I extensively mentioned the importance of thermal regulation and how CanterburyNZ was one of the very first to produce clothing that was really helping and lasting. Skins came out with Skins ICE, rechargeable fabric!!! I am planning to try that as well.  I have heard quit a few rugby pros saying they were taking a cold shower before their game (watch out the temperature shock if you do that right after a session) and wished they could maintain that state through out the game.

The cost of cooling down the body  while exercising is huge, heat fatigue is a known syndrome that impairs judgment ant coordination as early as in the second set of a tight match of tennis. The Head of Energicer, former pro Tennis and Ice Hockey player, had develop first cold usage expertise at recovery stages but very quickly realised that cooling down the body while doing sports was very beneficial as well. He therefore came up with a liquid that by it’s evaporation would cool down it environment. Using a strategy known for centuries by the Touaregs (place a black sheet of fabric in front of their mouth in order to recuperate the humidity of their breathing), they realized (it took them 3 year of R&D !!!) that combining black wristbands with highly volatile liquid was doing a fantastic job.

Of course when we looked at the product, all yankees that they can be, after a couple of great-great, and awe-some! we ended up with a couple €50 bottle as a special price to try.(i.e. again  I paid more than it he will cost in the shops! for you…my public…)

Energicer Cooling Liquid Set

So, what is the idea exactly? In a nut shell, strategically placed [wrist]bands will cool down the blood and the body temperature, making you feel much more energetic and effectively make you perform better. The cooling down effect is generated by a highly volatile product into which you have to deep the wrist bands.

Content of the set: a 360 ml can of cooling liquid and 2 wristbands.

The principle: deep the wristbands in the liquid (just dampen them) place them on your wrists or forearms (avoid the elbow joint) as indicated on the schema and here you go  for 2 to 3 hours of cool and energy.  Talking to a couple of pros they even like to place them around their head, biceps-triceps and/or calf. I guess spraying it on your tshirt might do the job as well…except if it is a sweat wicking kind of fabric, it might do well with McDavid though, we will have another try for this.

So here we are at this Pentecost week-end, on the sea side in the north of France.  Field Hockey tournament on 4 grounds, about 40 teams and nearly 40 degres C as well.  As a proof, all the English had their roastbeef outfit on: white protection 100 sun cream on already red skin and my some of my Safer colleagues  thought it bloody hot for a winter season .

Always up for a challenge, I convinced a couple of non gadget oriented players to put them on. the kind of guy that call themselves ‘pure’; “I just need a tshirt, shorts and sneakers”… feedback was very interesting “it’s ok, I am not sure it works a lot…but I had a good game, did you see my acceleration when” [... he did play very well, especially since they had a very very very short night].  10 minutes later: “Can I have the wristbands back, I just started sweating like an orange and feel so tired all of sudden”. Definitevely on to something here. So I tried it myself.  7pm game, temperature had dropped a tad, slight sea breeze, didn’t feel too hot after that long day in the sun, still put them on. I had a fantastic game and I have to agree that I didn’t feel a massive cooling effect but didn’t feel hot at all either, and forgot I was wearing the wristbands. After the game I took them off and went to the shower… within a couple of minutes same syndrome, heavy sweat and extreme fatigue. I put them back on and went back to much more comfortable sensations.

I had other players doing further more testing along the WE, half my team was wearing those wristbands during the final, along with the Panaceo Guarana had a great game against former Dutch internationals.

So does it work? YES

Safe and easy to use? YES

Will I use it again? most definitively…I actually use it when I take the Underground and other public transports

Pricey? not that much: still cheaper than the lucozade and beer you otherwise would like to drink, and much cheaper than looking uncomfortable in front of your customer or your date.  Will get expensive if you don’t tighten the cap of the bottle properly before putting into your bag

I talked yesterday to the Editor of Push (PushHockey.co.uk), they quickly featured it and like it so much they will have a extensive test report in the next edition.

We obviously do like it as well and put it to retail at 49,95€/£44.95. It’s already available for order on SportsRemedies.com, we have it in stock in our UK warehouse and very probably soon in France too.

I’ll come back to you soon with creative ways to use it.

FvM

Energicer Swiss Olympic Athlete

Energicer-Man Waoh!

We will talk about muscle alignment, proprioception (sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body) and blood flow.

Muscle Alignment: Muscles have their optimum efficiency ratio effort/energy in a specific position. The positioning is so important that the muscle itself spends a lot of energy sticking to that position…or positions as we should say, we’ll call that alignment. perfect alignment is one of the key to top performance. The risk of misalignment is more than just tiredness and lack of efficiency. We are talking here injuries: muscle injury, tendinitis, cartilages inflammation and drying up, and, if prolonged, arthritis. OK I am pushing the boat a bit, but unfortunately not that far as I have experienced myself (we’ll talk about how celadrin can help to deal with that if we have a chance in another post)

Proprioception: If you can pronounce it right at the first attempt, then you will face much scepticism at explaining what it is about. The concept is not obvious and even harder to grasp if you haven’t tried compression wear.  lets get to it: proprioception is the sense of the relative position of neighbouring parts of the body, I won’t replicate wikipedia’s article on the subject ( check http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprioception), but in a few word it’s the fantastic ability to combine multiple figures in the half pipe for a skater or snowboarder. In teamsports, when a football player dribbles through several opponents, play the ball while unbalanced  or when rugby player places a chistera while tackled we are in pure exertion of proprioception.

Bloodflow:  the better bloodflow you can supply to your muscles the more efficient for longer they will be. Compression on it’s own is not enough to guaranty an optimum bloodflow, how it is applied may incredibly change the outcome. the guys at CEP have been spending years on this with socks. Improving the bloodflow is their ultimate goal towards performance. Hence a variable compression is applied by the CEP socks in order to guaranty that the veins and arteries are going to feed the calf as well as ease the return of the blood towards the heart. They have even commissioned independent labs and universities to evaluate the efficiency of their competitors’ compression strategies towards bloodflow improvement. Some of the big names don’t seem to have taken matter very seriously. I have myself tried socks that got very quickly unbearable and never seen any socks as efficient as the CEPs.

We are starting to see more and more compression socks that don’t cover the foot ( CEP soccer, Boosters,…). The two main reasons for CEP to have produced such model are new rules in triathlon that no longer authorize the usage of socks for swimming, and to limit the added volume in the shoes. (compression socks being worn under the team socks). The big draw back is that while full compression socks can be worn up to 24 hours before and as recovery socks, these can’t be used for more than 2 hours. A friend of mine witnessed the effect of the Boosters during an extreme trail: early retirement from the event and staphylococcal infection.

And what more? well the guys at CanterburyNZ did even more on they compression gear, they ionized (IONX range) improving even further the bloodflow and the energy sensation (their test show an increase of 5 to 8% of performance, practically you stay at your peak performance level for longer:  pro golfers noticed that they maintained their driving range throughout the day, pro football players noticed they were still up for it in the extra time.

The only reserves one could have on compression gear are about the ‘maintenance’: do wash them very carefully to prevent smell and maintain their quality: we found NST outdoor textile wash provides awesome results and will prevent skin irritation.

I hope this will help.

FvM

The time where you could just wear a cotton t-shirt, shorts and sneakers to do sports is over…or at least should be (those still thinking that call themselves ‘pure’, let’s not start with names )

Technical clothing has been an integral part of skiing for over 20 years. It only made it to other sports a couple of years ago, the first noticeable one being CanterburyNZ in Rugby and Cricket. Saying that, in the last 5 years, numbers of companies involved in technical clothing and the quality of that clothing have been skyrocketing. The latest fashion is Compression Wear…but just fashion or genuine step forward?

Technical clothing started and still comes to mind first for thermoregulation and breathability.

Thermoregulation is mostly understood as getting/staying warm in cold weather. Most vendors add another layer trapping body heated air next to the skin.Other put a lot technology, X-bionic principle being very impressive. If we are just talking about getting warm my favourite is merinos wool based IceBreaker. It is warm and breathable, and above all takes a while before it starts smelling. It just doesn’t bring compression.

Thermoregulation is much more than that, and that’s maybe where it is the most important: it will help to cool the body down. Textile industry came up a couple of years ago with active fabric that either directly cools down or like McDavid spread the sweat and count on the evaporation to cool the body down. The latter is a fantastic idea to prevent dehydration but make you stink and stops working if you wear something (even breathable) on top. CanterburyNZ has been a pionneer and remains the most efficient (we will compare the IONX range to Energicer in the coming weeks). Watching a cricket games you can notice those wearing efficient cooling down clothing. A cricket games alternates calm phases with sudden excitment when field players are chasing the ball before it reaches the surrounding rope. During summer games, even at local levels, only the players with appropriate baselayers get reactive enough.

CanterburyNZ, again, seems to be the most durable. The fabric resists best to washes, sweat and wear.

The breathability contributes to thermoregulation, evacuating sweat protects you from temperature changes. For example, you are on the slopes, you work hard in these muggles then arrive at the ski lift where most of the way up is in the shade. Without breathable clothing cold sweat stuck in the fabric will feel very uncomfortable may irritate the skin and likely to get you a cold. This is the typical automn long distance runners disease, alternance of sunny and cold shaded zones keep them in bed the next day or week.

Technical clothing still triggers resistance mostly because of the smell. Modern chemical wash will damage the fibre more than clean it. Color will fade or grey and smell remain. So far only NST Outdor and their textile wash has been able to preserve and clean the fabric. No chemicals in the mix and fully environmentally friendly, you just wash less with the same quantity of liquid wash. This is the trade off to protect your dear baselayer.

I realise I havent touched compression (proprioception, muscle alignment,…) yet, but we will see that in the next post.

3rdDaySyndromWordleStyle

The ski season is well on, holidays just started for many and that means hitting the slopes. The first day, still a bit dizzy with the journey and the lack of oxygen, it’s full of enthusiasm that the couple of hours on the snow to start slowly end transform into a full speed carving and tumbling day.

The second day, muscles slightly sore and the apres-ski buzzing, it is still keen as a pearl in an oyster that one hits the slopes for another full day.

Day three…raah…can’t get out of bed, arms abdominals and legs are screaming their misery and have gone on strike. This is the third day syndrome.

There is nothing like skiing to be good at … skiing, so obvious that we forget it. Football, rugby or hockey players will tell you a few weeks off the pitch, even with very regular visits to the gym, and it takes at least a month to get back to a good standard. So what to do when you’ve got just a week of skiing once or twice a year?

Ideally, if you want to be able to ski for more than 2 hours in the day, eat meat for the muscles, fruits for the energy and  hydration.  Limit caffeine, soda and alcohol intake…good luck.

It won’t be enough though. Your muscles are going to be over exercised, that means free radicals, lactic acid and other energy production generated wastes jamming the cells. That’s the 3rd day syndrome for you; muscles can’t simply deal with it anymore, not only they are aching, they won’t respond either.  Compression clothing will improve blood supply to the muscles and keep the muscles aligned (good to prevent injuries), we believe CEP have the best socks on the market, compression shorts are coming, we love CanterburyNZ IONX compression shorts and t-shirts range. The leggings will do well…as well, but we love the Hot (for when it’s hot!) range too from 0°C and above. With sore joints Celadrin capsules will do wonders (it basically re-oils the cartilages, better than glucosamine and chondroitin combined).

Back to muscle ache, the couple of minutes in a frozen bath are unbelievably efficient, but the real magic comes from the combination of Celadrin balm and Panaceo Sport capsules. The celadrin will provide instant muscle ache relief and protect the skin from the cold. The Panaceo Sport will protect from the free radicals and clear up the muscle cells like nothing else.

The high efficiency of Panaceo Sport comes from how they deliver the active ingredients. There is no secret about the composition ( zeolite, macca, dolomite; i.e. no hidden illegal product, you know the ones that give you back skin acnea…), but in the way the ingredients are composed. Panaceo uses nanotechnology to mold the active ingredients and add a layer of  volcanic powder that will protect them from the digestion process. This gives maximum efficiency to the active ingredients. On top of it, it’s not a drug, and has no side effect what so ever. Legal trading of any food supplement requires specific authorisation (even grand-ma herbal tea does need it if one wants to sell it!), Panaceo Sport has it. Personally I take a pot everywhere I go. Because it works for skiing, for running, for a day moving boxes…

Enjoy your skiing…but Telemark rules

FvM

DVT (deep vein thrombosis) can happen to anyone apparently if you stay still for too long (unlikely to happen to me then…yes, but for other reasons). It’s mostly known to happen after a long haul flight, but can actually happen after a long bus trip or sitting at the office (bad bad for you the office, real bad ).

They made an experiment between 3 groups, one doing nothing special, one exercising regularly (moving their feet even seated) and a third group with compression socks. The result was clear, compression socks were the only one to have significant positive effects.

That reminds me of a field hockey player we sponsor, who went on tour to Asia with his national team. That tour included about 50h of flying within 10 days. We had given him CEP compression socks (‘Running’) that he used first during the Europe-Asia flight. Coming back from injury, he was surprised to be the only one able to run properly the day after their arrival(for the anecdote, he tried a different brand on the way back with great discomfort. We tried other brands as well and decided to stick to CEP inspite of the higher price and lower margin…). Since then I personnaly do use the CEP socks on every flight and so do a quite a few airplane pilots customers of ours.

On a cross channel trip, I noticed someone wearing boosters (neopren calf sleeves). Talking about it to a friend of mine who happens to be a mad triathlete (aren’t they all?), he told me about his last experiment (a 65km run in the Alps) where a club mate of his had to withdraw after 3 of 4 hours with the DVT syndrom. Basically the boosters had cut the bloodflow. I was therefore very surprised when CEP contacted me to announce the Soccer range compression sock. Mickael Ballack was apparently a big fan especially since he could wear them under his official sponsor clothing without adding any further pressure to his shoes:

CEP 'Soccer' Compression socks

So I went to visit CEP stand at ISPO, were they gave me more info about their next developments, but to stick to the subject, they told me that those ‘shoeless’ socks could not be worn for much more than 2 hours. Great for football – rugby -hockey and short triathlon, but for preparation, long runs and recovery the full socks are what you need.

Lucky me, I had come accros at ISPO NSTOutdoor .

They are the same guys that engineered first env. friendly ski wax. Here they were mostly showing their textile and shoe hygiene/protection range: textile wash/proof, dry fresh, shoes wash/proof. Kind enough,  they offered me a bottle of Textile Wash.

will let your girlfriend and your technical clothes make up...

There are 3 main ideas behind their range of products:

- it does what it says

- it’s environmentally friendly

- it’s gear friendly

Presentation: white 300ml bottle, top locks well (did take the whole moving around ispo to airport, to the plane, from the plane to the hotel, from the hotel, to the plane luggage compartiment, flight to Berlin, from the plane to the hotel !, not a leak). 300ml won’t make it to your hand luggage for long though (100ml is the limit and they do check)

Action: The ‘No Stink’ of my Icebreaker was really taking a hit, it made it to the sink along with my CEP socks and 2 euros pants. I RTFM‘d for once (4 lines: wash, leave, rinse and let dry). As I opened the bottle and used the product, the smell was far from being agressive. It took a faire amount of uggly stuff away, 15 min later were my clothes hanging. The fabrick didn’t seem to have suffered, we need to confirm this with some baselayers, but it looked promissing and confortable to wear once dry.

This is apparently a very popular item among surfers and ski intructors and more over their wives and GF. If it allows technical clothing to maintain their performance specs (thermo regulation, compression, sweat management) for a bit longer, it’s going to be a hit for runners and team players as well. Especially since the price is not that different from the chemical – fabric aggressive – large brands that we find in supermarkets:

Textile Wash: 8.50 euros

Dry Fresh: 8.00 euros

I have seen the demo of the dry fresh: powder to dry and de-smell the inside of the shoes (those who play on water based surfaces will love it). I guess we will include it soon to SportsRemedies.com portfolio.

Now, because I liked it, to the two first visitors to send me a nice word, we will give away a bottle of either Textile Wash or Dry Fresh. The 10 following will get 10% off and free shipping in the UK or France. Just send me a nice word at comm’AT’SportsRemedies.com (replace ‘AT’ by @).

FvM

Kaorigin(custom design agency), Laken(aluminium bottles), a couple of hockey sticks factories (yes I survived the Sourcing halls), Delta 7 (pyramidal carbon composite structures!!!), 3LMNT (creazy riding machines), VBM Sports (inflatable temperature driven muscle and joint support).

The snowboard and skateboard centered halls were wild, sportswear halls showed that fashion didn’t mean trendy and demanded anymore. Ski companies used to try very hard to catch up with the innovation and creativity of the snowboard world.  The wheel has turned now, so much that snowboard manufacturer have gone into ski.  The creativity is quite impressive. After powder alarms we should see those rockers invading the great white: check the Fly Swater from Movement as shown by SkiPass.com.

Did I mention the massaging dolphin? and she tried to sell me her  sex toy as a therapeutic tool I’ll explain another time…maybe.

Cheers,

FvM

MP Sports (ski touring skins), Energicer (clothing cooling liquid), Powertector (protection clothing), Limar (helmets), Hibros (support gear), Nutcase (top fun helmets), Vale (custom made high profile flip flops), Soularc (3D skateboard), Satski (ski GPS nav device and software), SportsKreativeWerkstatt (spelling platform!!!), Hiberna Iceboards (ice speedsails), Skionic (ski sand sailing without skis sail nor sand!!!), Lizard (FiveFingers), D30 (intelligent molecules), Red (Burton helmets), CEP (compression socks and shorts), NST Outdoor (env friendly closthing and shoe cleaning products), Cintamani (Icelandic clothing), Fidlock (magnetic clips), APO (legend Regis Roland snowboard and ski brand), Quench Gum (adictive chewing gum)

Tomorrow day 2, plan to see Movement (Swiss ski and telemark) and a couple of others…and Quench Gum again to nick a couple of hundreds of their free samples,
I’ll try as well to walk through the sourcing hall without having my email address feeding Sialkot spammers

Cheers,

FvM

I had this on the back of my mind for a little while, but not really sure I had the time…but I’ll try.

What is the occasion? ISPO! ( http://ispo.com ).

In a couple of words, Ispo is the biggest sports related fair in Europe. It happens in Munich late Jan/earl Feb, and like every year for the last 4 years, SportsRem.com will pay it a visit. I will use the blog to share my discoveries.

We’ll see what we make of it…

Cheers,

FvM