Nigel’s Friday Challenge (4)
Who needs Joe Wicks when we have our own Nigel Clegg. Read on for this week’s S&C challenge. It’s Friday so it must be Crunchies. I did mention last week to get practicing your crunches – well I hope you have been as this week it’s the non-stop 100 crunchie challenge. For those of you who know how to do them – start as soon as you are ready.If you’re unsure – take a look at Alex’s video. In the first exercise he is doing a series of sit ups. A crunchie is a simple variation. Lie on your back with your finger tips touching your eyebrows. Using your stomach muscles, raise your upper body – just a few inches (that’s the crunch part – a small movement is actually harder). The only difference between the straight sit up as demonstrated on the video is that your feet need to be…
Nigel’s Friday Challenge (3)
This week we have a special challenge from Nigel for Good Friday. In order to make room for all those Easter eggs you’ll need a special challenge this Friday – and here it is… The Good Friday 100 press up challenge! No, it’s not a mis-print, your challenge is to do 100 press ups. There are two options: Option 1Do two press ups then rest for five seconds, then do three press ups and rest for another five seconds. Keep going 4/5/6/7 resting for five seconds in between each set. When you get to 7 press ups you are allowed to rest for 10 seconds in between each rep.8/9/10/11/12/13 – by the time you’ve completed 13 you will have done 90 press ups so you only have to do 10 more to complete 100!!! Option 2 – (the header option)You’ll need a back garden or safe place in the park…
Nigel’s Friday Challenge (2)
It’s Friday again so here’s this week’s challenge – all set to music!! Select your favourite song/record (it must have at least two verses and a chorus, preferably three of each)Look at the video of Alex – you need the 3rd and 4th exercises in his video routine. https://bratclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/alex_clegg_core_ex_1.mp4 The 3rd exercise shows him doing alternate squat thrusts, the 4th shows him doing ‘flutter kicks’ Start your music; whilst the verse is playing you have to do the alternate squat thrusts (look how Alex’s knees drive through and his back is as straight as he can get it)… Keep going until the chorus kicks in – flip over onto your back and do the flutter kick exercise (straight legs, back flat on the floor with your shoulders ever so slightly raised off the floor). DO NOT bend your knees, your legs must be straight with your feet pulled back slightly…
Nigel’s Friday Challenge (1)
Welcome to the first in the series of Nigel’s Friday Challenge. ‘Double Maths’ Oh yes, it’s the dreaded double maths session on a Friday! Before attempting the exercises please make sure you have warmed up and stretched – you won’t be able to do them without warming up properly. Exercise 1Take a look at the video clip of Alex;https://bratclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/alex_clegg_core_ex_1.mp4 The last exercise he does is a ‘Side raise’. One hand on the floor, straight arm to keep the body up, opposite arm up in the air, one leg sitting on top of the other, hips raised up (not sagging in the middle) and his body is straight (head and feet are in a straight line).Once in this position you have to raise the top leg (as Alex does) and hold that position whilst reciting the 4 x table. In other words;Leg up, and shout out “1 x 4 = 4, 2…
BRATs at Home Core Fitness
As we all adapt to the rapidly changing conditions there is still plenty you can do. Just because the world is in lockdown doesn’t mean that your body has to join it. Multi-event athlete Alex Clegg has filmed himself doing a handful of core exercises which you can try indoors in order to build-up, maintain or improve your core strength – see the link below. https://bratclub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/alex_clegg_core_ex_1.mp4 Try each one in turn, do say 5 of each, then 10 of each, then 15 of each – that’s a great starting session for you. Coming SoonAlso watch out for Nigel’s ‘Friday Challenge’.Each Friday, Nigel Clegg will set everyone in the club a challenge based on one or more of these exercises – get practising today as Friday will come around before you know it! Stay safe and stay fit!!!
BRAT Juniors Star at Regional Indoor Final
This is the first year that BRAT have competed in the Sportshall athletics series and we’ve done fantastically well to have juniors from the club chosen to represent Birmingham against the counties of Hereford and Worcestershire, Shropshire and Warwickshire. In the Under 11’s, Evie was really proud to have been selected from BRAT to represent Birmingham. She was asked by the Birmingham Team organiser to be the Girls’ Team Captain! She was selected to compete in 5 events, more than any other member of the team. Her events included 2×1; 4×1 relay; Over and Under relay (hurdles and through a tunnel); speed bounce and standing long jump. She performed fantastically in all – a super effort. Additionally, we had athletes competing in the U13 and U15 age groups in the afternoon session. The U13 girls team came 2nd, just 2 points behind Warwickshire. The U15 girls team also came 2nd.…
Midland Indoor T & F Championships
Ten of our T&F athletes entered the Midland Counties Indoor Championships on February 8/9th at the HPC , Birmingham and in a very successful weekend came away with 3 medals, one of each colour, along with multiple personal bests. Spurred on by being in a warm, dry arena away from storm Ciara, which was lashing the country, Lily Smith continued her magnificent progress in the Long Jump winning the U15 title in a new pb of 5.04m, despite this being her first year in the age group. Mali Lloyd Griffiths, just missed out on a medal by dropping down to 4th in the final round but nevertheless still recorded a pb of 4.83m. Our other medal winning performances came in the senior men’s 60m Hurdles, where 3 BRATs lined up in the final. This was a very close race with only 0.5 s separating all 6 finalists, but in a…
Super Saturday (part 2)
Meanwhile over at the High Performance Centre several junior BRATs were competing in the Midland Indoor Championships.Lilly Smith (pictured above) continued her improvement taking Gold in the U15 Long Jump with a jump of 5.04m. This is currently 12th best in the UK this year and only the 8th BRAT lady (any age group) to ever exceed the 5m mark.Mali Lloyd-Griffiths narrowly missed the podium by just 4cm (about the width of a credit card) finishing 4th in 4.84m. An Excellent start to the 2020 season.
Midland T&F League
These are the dates to keep free for the four senior T&F League Fixtures.As you can see we have a home fixture at the University Track on Sunday 12th July. Help will be required to host this match – more details to follow. Sunday 17th May – AbingdonSunday 7th June – CoventrySunday 12th July – BRATSunday 9th August – Stoke
Heart of England T&F League
More dates to start filling in the blanks in the 2020 diary.There will be three fixtures in the Junior HoE T&F League. Sunday 3rd May – BanburySunday 5th July – CorbySaturday 25th July – Kidderminster and Stourport
Tooth and Claw at Div. 2!
A frantic final day relegation fight between BRAT athletes and the Wolves resulted in success for us… Sunday 4th August saw the final meeting of the Midland Senior Athletics League season at Wolverhampton & Bilston. After the first three meetings Gloucester and Rugby were all but assured of promotion to division one, whilst Coventry were safe in mid-table and Cheltenham had already been relegated. So it came down to a straight fight between BRAT and the Wolves. In what turned out to be a tense affair, Wolves taking an early lead, we somehow managed to overhaul their total with some excellent individual performances and a great overall team effort to finish on an impressive 341 points, just a single point behind Gloucester (342), one ahead of Rugby (340) and most importantly ahead of Wolves on 290. Making BRAT debuts were Rosalie and Rosette Nyanguile, Nicole Travasso, plus Ben Beaumont and…
Concrete Cows and PB Fest
Yesterday afternoon a veritable small army of BRATs headed south to not so sunny Milton Keynes. Not only is MK the host of the (in)famous concrete cows but is also the host of the MK 5000m PB Special Open Meeting. The scorchio conditions from earlier in the week had relented and the rain from earlier in the day had passed, leaving cool calm conditions ideal for distance running. The meeting kicked off at 15:15 with the first of 12 consecutive paced and graded 5000m races culminating with the ladies and men’s elite races which included the England Athletics Champs. The meeting lived up to its name with a flurry of BRAT PB’s or SB’s. 19:48.68 Rachel Farquhar (PB)19:43.69 Eloise Lee (PB)19:39.38 Rob Dowse (SB)19:15.50 Anne Kenchington (PB)18:24.64 Damian Cartland (PB)17:25.83 Chris Burrows (PB)16:46.26 Thanos Tsolakis (PB)16:26.63 Abayomi Adedimeji (PB)16:20.51 Steve Dunsby (SB)15:30.36 Mark Ince (PB)15:15.81 Dan Robinson (PB) Despite feeling unwell Molly…