by rocktapeuk | Mar 10, 2016 | CrossFit, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape, ROCKTAPE Study's
You have eaten right, trained hard, and mentally have prepared for the Open 2016. You may have had an injury on and off in the last year, but have struggled through it. You may have even struggled with going to the Box for your workouts because you felt burned out. Now you dig deep for the best performance possible and maybe or maybe not you are meeting your expectations. Some of these symptoms are signs of OVERtraining. Other signs include chronic injuries, loss of motivation, and increased susceptibility to injury resulting in stupid little injuries that start to add up or are just painful enough to annoy you and affect your performance. Overtraining occurs when we have an imbalance between the anaerobic and aerobic systems in the body. Many sports are anaerobic, aerobic, or both. Some sports that are thought to be aerobic are actually anaerobic based on the intensity of the exercise that causes a specific sympathetic response in the nervous and endocrine systems. Sports like weightlifting, crossfit, hockey, football (soccer), and tennis are anaerobic. Things like walking, running, and cycling are anaerobic, BUT it depends on the intensity of the training. There are two gears to our nervous system: there is the fight or flight state (sympathetic) and the rest and digest state (parasympathetic). When we are under stress our nervous system goes into a fight or flight response and we release specific hormones from our adrenal glands (nebennierre) which help us manage the situation. The sympathetic response will constrict blood vessels, dilate the pupils, increase blood flow to the muscles and away from the digestive organs,...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 9, 2016 | Reviews
Rock Rub is something of an oddity, but like many oddities we’ve sort of fallen in love with it. The basics: Rock Rub is either a massage wax or a callus-busting moisturiser or possibly both. If you looked at the cheeky strap-line on the jar – ‘Go stronger, longer’ – you might get a third, more Fifty Shades, impression. The confusion comes in depending on whether you check out the wax on the US website or its UK counterpart. In the US Rock Rub is predominantly sold on the basis of its moisturising strengths whilst in the UK it would appear we’re not quite ready to admit to rough skin and it’s marketed as a massage wax. In fact Rock Rub is pretty damn good all round. The reason why Rock Rub works well as both a moisturiser and a massage aid is down to the ingredients. Beeswax (Australian beeswax to be specific, although we don’t know if that’s significant) forms the base along with canola oil, to which is added vitamin E, patchouli, lavender and the mysterious sounding ylang-ylang. It’s really the latter – along with the vitamin E benefits – that make Rock Rub so good for the skin, whilst the beeswax, with it’s slightly ‘tacky’ qualities that make it so well balanced for massage, particularly myofascial release. Whilst we had feared that patchouli and lavender would be an overpowering combination, the smell is actually subtle and, most importantly for massage, the consistency remains constant during treatment. A little also goes a surprisingly long way. Many runners opt to go for a good long-term build up of...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 8, 2016 | diving, Interviews, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
I was at a Health Expo prior to the Dallas Marathon. I had been using kinesiology tape extensively with my patients as well as the athletes of USA Diving for many years. I saw a RockTape booth and was intrigued to find what this tape had to offer that my current tape didn’t. So I stated talking to this guy named Greg van den Dries. He had no idea who I was and I had no clue who he was. We were just two guys at a pre-race health fair. I was browsing around looking at products and was intrigued by this new tape with the slogan “Go Stronger, Longer.†He was an owner and developer of a relatively new kinesiology tape company called RockTape. He went through his little spiel trying to convince me how much better RockTape was compared to the “other†brand. I then told him of my involvement with the US Diving team as their Head Athletic Trainer/ Physical Therapist and that I was about to travel for the World Cup of Diving. So he handed me six rolls. In a month I was in London for an event leading up to the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. It was there that I first exposed the athletes of USA Diving to RockTape. One by one, these athletes came to me and said that RockTape was “by far better†than what I had previously been applying. It stayed on longer and held up to the demands of hitting the water at 35+ miles per hour. RockTape quickly became an integral part of my medical kit. Today, RockTape...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 7, 2016 | CrossFit, Interviews, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
I read this quote a few days ago, and it actually took some time to sink in and think about… “The suffering is so intense, that it’s absolutely cleansing. The pain is so deep and strong that a curtain descends over your brain….Once, someone asked me what pleasure I took in riding for so long. ‘PLEASURE???? I said.’ ‘I don’t understand the question.’ I didn’t do it for the pleasure; I did it for the pain.†– Lance Armstrong I totally get it! I have spent years competing. In Judo – where i have represented my country for many years, and then in CrossFit, where I have fought, and succeeded for a place at the Regionals in 2014 and 2015. We put ourselves through these workouts… and yes, it actually hurts! Every single person who is competing in the Open will have finished a workout and been left rolling around on the floor – thinking what the fuck! Incoherent and bemused yet satisfied! What pleasure is there in feeling your lungs hurt, and your muscles cry?! Well there is pleasure… there is pleasure in pain. Having competed and fought for a place at the European/ Meridian Regionals for two years, I was a bit – no let’s re-phrase that… very down… not to be in ‘that fighting place’ this year. A shoulder injury has set me back this year, and I was thinking about not entering the Open for 2016. But then I remembered why I love this sport. I love the pain. I thrive off the feeling of hurting. Of putting myself into ‘that’ place where nothing else...
by rocktapeuk | Mar 3, 2016 | Interviews
Nutrition- I try to follow the Zone eating plan based on 14 blocks (3 blocks for breakfast, 3 for lunch, 3 for dinner and 1 morning and evening snack). I introduced this as I find it an easier to keep track of how much and what I am eating. I do sometimes find it hard to fit the snacks in during the day- especially on a Tuesday and Wednesday as these are my the days I work and coach. I have my lunch and dinner meals from The Meal Box Company. I don’t have much time to prep food, so the convenience of a pre-prepped meals are fantastic and the meals taste great- I highly recommend them. Supplements wise I take Omega 3 (icon nutrition) and GLC 2000 with my break- fast and evening meal. Pre and during training – Bcaa- (Icon nutrition)- fruit punch is my favourite. Post Wod- I have a Icon nutrition shake usually Cookies N cream or Chocolate peanut butter- got to be the be the best tasting whey I have ever had! My programming is provided by Ben Allen (aka coach) a very good friend and owner of Elevate performance. He has a very analytical approach to my training and has collected data from when i started Crossfit in Oct 2012, he knows what works well and how to motivate me!! He also under- stands my time constraints and has adapted my programming with this in mind. My longest ses- sion is normally about 2 hours- within this time I try to work on my weaknesses as well as trying to improve on my...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 29, 2016 | Uncategorised
As a quick introduction, my name is Luke Ursell and I train motocross athletes from amateurs all the way up to pro and British championship contenders out of my gym in Derby. Training for motocross can be extremely taxing on the body and requires a lot of conditioning, my athletes do two strength sessions weekly, balance and proprioceptive work, test and ride their motorcycle up to three times a week as well as swimming, running, rowing and cycling. The sport requires complete concentration over three 30 minute races throughout the day, these are all anaerobic in nature and tax every system of the body. I first started training motocross riders after I retired from racing myself. After three fractured vertebrae, a shoulder that didn’t like to stay in its socket, surgeries and general pains in my ankles, knees and hips, I wasn’t sure my body would take another season. It was around this time I met Josh Spinks a then young talent in the industry, he had a glowing career in the kids class with 2X BSMA national championships but he had just come off a flurry of injuries including a C7 neck fracture and two broken feet, that coupled with financial strains caused him to hang up his boots. Josh picked up a little support and agreed to give it one last shot, three years later and he is well recognised as one of the big hitters in the British championship, leading races and taking multiple positions in the top 6, he has gone from strength to strength and has his sights clearly set on the top 5...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 23, 2016 | ice hockey, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
As a Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist I often use tape as an adjunct to treatment to facilitate and encourage correct movement patterns with my patients. I joined the Great Britain Ice Hockey Team in early 2015 as physio for the U18s squad having never seen an Ice Hockey game in my life! My initial thought (aside from how brutal the sport can be!!) is how much potential there is for injury. At World Championship level the athletes will play 5 games, in addition to daily practices over a week long period, thus leaving little time for recovery and rehabilitation. Previously, although qualified as a ‘RockDoc’, I tended to lean towards the more traditional, rigid Zinc Oxide taping methods. Watching the GB squad perform, it occurred to me how restrictive and (let’s be honest) ineffective these techniques can be. Although the players usually spend no longer than a minute on the ice at a time, the intensity is phenomenal. I was finding the zinc oxide tape was lasting no more than 20 minutes and I often had to re-tape between periods. Not only does this take time away from the boys rehydrating and resting, but was also leaving them with uncomfortable skin rashes due to the lack of breathability. This year I joined the U20s squad for their World Championships in Megeve. Having a little more time to prepare, it occurred to me that it would be a great idea to approach RockTape to see if they would like to team up with Team GB for the competition – to our delight they agreed! Having won the gold medal in the previous...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 17, 2016 | Studies
Let’s face it… planks are boring. But they’re also effective, especially if you mix up how you’re using them. All too often athletes will get into a plank position, hold it for as long as they can, and call it good. That’s not the worst idea in the world, but your trunk or core or whatever you like to call it needs strength and stability in multiple directions of challenge, needs to be able to brace statically as well as dynamically during movement, and in different positions, so mixing up the plank is both fun as well as better training for the central axis of your body. First things first, make sure your plank is awesome in form before you do anything else. A good planker will have a relaxed neck (and a relaxed jaw and face), will have engaged abs and butt that you could bounce a quarter off of, a neutral head position (not looking up or clamping your chin down to your chest) and a neutral spine position (no butt up in the air or saggy back). Last, but definitely not least, a good planker will be able to do all this while maintaining normal breathing, not holding their breath or sounding like they’re about to give birth! Your first goal is to be able to do all of this (and either to this with mirrors or video yourself because planking is like drunk dancing at a wedding, what’s in your head is never as pretty as reality) for 30-90 seconds and eventually for several minutes at a time. Once you’ve mastered the basics, then it’s...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 17, 2016 | Uncategorised
Dr. Steve Capobianco, head of Medical Education for RockTape, was recently interviewed by The Evidence Based Chiropractor – you can listen to the podcast right...
by rocktapeuk | Feb 5, 2016 | Reviews, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
To say I was a little dubious about the rock tape course was an understatement. I’m an engineer in the military with, at the time, very little knowledge of physiology and couldn’t get my head around how tape could do so much to help the body. The two day course back in October has now happened to be one of the best courses I’ve done. It was an intense but very fun two days, with a great bunch of people and Dan the instructor had no problem helping me with things I couldn’t get my head around. I left the course with a quickly improved skill set which has set me up for a great 2016. Since the rock tape course I gained a place on the RAF ladies football team to do all their taping for them. Also a place on the RAF winter sports team which covers bobsleigh, luge and skeleton. I’ve just got back from a week in Austria taping up all three teams. It’s a great feeling to be able to explain to other weary people how RockTape works and be able to physically show them too. This is a picture of me with the RAF Skeleton team after they had just completed in the RAF Champs in Austria. Also a picture of one of the skeleton competitors knees I taped up. He went on to win the competition. Next stop, Gibraltar, at the RAF ladies football training camp....
