A couple of weeks ago you may remember that I published a post looking at a few cycling related Kickstarter projects (if you missed it you can find it here). Well after this went out I was delighted to hear from a couple of other companies who wanted to see if I would be interested in taking a look at their soon to be available offerings too.

One of these people was Dr Caroline Keddie the creator of the new and innovative WellbriX. Caroline herself has a 1st class honours degree (Psychology), a PhD (Mathematics and cognitive learning styles), she’s a therapist in Sports and clinical remedial injury and a has a strong love of many sports so its safe to say she is not only very smart, but also well positioned to understand the needs of athletes and wannabe athletes the world over.

She has taken the concept of the ever popular foam roller as a starting point, and gone at least three steps further, designing a set of modular bricks with various sized nodules that can be used for a much more targeted approach to work those sore and tight muscles and knots that are formed after exercise.

After some initial discussions over the phone where I learnt more about the product and the journey from idea to inception, Caroline dropped two sets of WellbriX round to me personally. Yep personally, it turns out she lives literally two roads away from me, so its very likely, given she is a keen cyclist herself, that she is also one of the many riders who breeze past me on the hills of Surrey of a weekend!!

But I digress.

The Two sets I have been kindly provided to test out consist of one set of 3 with regular firmness nodules, and a second set of 3 with extra firm nodules (read, more hardcore). Now I hear you cry, what is a nodule? Well as you can see from the images, quiet simply its a half ball shape that can be used to get right into the trigger point of the muscle to work out the knots more effectively than a roller (more of that in a moment). These nodules are laid out in 3 different patterns across the ‘brix’ with one, two and four nodules on a ‘brix’ each designed to target areas and knots (trigger points) more specifically.

Little bit of Science behind the concept….

On her website Caroline describes a trigger point as  ‘a small contracted fibrous knot in muscle tissue’ These knots basically keep the muscle tight and weak and can lead to various problems over time. Unsurprisingly with what we know about the human body, these problems in one area can often cause problems elsewhere too, and this is where the WellbriX come in.

Now as you will probably have noticed the images I have used are not of me using the WellbriX but are instead lifted directly from the site and there is a simple reason for this. It was impossible to get anything near a decent shot of me using them. Working my tennis elbow somehow ended up looking more like me tickling my belly button, whilst the pictures of me using them on my neck seemed to suggest I am hairier than a Wookie (trust me, I’m not).

What I can promise though is that I used them! I used them a couple of times a day for  6 days (I had them for around 9 days all told). Initial thoughts were that it was pretty painful (I should warn you my pain threshold is appallingly low, say about 1.3 on the 50 shades scale), but that whilst I had pain I could also feel it doing some good, and the pain/discomfort has already started to ease. I used them post exercise, particularly on my calves and quads and found them to work the muscles in these areas really well, and personally, I felt, more effective than when I have used a foam roller.

Speaking of foam rollers, one of my pet hates is exactly that, it rolls! I have the coordination skills of a first year university student on their way home from the 4th night in a row of fresher’s parties. Seriously watching me use a foam roller could literally make you rich (get a video camera out, send the resulting footage in to everyone’s favorite candid camera show, voilà £250!). The beauty of the WellBriX though is that thanks to the slight magnetic element in them you are able to join them together in to whatever pattern you like and work areas as needed (and no need for much coordination!)

This in itself is an additional benefit over the foam rollers, the sheer versatility of the ‘briX’. With each one being palm sized they can be used to get right in to the nooks and crannies that are hard, if not impossible for a foam roller to reach. I have a very sore neck and shoulder, half from sitting at a computer all day and half from carrying my son around on my shoulders (he’s about 16kg), and what the WellbriX have allowed me to do is effectively target the source of the pain to massage out the knot, and boy has it been effective!

My wife (Mrs Rouleur for those who read my other posts) has also used them frequently. Having recently got herself back in to running, it is safe to say she has had a few aches and pains of her own. The WellbriX have certainly helped target these niggles effectively and rather than just work the whole of the muscle as a foam roller does, the ‘briX’ have allowed her to pinpoint the source of discomfort and work out the knots.

Finally, given my past posts it’s clear that I spend some time looking at Kickstarter projects and whilst this doesn’t apply to those I have discussed previously, sometimes projects just aren’t ready for launch, the website is poor, the product is not refined etc.

Well I can safely say this isn’t the case with WellbriX. The website in particular is a one stop shop for absolutely everything you need in regards to the product. Full of invaluable instructional videos on how to use the ‘briX’ correctly and effectively it also has sports specific sections with guides and videos targeted to the sport you are doing, and even has a section for ‘desk jockeys’! Head to the website, watch the videos and away you go! Anyone can get the hang of them.

From my discussions with Caroline, it is very clear to me she is hugely passionate about this product, she has got it out there to as many people as possible in an attempt to get maximum feedback. Athletes, sports teams, and even average Joe’s like me have all tried the prototypes. This means that she is already making refinements to the product (making the normal range slightly less firm, a few aesthetic changes here and there), so you can rest assured you are getting something not only built to last, but also something that has been tried, tested and refined.

Its obvious from the above then, that I like the product but would I shell out my own money (the ones I have been testing will be going back to Dr Keddie shortly) and the answer is a resounding yes. They launch on the 19th April at 3pm over on Kickstarter, and you can rest assured I will be one of the very many backers that I am sure this project will get.

Why not join me?

Follow this link to be taken directly to the Kickstarter page,

Or if you want more detailed information (and less mention of Wookie’s) check out the WellbriX webpage here.

 

It goes without saying that the banner image and all gifs were taking directly from the WellbriX webpage. The initial photo is of the sets I have been trying out.