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....
by rocktapeuk | Jan 26, 2016 | Cycling, ice hockey, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
We reached out to the UnitedHealthCare Pro Cycling team to get their thoughts on RockTape Kinesiology Tape. Check them out below! When did you first begin using kinesiology tape and how were you introduced to it? Linda Villumsen: Back in 2007 when racing a world cup in Germany, I had a bad crash resulting in a heap of injuries, including a broken wrist and a badly injured knee. I went through a couple of real hard months debating whether I would ever ride again because I suffered from swelling around the knee. My team doctor advised me to try kinesiology tape and at first I was very skeptical, but I was proved wrong, and I have used kinesiology tape in just about every race ever since then. Cari Higgins: I was lucky enough to come into contact with RockTape when it was a baby company, maybe months old. Unfortunately, it was because I had a nasty crash on the Velodrome in San Jose, CA. My hip was majorly swollen and puffy the next day, but I still wanted to race. I ran into the founder of RockTape, because his daughter was racing, and he convinced me to try out the tape in a spiderweb fashion to reduce the swelling. The results were pretty amazing and you could tell exactly where the tape had been applied and where the spots I missed. I was sold. Danny Summerhill: I used kinesiology tape for the first time in 2007. I got tendinitis in my knee while doing base miles early in the season, and as it was my first ever time with...
by rocktapeuk | Jan 19, 2016 | ice hockey, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape, Sponsorship
RockTape Sponsors the GB Men’s Ice Hockey team. Ice Hockey UK have extended their deal with RockTape – the leading provider of kinesiology tape – to include Great Britain Men. RockTape, who began their sponsorship with IHUK for GB U20s’ bronze-medal World Championship success in France, will now supply the product for GB Men’s trips to Italy and Croatia. Pete Russell’s side take part in the Olympic Pre-Qualifying next month in Cortina and then the World Championship (Division 1B) in Zagreb in April. Ice Hockey UK, general secretary, Andy French, said: “It is fantastic the RockTape will now supply GB Men for their upcoming tournaments. “The U20s squad had nothing but praise for the product in Megeve. “We are proud to be associated with RockTape and very happy to have them on board with us again.” Director of RockTape, Simon Bunyard, said: “RockTape UK are delighted to be working with GB Men’s ice hockey team. “The grit and endurance they display when competing makes them a perfect match for RockTape and we look forward to helping the team on their way to victory.” For more details on Ice Hockey UK visit their website...
by rocktapeuk | Jan 12, 2016 | Medical, Rocktape Kinesiology Tape
0%. Null. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. The September 2015 issue of Men’s Health proclaimed this is the amount of “measurable change in people’s strength when they lifted weights†while wearing kinesiology tape.[1] We’ve been telling people the same thing since the first Fascial Movement Taping course we ever taught, so this is hardly news to RockTape or to the thousands of people who’ve been trained by us. This latest revelation from Men’s Health is attributed to the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport. We can only assume they’re talking about Csapo and Alegre’s paper that was published in that journal in 2014.[2] The paper concludes that the best evidence seems to point to the fact that putting kinesiology tape on doesn’t make you magically stronger. And we agree. Traditionally, it was thought and taught by other groups that depending on which direction you apply kinesiology tape you can strengthen or weaken muscles. Very complicated approaches using elaborate tape applications were founded on this idea. These approaches still get taught by some people today, despite all the evidence to the contrary. Several studies, like the one mentioned earlier, do not lend support to the idea that tape can be used to strengthen and weaken muscles. This is actually great news that RockTape embraced early on because it frees people to use our tape without having to fuss over which direction and “over which muscles†to apply it. That makes it faster and easier to apply, so what’s not to like? So, we hate to burst anyone’s bubble, but Men’s Health and the Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport are...
by rocktapeuk | Jan 12, 2016 | Uncategorised
Most people don’t think of strength training as a necessary part of being a better runner, but it is an important routine to get into for anyone putting miles on their shoes. The stigma against strength training for runners has always been twofold: first, that to be a better runner you just have to run. A lot. And, second, that strength equates to more bulk to have to carry when running. In reality, strength training gives your body a needed break from the repetition of running and it can lead to better performance and fewer injuries. Most of the injuries associated with running can be offset with greater strength, which means stronger muscles, connective tissues and joints. The problem areas of hips and knees for runners do really well with regular strength training. More strength in those areas means more control and tougher structural integrity to be able to deal with the impact of running. And, more strength means more speed, too, which every runner likes! The most basic exercises that use lots of muscles and joints are the best ones for runners. Using equipment this means squats, deadlifts and overhead presses and most runners would benefit from bench press, too. Without equipment, you can effectively strength train using just your bodyweight, too. Bodyweight squats, lunges, push ups and even things like wall walks and handstands give plenty of resistance for runners to build strength with. Keep your routine basic. Try to do some strength training before or after every run, for 5-10 minutes. Keep the weight relatively light, using less than 70% of your one-rep max (the most...
by rocktapeuk | Dec 16, 2015 | Guest Posts
By Tom Colwill BSc Sports Therapist | Strength & Conditioning Coach RockDoc and ROCKTAPE Ambassador The University of Bath was the location for the introduction weekend for the British Keelboat Academy. 36 sailors from around the country all meeting up to develop their understanding of what it takes to be a top level, professional sailor. The content was delivered by different lecturers focusing on Nutrition for sport, the Psychological demands of a team, calendar synchronisation, the financial demands as an athlete, then there was my segment, ‘Fitness testing and an introduction to movement and mobility’. The fitness testing section came first and we asked the sailors to complete as many “correct†air squats as possible in a minute, as many “correct†Pushups as possible in a minute followed by a 1K run around the track. We recorded all the athletes completing the squats and pushups on video, so that their movement can be reviewed individually and common movement faults can be identified. This was followed by a Movement and Mobility session aimed at addressing common movements that the sailors would need to perform regularly in their sport and to help them understand how to correctly execute them. We reviewed the squat and the pushup as a group and then gave out different mobility exercises to different sailors depending on their needs. We added in the sit-and-reach test which they performed, we mobilised the hamstrings, they performed again and were able to see the instant change. Instant change, that’s a concept that is quite nice. It definitely made a difference to position and movement, and it definitely caused a few...
