Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Bench Busters Review

When I was contacted by Bench Busters with an opportunity to have a free 30 day membership to their website, I was pretty excited. This website offers exercises that will help you prevent injuries so that you aren't sidelined from your favorite sport. It's main focus is preventing ACL and knee injuries, which for us runners can be quite common.

They offer two different memberships, but both are for life. The standard plan offers only online access, but with the premium plan you get the balance and neuromuscular program and they will send you a foam roller and theraband. I got to review the standard membership. 

When you log into the website, there are tons of pages with so much information, you could spend hours just perusing the articles. But I wanted to delve into the workout they offer.   For members, they offer a 43 page printable handbook, and a 35 minute workout. This workout concentrates on strengthening your core, which we know is the foundation for preventing injury. It's a bit challenging, but also easy enough for beginners to participate, and the trainer gives step by step instructions on how to do the exercises correctly. Along with this 35 minute workout, they offer supplemental exercises for more advanced athletes. 



So here's my list of pro's and con's - 


Pro's - 

  • The trainer takes the time to show you how to do the exercises properly so that there is no margin for error to cause injury
  • Great core workout 
  • It's a portable workout, you can do it anywhere
  • Good addition to a training plan
  • Great for beginners
  • Explained well enough that coaches could do it with their teams, even in children's sports
  • Great supplemental handbook
Con's - 
  • None really. The 35 minute workout is pretty basic, but they offer a bunch of exercises that supplement it for more advanced athletes. 
That said, it is always good to go back to the basics. Especially, if you have just recovered from an injury and you need to gain your strength back. From there, you can move on to the more difficult exercises. 

So all in all, I give this website an A. It's definitely beneficial, especially for those that are just starting out. 



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