced issues during training with her left knee during training. Her VMO muscle appears to be having a break and letting the rest of the quad muscle do all the work. She’s been trying to kick the VMO into action both with exercises and with RockTape H20 applied to the muscle to encourage it to activate. Much of the running will be across pathless hillside. Scree covered descents, grassy tussocks, thigh-high heather/gorse and uneven ground mean that there is a high potential to land awkwardly and ankles especially can take a battering on this sort of terrain. When muscles are tired this can easily lead...
by rocktapeuk | Apr 28, 2017 | Uncategorised
When it comes to skateboarders is always been hard to show the positives of sports therapy and performance recovery. Skaters have predominantly viewed treatment as ‘uncool’ or ‘jock’. If you are getting taped up or seen doing pre skate stretches then it was likely that someone would start giving you some grief for it. I am one of the few individuals that is deeply emerged in the skate world, but also educated in sports science and sports therapy. I have worked at several international skateboard events and worked with some of the biggest names in action sports, from Tony Hawk to Mat Hoffman. The funny things, the more elite the athlete the better the understanding of the benefits sports and physical therapy can have. I also find the older the athlete the better the understanding, and increased need for treatment. So I have set out to try and educate the ‘new school’ skater, the up and coming skaters and the professionals who are in the prime of their career and really wanting to push their ability into new levels. Over the last few years I have worked with these guys and this year is the first time that I have been non stop at an event. Vert Attack is the worlds largest vertical skateboard contest outside of the X-Games. Vert skating is where the guys are skating on 10ft plus half pipes and performing huge Arial tricks. The event is held in Malmo, (Sweden) and attracts the biggest international names in skateboarding. The beauty of this event is that nobody is competing for money, they are simply competing for...
by rocktapeuk | Apr 18, 2017 | Rocktape Kinesiology Tape, Running
Sunday 9th April was an exceptionally sunny and warm day for the runners of the Brighton Marathon which included 80 NSPCC fund raisers who raised over £50,000 for the charity. A major part of the NSPCC fundraisers post-race reception is the very welcome sight of the row of massage tables with soft tissue therapists waiting to soothe the aching limbs of the runners and for the past 4 years Rocktape have been donating rolls of tape to help support the NSPCC runners after this and a number of other events which include the London Marathon and the Gherkin Challenge. I have been using RockTape in my private clinic since working at the London Olympics, and even though I have not found a better tape, this year RockTape donated rolls of their H2O tape which has twice as much adhesive on it. Last Sunday we found it invaluable when treating runners who have just spent 3-7 hours in the sun, coming in with aching and very sweaty legs! The day consisted of runners hobbling in with sore ankles where we used RockTape to help support the lateral stabilisers of the ankles, as well as plantar fascia and for achilles pain where treatment this soon post event would not have been advisable. However, the support from the H2O tape made it invaluable to assist the runner in getting mobile again. Knee pain was the other main area where RockTape came into its own. As the Brighton Marathon was quite hilly, their knees took quite a load especially for some runners who were running their first marathon. Applying the H2O tape to...
by rocktapeuk | Apr 7, 2017 | Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
Keith Gladstone set up Athletic Health; A company that provides sports injury and performance management for TV / media and professional sports teams. Most recently Keith Gladstone has been in Austria on set for channel 4’s TV show The Jump. With his team of therapists, Keith Gladstone worked to help the celebrity contestants get through the intense and physically challenging training and performing schedule for the show. What is your back ground and how did you end up working on The Jump? I’m an osteopath and sport scientist with special interest in sports injuries. I worked at Lord’s cricket ground with Middlesex CCC and the MCC for 7 seasons. Cricket was full time during the summer months but over the winter in 2011 I was asked to work on a television show looking after the celebrity contestants who were taking part in physically challenging and potentially risky activities in a show called Famous and Fearless. With more and more reality shows being produced with contestants taking part in physically challenging tasks, I found myself working on ever more shows. Tell us about the Jump, for those that don’t already know? The jump is a celebrity reality TV show in which contestants compete in various winter sports, including slalom skiing, skeleton, ski-cross and ultimately ski jumping. We spend 8 weeks in a ski resort in Austria while the contestants train and compete. It’s fun gig. What sorts of injuries did you and your team have to deal with? With 16 people skiing 4 hours a day for 8 weeks you are bound to pick up knocks. We had to deal...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 24, 2017 | Uncategorised
How did you decide to pursue a career as a physical therapist and athletic trainer? I played sports growing up before tearing my ACL twice in high school. I loved the work my physical therapists did with me and just started hanging around the clinic during my free time after school. When I got to the University of Miami, I started in their Student Athletic Training program and loved it. What is your athletic background? In high school, I played soccer and baseball. After tearing my ACL snow skiing (and later, playing soccer), I gave those up. I was on the rowing team at the University of Miami. Tell us about your practice. Where, and what sport do you specialize in? I’m part of the PGA Tour Sports Medicine staff. We see professional golfers all day, everyday. At every event, we have a staff of 2 physical therapists, 2 athletic trainers, and a chiropractor. We practice out of two trailers that get towed from tournament to tournament. One is basically an outpatient clinic with most of the equipment you would find in any PT/chiropractic office. The other is a miniature gym where our athletes perform their workouts. What do you watch for during competitions? Are the injuries in golf ever predictable? Professional golf is generally a predictable sport in terms of the patterns of injuries that we see. For example, we know that about 2/3 of the PGA Tour pros that come in for treatment will have some kind of spine pathology. Of those, about half are lumbar spine while the other half is split between the cervical and thoracic...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 1, 2017 | Uncategorised
On the 25th of August 2016, Lowri Morgan…a TV Presenter and Ultra Marathon Runner embarked on a three day challenge to run from North to South Wales to raise awareness of Cerebra, a charity for children with Neurological problems. Over the 3 days she would summit 3 mountains and run 3 ultra marathons covering a distance of 150 miles. The challenge was hence called 3/3/3. The challenge started from the village of Llanberis located at the foot of Snowdon. On the first day Lowri summited Snowdon, Wales’s tallest mountain at 1085m, and then set off on a 45 mile run to the overnight stop located at Dolgellau. On the morning of the second day Lowri summited Cader Idris at 893m, she then headed off down south again, eventually stopping 65 miles down the road at Rhayader for an overnight stay. On the third and final day Lowri ran a third and final 50 mile ultra marathon down to Brecon, finishing the day by summiting Pen y Fan at 886m. This amazing endeavour took only 60hrs! This was obviously a huge physical and psychological effort, my job was to keep the legs as fresh as possible. Each morning I would spend 20 mins with Lowri massaging the legs and lower back before applying Rocktape where she felt she needed the support. Through experience I have found Rockrub to be an excellent massage wax. It is easy to use, gives me just the right amount of friction without being slippery, but most of all it is easily cleaned off afterward so that I can apply the Rocktape. Having worked with Lowri...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 22, 2017 | Uncategorised
We are proud to introduce our line of pain relieving topical analgesics. Offering options for both hot and cold pain relief—RockSauce® and RockSauce Chill®—each powerful formulation is now available in convenient roll-ons and clinical sized 32-ounce pump tops. Meet the RockSauce Family RockSauce® is widely considered to be the most powerful topical analgesic on the market. It contains 20% methyl salicylate, 10% menthol and .002% capsaicin to deliver hours of pain-alleviating warmth to sore muscles and joints. It is an incredibly effective stand-alone pain reliever, but its exclusive formulation means it can also be used in conjunction with RockTape kinesiology tape to provide even more relief. The success of RockSauce led to the development of RockSauce Chill®, a potent cooling gel containing 6% menthol—33% more than the closest competition. The roll-on applicator was intentionally designed for mess-free, temporary relief of minor muscular discomfort. RockSauce Chill’s powerful active ingredient works synergistically with soothing, inflammation-reducing ingredients like arnica, green-tea, and aloe to deliver a comprehensive pain relief solution. “The convenience of RockSauce Chill’s roll-on inspired us to redesign our entire topical product line,” said Cullen Maroney, Product Manager at RockTape. “Our goal was to develop a system of topicals that benefitted our medical professionals and their patients from the start.” RockSauce and RockSauce Chill analgesics are available in 32oz pump tops for in-clinic use and a 3oz roll-on for patient use. The complete RockSauce and RockSauce Chill lines are available direct from RockTape and through RockTape’s trusted medical distributors. Learn more about this new line of topicals by visiting the link...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 20, 2017 | Uncategorised
RockTape UK are proud to launch our inaugural UK Movement Summit at Therapy Expo 2017 (www.therapyexpo.co.uk). Taking place at Birmingham’s NEC on the 22nd & 23rd November, the RockTape Movement Summit and Therapy Expo will be unmissable for therapy professionals, with two days of the latest insight, education, demonstrations, networking and training. Leading the line-up of speakers are our very own medical director Paul Coker and Education Director Daniel Lawrence. Promising to be an event to remember, the RockTape summit programme includes dedicated demonstrations and hands on training in vital clinical skills including; kinesiology taping, IASTM techniques, movement screening, manual therapy and therapeutic movement and exercise prescription. Taking place over two days, and hosted in the Therapy Expo Demo Zone, delegates will be able to drop in and out of sessions to suit their session schedule. Book your £79 +VAT RockTape early bird ticket by the 31st March before the price increases to £99 +VAT using discount code ROCK79 – and be in with a chance to win a place on a RockTape course of your choice. Paul Coker, Medical Director, RockTape UK said: “Therapy Expo is an incredible opportunity to showcase our treatment concepts and education to therapy professionals. We share a commitment with Therapy Expo to support therapy professionals, RockTape exists to spread new knowledge and best practice, and improve patient outcomes. Therapy Expo is the perfect fit to showcase and share our continued work, knowledge and insight.” By registering for Therapy Expo 2017 you will gain access to the RockTape Movement Summit and all its content, plus the full Therapy Expo conference programme and exhibition floor, benefiting from: Over...
