Did you know women were not allowed to participate in the Olympic Event Ski Jumping prior to 2014? With this in mind, I'd like to introduce you to Sarah Hendrickson — the two-time Olympic ski jumper and first female to acclaim the title as World Champion.
Hendrickson loved ski jumping starting at 12 years-old, as she would tag along with her older brother to watch him jump. Hendrickson started jumping or "flying" with the boys because there was no girl's team, there was no girl's training, there was no girl's competition.
Women were not allowed to ski jump in Olympic Competition prior to 2014.
Hendrickson is now a two-time Olympian ski jumper and the first female to win the inaugural women's World Cup Title in 2012 at 17 years old!
After suffering six knee injuries, Sarah and her coach opted for a new method of training introduced to them by Internationally renowned Olympic Physician, Jim Stray-Gundersen, MD.
The method, Blood Flow Restriction Training with B Strong BFR Bands, is a unique fitness phenomenon, which involves wearing inflated bands on your upper arms and legs during workouts, fueling an effect that yields similar results to traditional heavy lifting and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in a fraction of the time and causing little to no damage to the body —BFR actually triggers a physiologic hormonal cascade to heal the body and produce strength.
"The strength gains and lean body mass improvements were astonishing after only nine, 30 minute sessions," says Director of Coaching Alan Albourne.
"Our sport is analogous to a race car — you need to be powerful and light, but well fueled. B Strong gave us what we were looking for, quickly with less time under a squat rack and our athletes were able to fuel themselves more, because B Strong turbo charges the metabolism. We immediately implemented B Strong training to all of our athletes who continue to see results," continued Albourne.
B Strong Bands were indeed incorporated into Hendrickson's training prior to making her second Olympic team and Hendrickson is a strong advocate based on her personal experience and successful results.
She recently opened up to share the benefits of BFR and how she uses the bands in her daily training routines, not only as a staple for strength training but also in her cardio fitness, and recovery.
"The science behind it is simple, safe and effective to everyone I have used it with. The simple exercises that I do with B Strong Bands are now much harder with the B Strong Bands safely restricting blood to the muscles. This causes a metabolic response and higher heart rate, which will
end up resulting in losing weight and better cardio fitness. The best part is, when they are wearing the bands and doing these simple exercises they are out of pain because they are not using heavy weights" Hendrickson recently shared. "B Strong is truly a game changer for me."
Today, Sarah is the athlete representative for Ladies Ski Jumping and values her role of growing the sport, while pushing women on the world stage. The 26-year-old has taken a step back from competition to pursue higher education and nursing, train upcoming athletes with her Olympian insight, and contribute to the Teen Fly Girls and younger generations of female jumpers she inspired.
Hendrickson Continues to be a Pioneer as She Introduces a New Training Method To Her clients that Helped Get Her to Her Second Olympics
As a two-time Olympian and World Champion in the sport of ski jumping, Hendrickson has always been passionate about fitness and training and she now wants to share that passion with her clients as a certified personal trainer, while at the same time finishing up her degree in Nursing. Hendrickson offers in-home training around the Roaring Fork Valley and an in-person location in Aspen. Hendrickson's focus is on training programs using B Strong BFR with low weight resistance and an emphasis on form and pain prevention.
"Battling six knee surgeries and one back surgery myself, I’m familiar with the hassle of chronic pain and rehab. My training helps you get back in shape and strengthen areas of concern for preventative measures. I’m a certified personal trainer and I’m also certified to provide B Strong Blood Flow Restriction (BFR) training. The science-backed technology of BFR helped me get back on track as an athlete, as it helps to increase lean muscle mass, circulation, increase cardiovascular levels, and offers metabolism benefits," explained Hendrickson.
Hendrickson is indeed a trailblazer and 103 pounds of BOLD!
A LOOK AT THE EVOLUTION OF COMPETITIVE WOMEN’S SKI JUMPING
Women have been ski jumping for over 100 years. While it's arguably the dream of every elite athlete to represent her country at the Olympic Games, that opportunity did not exist for women ski jumpers around the world. Ski jumping and Nordic combined, which consists of cross-country skiing and jumping, were the only events in the Olympic Winter Games in which women were not allowed to compete like the men.
In 1991, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that all future Olympic sports must be opened to both genders, however, this excluded the original sports at the inaugural Olympic Winter Games in 1924, including ski jumping.
WHY WEREN'T WOMEN ALLOWED TO JUMP IN THE GAMES?
These skilled athletes ski down an in-run at 60 mph and can fly farther than the distance of a football field. But early on in the push, some considered that women's bodies couldn't handle the sport — not unlike what was said in the 1970s and 80s about women marathoners.
In 2006, the IOC executive committee turned down the International Ski Federation's (FIS) overwhelming recommendation that a women's ski jumping event be added to the 2010 Games in Vancouver. At the time, the IOC maintained that women's ski jumping lacked universality – despite having more athletes and more countries competing internationally at the elite level than other Winter Olympic sports for women.
For example, at the time of the IOC decision, women's ski jumping had 83 athletes from 14 nations competing at the highest levels; skier cross had 30 athletes from 11 nations; bobsleigh 26 athletes from 13 nations, luge had 45 athletes from 17 nations, and skeleton had 39 athletes from 12 nations.
WHAT WAS THE VANCOUVER COURT CASE?
For 10 years, female ski jumpers were continually denied inclusion in the Games despite pushing their sport through the system and greatly increasing participation.
Feeling as if they had exhausted every avenue, American Female Ski Jumpers, risked their careers and teamed up with 12 women jumpers from five countries to sue the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) in 2008 for their right to compete in the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The historic human rights legal battle resulted in the British Columbia Supreme Court declaring in 2009 that the IOC exhibited gender discrimination by excluding women’s ski jumping from the Vancouver Games, but stopped short of forcing VANOC and the IOC to hold an event for women.
WHEN WAS WOMEN'S SKI JUMPING ADDED TO THE OLYMPIC PROGRAM?
On April 6, 2011, the IOC finally announced that a women’s ski jumping event would be added to the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games program. The women have one event — normal hill competition. The men have three events (normal hill, large hill, and team competition). WSJ-USA leaders continue to lobby to reach parity in ski jumping in the Winter Games.
WHY B STRONG BFR TRAINING WORKS
The benefits of proper B STRONG training cannot be over emphasized.
B STRONG BFR training is an exercise technique that safely manipulates the body's circulatory system, and when combined with exercise, produces rapid gains in strength and fitness using light loads in a very short period of time. Its use triggers a natural hormonal response in the body generating Human Growth Hormone (HGH) which has been noted to produce an anti-aging effect, and contribute to the building of stronger bones, increase lean muscle mass, and reduce body fat. The efficiency of BFR Training creates a paradigm shift in fitness! Now, weight training with half the weights in half the time can illicit remarkable whole body results.
HOW B STRONG BFR TRAINING WORKS
What you commonly hear referred to as “No Pain/No Gain” refers to the traditional weight training model — ultimately tearing muscle to build new muscle and increase strength.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN
For an individual to achieve muscle fatigue from a traditional training session, he/she would have to lift heavy weights or push oneself for a long period of time to illicit the growth hormonal response needed to make strength gains or overall improvement.
When following B STRONG banded protocols, lifting lighter weights ‘tricks’ the muscle to fatigue, the athlete (young or old/fit or unfit) gets the desired physiologic response quickly without having to break down and tear muscle, inducing Human Growth Hormone (HGH) to all tissues and working muscles of the body. This strong yet non-damaging muscle fatigue triggers a natural, robust, hormonal cascade which in turn produces hypertrophy and strength gains on par with traditional weightlifting. The hormones circulating in the blood stream benefit all areas of the body that were working not only the banded limbs, which we refer to as the "systemic effect."
B STRONG BFR Training is not limited to weight-bearing exercises. B STRONG BFR bands can be used in any* training or fitness protocol including walking, running, cycling, swimming sport-specific skills/drills training and most fitness classes where heavy weights are not involved.
BENEFITS OF BFR TRAINING
The benefits of BFR training lead to better health and wellness for the entire population – young and old alike. It can be done anywhere, anytime, regardless of your starting fitness level and remarkable improvement is possible.
SAFE
B STRONG Training Systems is the safest BFR technology on the market. B STRONG bands are designed for safety. Their patented air-baffle inflating design ensures the bands cannot occlude blood flow. Without this unique design/safety feature, restricting blood flow can be an extremely dangerous. The B Strong Training System is the only BFR tool designed by an Olympic physician and MD with expertise in the cardiovascular and circulatory systems, and decades of experience in athlete and overall human performance. The B Strong Training System was designed to be safe for everyone from age 8 to 103 and all fitness levels to improve overall health and performance.
EFFECTIVE
Gain all the benefits of traditional training without incurring the damage. Get stronger, leaner, improve performance, recover faster. The B STRONG Training System uses a safe, natural and physiological manipulation of your body’s circulatory system to produce quick and significant gains in strength and fitness! In other words, your brain is tricked into thinking you are working hard, lifting extremely heavy weights in response to the restricted blood flow to the banded muscle. Your brain turns on a cascade hormonal response to support the “overworked” muscle initiating muscle hypertrophy (growth) without ever actually overworking the muscle. And the benefits are systemic – not just the banded muscle is impacted, with B Strong Training the entire body and all working muscles benefit. You gain all the benefits, leaner stronger muscle growth without ever actually tearing or over straining the working muscle. The benefits are immediate and measurable, in half the time of traditional workouts.
AFFORDABLE
After years of studying BFR devices in use in throughout Asia in the 1990’s, Dr. Stray-Gundersen defined the mechanism and physiological response that elicits the immediate benefits of BFR training, and developed and patented the B STRONG Training System to simplify BFR Training for all. The initial devices used in Asia cost thousands of dollars, were cumbersome and were not safe to use without trained supervision.The devices did not allow for unimpeded activity, as you were tethered to a pressure device. Recently, the availability of BFR tourniquets, elastic wraps and cuffs common in the bodybuilding world and available inexpensively online, are extremely dangerous and can cause permanent damage to muscle and tendons (and much worse) and should not be used. The B Strong Training System was specifically designed to bring an affordable, safe and easy to use BFR device to market for all to use for measurable improvements to overall health and fitness levels.
WHO & HOW TO USE BFR SAFELY
BFR Training is an exercise methodology used by people in all stages of life. Our technology utilizes natural physiological pathways to safely induce the body’s nervous, circulatory, and hormonal systems to produce a large anabolic effect leading to incredible gains in strength in a short period of time. Whether you are a professional athlete looking to gain an edge in performance or a senior looking to feel youthful and gain mobility again, everyone can benefit from BFR Training.
NUMBER OF BANDS
There are many questions about using two or four B Strong Bands at the same time. Dr. Stray-Gundersen explains using both arm bands and leg bands separately and together is doable due to the unique design of the B Strong BFR System, which comes with an APP that explains different recommended pressures when using two or four B Strong Bands.
SAFE FOR CHILDREN
B STRONG Training Systems™ represents a paradigm shift in Strength Training for youth to build muscle strength, avoid injury and sustain mobility, while protecting joints and long-term sports participation. Stronger young athletes will be better prepared to learn complex movements, master sport tactics, and sustain the demands of training and competition whilst simultaneously reducing their risk of injury due to improved muscle support, body control and/or technique. It has long been a concern of parents and sporting oversight that youth training in sport went too far.
BFR TRAINING IS BACKED BY SCIENCE
Science is showing on a daily basis that BFRT improves strength and fitness and causes less muscle damage leading to shorter recovery times.
PREGNANCY
We do not recommend a pregnant woman start B STRONG TrainingTM sessions during her pregnancy. Seek the advice of your doctor if you have other concerns about B STRONG Training SystemsTM during or after pregnancy.
OTHER CONTRAINDICATIONS
Individuals diagnosed with sickle cell anemia, should not use B STRONG Training™ In this situation red blood cells are shaped like sickles or crescent moons. These irregularly shaped cells can get stuck in small blood vessels, which can slow or block blood flow and oxygen to parts of the body.
* If you are at risk for any complications or have any questions about whether BFR training is safe for you, seek the advice of a medical professional.
THE DOCTOR SAYS:
"I have had a career-long focus on legally Maximizing Human Performance at the highest level of sport for over 30 years. In this capacity working with Olympians, World Champions, Professional and Amateur teams, I have come across many potentially performance enhancing modalities — I have never experienced such a game-changing catalyst for maximizing athletic performance and overall fitness as Blood Flow Restrictive (BFR) Training. As a sports scientist and sports medicine physician, my partner Sean Whalen and I developed the B STRONG BFR Training System for all ages and disciplines to benefit safely from Blood Flow Restrictive Training, with an eye to an affordable, comfortable, safe and effective, new training modality."
>>DR. JIM STRAY-GUNDERSEN
Jim Stray-Gundersen, MD has helped pioneer the use of blood flow restriction training in North America and Europe and with his partner created B Strong BFR Training System. Stray-Gundersen lectures and certifies professionals and consumers in BFR training. Board Certified in General Surgery, Jim’s background is both academic and athletic. His “day job” has been as research faculty in Cardiology and Orthopedics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas and he has worked for 35+ years in Olympic and Professional Sports.
