KLARNA / CLEARPAY NOW AVAILABLE
Charlie Faulkner, Strength and Conditioning Coach at the Lawn Tennis Association, was one of the first elite coaches to embrace Hytro BFR as a training and recovery modality for his athletes. We caught up with him to hear how he’s been getting on.
“Tennis players require sound levels of general fitness. Tennis is a sport where athletes need to produce and cope with high levels of force and plenty of accelerations and decelerations. This is interspersed with short recovery periods, so the ability to repeat high-intensity activity is key. With the nature of competition, matches can last for a long time, and in a competition, they come thick and fast.”
Due to this high physical demand, Charlie believes that “a highly developed cardiovascular system and the ability to produce repeated high intensity actions” are the two main physical attributes that set players up for success.
This is why Hytro BFR fits so well into most athletes’ training programs: because of its flexibility and ease of use, and as the literature proves, it can promote faster recovery as well as increased athletic endurance.
“Because of the sporadic nature of matches, the density of competitions and the frequency of tournaments, recovery is an essential part of every tennis player’s schedule,” Charlie added. “If they want to see adaptations, there needs to be appropriate recovery periods. You can have the best strength and conditioning programme in place, but if there’s no time for appropriate recovery to allow those adaptations to occur, then ultimately you’re just going to create damage and maybe even regress the athlete.”
Sleep and nutrition are commonly presented as the fundamentals of recovery. But, having used Hytro BFR with his athletes for several months, Faulkner expands on sleeping well and eating right to look at other recovery modalities:
“There are plenty out there. I was initially attracted to Hytro BFR above those other modalities because of the aggressive response of strapping in. There’s the hypoxic reaction, swelling, pooling, flush, reperfusion and pump. Athletes can literally feel their recovery in action. They put on the Hytro BFR shorts and utilise passive BFR, sitting down while playing on their phones and letting all of these reactions take place.”
We have seen and shared many examples of the performance impacts unlocked by Hytro BFR, highlighted by our coaches community, and helping to further prove the effectiveness of this method. But beyond its impressive performance advantages, Hytro BFR delivers a practical solution at times when more traditional methods prove challenging to administer.
“I use Hytro BFR for more than just recovery,” said Charlie. “Due to the nature of the sport, tennis players spend a great deal of time travelling as they move between competitions and hotel rooms. This means that they don’t always have access to certain bits of kit. Hytro BFR, however, fits easily in a player’s bag. They can take it anywhere, and then do a session anywhere. It’s fantastic for use in hotel rooms. One of my players used to use pneumatic cuffs for BFR sessions. Though he enjoyed the physiological response, it proved difficult and impractical to inflate and deflate the straps – especially when he was on the move. With Hytro BFR he can just strap in and go. It’s far more accessible.”
“As a coach, having experts like Hytro on hand to consult on BFR application, and speaking to other coaches with experience using BFR with their own athletes, is really helpful. Getting their input, rather than attempting to solve problems all on your own, is a game-changer; not only for you but also for your athletes.”
Find out more about Hytro BFR Wearables for your athletes. To arrange a meeting with one of our BFR experts click the button below.
Hytro continue their expansion into injury and performance research by working with Oxford United to undertake collaborative research on combining Blood Flow Restriction training with water-based recovery methods.
Hytro continues its mission to establish the power of Blood Flow Restriction through collaborative research with Bristol City Women’s Football Club. In a move that consolidates its commitment to pushing the boundaries of BFR, the world’s first BFR wearable brand will conduct unprecedented research within women’s sport to ascertain if it is as effective as seen in previously carried out male-based studies.
Women’s football, especially with the current outstanding performance from the England team at the 2023 World Cup, has brought attention to a growing awareness of the physical challenges women can face in elite sport. We caught up with Charlotte Potts, Defender at Newcastle United Women’s to learn how she has been using Hytro BFR to train smarter and prevent injury.
