92Crew Fitness Background
Brayden Girard and Troy Veenstra (founders of 92Crew) had a problem. Both worked tech jobs from 9 - 5 that required them to spend the majority of their days in the office. Even worse, the most work they had to do with their hands was typing on a keyboard... this posed a problem when getting serious about functional fitness workouts. Putting the issues of flexibility aside (that’s a whole other issue), it became a normal occurrence to head to work with skin missing from the palms of the new to functional fitness athletes hands.
Both Brayden and Troy grew up with a love for sports. As natural athletes, they spent countless hours diving around on the volleyball courts in the Summer and shooting pucks on the ice in the Winter. Their interest for functional fitness came naturally after life made it a little more difficult to travel around the province for hockey or volleyball competitions. Avid functional fitness athletes today, both have had to find a solution for the beating one’s hands take during a functional fitness workout, and this is Crew Tape.
Problem - Functional Fitness Hand Injuries
Whether it’s pull-ups, muscle ups, cleans, you name it, many movements used in functional fitness workouts require you to be gripping a bar. The body weight or plate weight on this bar combined with the repeated motions of a workout tend to be a bad combination for someone with “keyboard hands”. All jokes aside, if you are a functional fitness athlete or do any sort of functional fitness workouts, you know what we are talking about. The consequences of unprotected hands in these situations can cause pain and irritation long after the workouts complete. Blisters on the palms or fingers are never fun and something that we knew had a solution.
Current Solutions - Protecting Hands for Functional Fitness
Currently there are three popular types of protection against damaging your hands. Wearing gloves or grips, apply a one-time use tape or protector, and using athletic tape. Some people enjoy one method more than another but I will give you our opinion on how these options stack up.
Grips / Gloves
Grips tend to be more popular than gloves in functional fitness but we place these two under the same category. The reason we group them together is because both involve having a thick material between the athletes hands and the bar. The problem that we have had with these types of solutions is due to the thickness and texture of most of these grips. When you have too much material between the contours of your hand and the bar, it is very difficult to keep a good grip. Functional fitness exercises involve many repetitive motions and having to struggle to grip the bar will severely decrease performance and increase fatigue.
One-time Use Protection / Tape
Several companies have come out with one time use protection that typically will be a tape-like material. These are meant to cover your fingers and thumbs for a single workout. While these solutions are highly reviewed by some, others curse them. Our opinion with these types of solutions is that they are expensive for only a single use and that they do not allow as much flexibility as other solutions in how you can protect your hands. The single use protectors are usually meant for a specific part of your hand and can not be adapted to cover tender areas where needed.
Athletic Tape - Hand Tape for Functional Fitness
Before we get into talking about how athletic tape is great for the hands in functional fitness, let me say that it’s not for everyone. Some people will try athletic tape and much prefer one of the previous solutions such as grips or one time protection and that is fine. For those of us who enjoy using tape or are not happy with grips and one-time use solutions but are still looking for something, we are speaking to you. If you have used athletic tape before you know how great it can be but you are probably also aware of some of the downfalls of many brands.
Athletic tape applied properly to your hands in functional fitness can make a tremendous difference in how you can grip the bar. Because cotton tape is thin and fits to the contours of every individuals hands, you can grip the bar like you naturally would. By having your full grip strength you are able to endure longer repetitive motions without fatigue. The thin layer of tape is still durable enough to act as an extra layer of skin which protects from nasty tears or blisters. It even works great over existing blisters or tears with a band-aid beneath. An important part of using tape for maximum benefit involves knowing how to tape your hands for different functional fitness exercises. In future blogs posts we will be providing more information on this topic.
Now like everything, athletic tape can’t only have pros, so what are the cons? The biggest complaint we have had with existing brands of athletic tape is that not many are designed to stick through a sweat filled high intensity workouts. So many times we have been in the middle of a workout when the tape flies off our thumbs with no time to stop. When you are on the clock, there is no time to re-tape. Another common issue we have encountered with cotton based rolls of tape is that they are expensive for what you get. Lastly it turns out it is pretty hard to find athletic tape as many retailers do not carry it and limited options are available online. We are looking to change this with Crew Tape.
Welcome to Crew Tape
Crew tape will be 92Crew Fitness’s first product offering. A premium role of tape designed specifically for use during high intensity training in activities such as functional fitness or weightlifting. Crew tape has been designed to stick through the sweatiest workouts, it’s priced competitively and you will be able to find it online with free shipping straight to your door.
It’s time for you to join the crew!