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Hytro BFR wearables are already being used in the world of Formula 1, and now Bradley Scanes, Human Performance Coach to Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing, will be utilising their benefits in the upcoming season. Bradley shares insights into building a championship winner and how BFR will help to achieve that goal.
Hytro BFR wearables were designed specifically to improve sports performance and help coaches and practitioners unlock more from their athletes.
From team to individual performances, on pitches, courts, and even racetracks, every sport, and every athlete presents a new opportunity for coaches to create and deliver a competitive advantage.
Bradley Scanes wasn’t always a Human Performance Coach. He started as a physiotherapist, gaining a Masters degree from Loughborough University before working at Acute care hospitals, a professional football club, and Team GB. The very nature of F1, however, means that support staff are encouraged to specialise across disciplines. Given that Scanes was also qualified as a strength and conditioning coach, he proved the perfect fit for Red Bull Racing.
“Motorsport suits performance individuals who are dual qualified because of the amount of travel involved,” said Scanes. “We’re on the road a lot, which means it’s logistically impossible to bring a whole team of support staff with you to every race.”
Such logistical problems present opportunities for Hytro BFR, which Scanes uses himself and now plans to integrate into his 1:1 work with Max Verstappen.
Much of Scanes’ work is with the two-time F1 World Champion. The role is all-encompassing, with Scanes managing Verstappen’s training schedule, physiotherapy work, nutrition, hydration, and recovery. When it comes to race weekends, Scanes can also be found helping with logistics, driving to the track, sorting out meals for the team, and sorting Verstappen’s kit.
2022, Brad Scanes, British GP, Day 2, F1, Friday July 1
“Every track and race has different demands,” he explains. “Muscle soreness and fatigue therefore varies throughout the season. In Austria, for example, drivers can come away in relatively good condition. Tracks like Silverstone, however, require drivers to take corners at high speed. With the average driver’s head weighing 5kgs – and their helmet adding another 2kgs – this places real strain on the neck. In Suzuka, Japan, you’re at a g-force of around 3 for 30-40% of the race. Then there’s the endurance element. Racing in Miami last season, Max lost 4.65kgs. That’s over 5% of his body weight!”
Given this, Scanes spends plenty of time working both sides of the neck, as well as increasing lower back strength. Drivers need a strong core so they can brace – quick decelerations can produce up to 100kgs of force – along with a strong lower body. For the endurance element, Scanes aims to get his drivers’ V02 max up to 60.
“You don’t have to be super fit as a driver, but you do need a high level of endurance to maintain focus and concentration,” Scanes summarises.
This is why BFR is such an impressive tool, it can help achieve Recovery, Strength, and Endurance goals with limited time and resources.
With the F1 season comprising 24 races across five continents in a condensed period, such physical demands need to be carefully managed to produce optimum levels of performance. BFR, Scanes believes, can help to achieve this in the coming season: “I picked up BFR toward the end of last season. We didn’t want to introduce it to our drivers during the season because anything new needs to come before they start racing. When I used BFR myself, though, I felt I got a lot from it. Particularly when it came to recovering from jetlag. Over a seven-day period, I travelled between the UK-Singapore-UK-Japan-UK. Throughout that time I used BFR and didn’t experience any jetlag – unlike the others I travelled with.”
Recovery from the full-on logistics of F1 is Scanes’s second key area for drivers. With much travel between time zones and time spent on the road and in the air, fatigue can be an issue. Using BFR, Scanes believes, can help to combat that: “Jetlag negatively impacts reaction time. We know from the data that the drivers with the quickest reaction times tend to be the ones at the front of the grid. That’s why we’re going to be using BFR in the coming season to act as a cognitive stimulus and limit fatigue. And that isn’t all. There are opportunities for prehab work, minimising any pain the driver is experiencing before racing and also allowing us to get more from our intense pre-season schedule.”
Hytro BFR wearables offer a safe and easy way to implement BFR into a recovery programme. Athletes are using the Hytro BFR Recovery shorts post-training, after competing and when travelling to accelerate their recovery and reduce muscle soreness. The simplicity of the wearables makes the benefits of BFR easily accessible to individuals and teams, bringing desired adaptations, complimented by systemic flushing and re-perfusion.
While travelling the world, Verstappen and his fellow drivers stay in luxury hotels that tend to have gyms. However, they don’t always have the right equipment or suitable weights. Travelling with Hytro BFR wearables will allow drivers to get the same stimulus regardless of the equipment on offer while introducing BFR to the pit crew and other support staff – who stay in lower-grade hotels which don’t always have gyms – will help to keep them in top shape so they can bring their best performance to race day.
“BFR will allow us to get more bang for our buck,” says Scanes. “We’re going into pre-season now, which has been shortened from our usual nine weeks to a six-week period. That involves a week of media work, so in reality, we’re losing a month on last season.” Such reduction in timings means that preparation work needs to be condensed: “We’ll spend pre-season getting our drivers’ strength and endurance up to scratch while ensuring they’re also the right weight so we have the ideal car balance. With BFR we can be more efficient. Given the reduced time available, intensity will have to increase. BFR will allow drivers to recover more effectively from these intense sessions. They’ll also be able to use it for strength and endurance gains without central nervous system fatigue and without impacting on the planned schedule.”
From the pre-season schedule of seven weekly sessions, it’s on to car testing before the season can finally begin. Max Verstappen is chasing a third world title with Bradley Scanes at his side – and now also Hytro BFR in his toolbox.
Hear more about how Hytro BFR is being integrated elsewhere in motorsport by reading about our partnership with the Alpine Racing Academy.
Alternatively, click the link below to visit our Pro Sports page and arrange a demo with our sales team.
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