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5 Awesome Band Exercises for a Killer 🍑

Mini-bands and loop bands are a light, portable, travel-friendly tool that will transform and reshape your quads, glutes, and hamstrings, and if you've never tried a banded exercise, now's the time!  You'll feel the difference adding a band can make with traditional lower-body exercises like squats, lunges, clamshells and glute bridges. Try these 5 "must try's", and reap the rewards! Try two sets of this challenging 5-minute routine!...

The BLACKROLL Functional Training Program

BLACKROLL is perhaps best known for its effectiveness as a recovery and injury prevention tool. But your BLACKROLL is also a phenomenal way to increase train not only boosting your strength but your speed as well.  Below you'll find a few of our favourite exercises to train your core, legs, upper body and hips. PLUS don't forget to download the free BLACKROLL APP by clicking here and program your training and recovery right in the palm of your hand! ...

Get "Yoga-Ready" with BLACKROLL Foam Rollers

Grab some inspiration and ideas in our video below with the award winning Blackroll range as to how foam rolling can benefit your yoga practice.Enjoy xxx ...

The Hex Trap Bar | A Back Friendly Alternative To Traditional Straight-Bar Deadlifts and Squats

Trap Bars first made their mark on the world in 1985 when powerlifting aficionado Al Gerard patented an awesome new design that looked a bit like a high school geometry project gone wrong. The hexagonal shape bar had been created by Gerard who was looking for a way to train around a recurring back injury. What Gerard stumbled across may have been one of the greatest innovations strength training has seen in the last three decades. Today coaches globally use and endorse the hex trap bar and ...

Goal Setting by Lisa Tamati

If you have some lofty goals whether they're athletic, professional or personal, to achieve in 2018 Active Nation's friend Lisa Tamati has mapped out a route to get you there! Lisa is an overachiever (although she'd be too humble to admit it) with a running career competing in some of the world's toughest endurance races. She chronicles her adventures throughout her running career in her two books, Running Hot and Running to Extremes.  Lisa's journey started with a massive road block howeve...

How Plaque Affects the Heart

Did you know that people who suffer from periodontal disease (gum disease) have a higher risk of strokes and coronary artery disease? Gum disease is often triggered by plaque overload! Oral plaque does affect the heart. This is why proper oral care, which minimizes the presence of plaque, is so vital to staying healthy over the long term. Today, we're going to share more information about the connection between plaque and the heart, as well as oral health care tips which will help you to reduce ...

5 Benefits of Morning Exercise

Many of us would probably enjoy mornings if they could just start a little later. However for many of us, the morning is often the only time to exercise before work, kids, and/or life happens.  So as summer sets in and the days become longer, what are the advantages to working out first thing?...

Running with a Weighted Vest

Exercising with a weights vest is a really clever way to add resistance to any workout, and thereby increase intensity, workload and ultimately results. More specifically when it comes to running, the research is pretty convincing to the upside when it comes to training under load. Power output improvements of upwards of 10% can be seen in athletes within a staggeringly short timeframe : 3 weeks to be exact. Interestingly the majority of the research conducted with specific reference to weighted...

The perfect everyday rolling routine

Want to start your morning off right every morning? Below you'll find an incredible rolling routine that will get your whole body activated, waking up every single cell in your body whilst also both relaxing and mobilising. Check out BLACKROLL Master Trainer Eefje's daily routine below. Get inspired, and give it a go!...

The All New BLACKROLL HUB | Peak Health and Fitness

Here at BLACKROLL® New Zealand we get genuine enjoyment out of watching our brand partners grow. One such partner, Peak Health and Fitness has undertaken some really dramatic growth, particularly in the past 12 months. These guys are on a mission. A mission to put the 'health" part back into the term "health and fitness". As a part of that journey they've created a number of truly unique opportunities for the Havelock North community including some really cool concepts of late with the most rec...

5 Questions with Kevin Manuel

Kevin Manuel first started CrossFit in his rugby off-season in 2010. 5 years later he qualified in the face of fierce competition from a 250,000 strong contingent of CrossFitters globally, all trying to make their way to the World CrossFit Games. Kevin not only competed in the games, but he was named the 17th fittest man in the world. 3 years earlier his leg had been run over by a 14 tonne excavator... We wanted to find out what it takes to be the best, and how did he make such an incredibl...

5 Questions with Kayla Imrie

Here at Active Nation we're proud to have Kayla Imrie as part of the team! Kayla's just returned from competing at the World Champs in the Czech Republic where Kayla and her crewmates had the best results New Zealand has ever seen.  Kayla has a laser-focus on what she does, how she trains, and an intense passion for her sport, so we wanted to catch up with Kayla and ask her 5 questions about the how she got started in the sport, and what the training, nutrition and mindset requirements are ...

Adding a mobility session to your timetable.

Adding a mobility program to your centre's program is a great way to prevent injuries within your centre and boost a greater range of motion and overall mobility and enhanced recoveries for your clients.Mobility, recovery and regeneration is an integral part of our physical wellbeing, and regardless of where we sit on the physical activity spectrum, your participants results, and the benefits they'll experience will keep them coming back for more!...

Free Freight in Hawkes Bay

Here at Active Nation we're always looking for new ways to make your life better, and we're pretty confident freight charges on your favourite health and fitness gear won't better your life in any way. So we've completely revamped our freight policy and now offer a full suite of New Zealand's most affordable freight options for all our customers on a national basis on all the products you'll find available on Active Nation. As part of this re-vamp we're also excited to announce we now offer free...

The Best Time of Day to Workout

What is the best time of day to hit your workout? Is there a better time to workout in terms of output potential or motivation?  Interestingly, and in a rather anticlimactic sense (I know right, we were just getting going!) the science here is fairly inconclusive, and the overarching conclusion is that doing any form of physical activity at any point in the day is going to be supremely beneficial to your overall health....

Recipe: Blueberry Chia Pudding

These Blueberry Chia Puddings make a delicious morning breakfast you'll look forward to or something nice to enjoy at the end of the day. They're so simple to make (takes less than 1 minute) and easily stored in the fridge making no excuse not to have some on hand.  Chia seeds have a massive amount of health benefits some of the main ones are: Excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids Very high antioxidant levels Almost all the carbs in them are fibreHigh in many important nutrient...

Recipe : Beef, Apple and Quinoa Balls

These Beef, Apple & Quinoa Balls are the perfect addition to any families meal time, as they are suitable for very young children and adults alike. Being high protein, low fat, low sodium, gluten/nut/diary free allows all family member to enjoy them.  Great served with steamed green vegetable and roasted pumpkin with steamed brown rice, enjoy as a snack or easy to put in the kids lunch boxes or take on picnics: the options are endless.  For these Beef, Apple & Quinoa balls our family e...

Preventing ACL Injuries in Netball

New Zealand government figures point to the fact that netball is now New Zealand's favourite sport amongst New Zealand women (source: New Zealand Now). It's easy to see why: its fun, a great workout, competitive, and an incredibly dynamic team sport. The injury rate in netball in comparison to other sports is relatively low thanks to continuing development of injury prevention programmes and increased education around performance, recovery, activation, mobility, flexibility, strengthening and ...

5 Awesomely Quick Exercises You Can Do Whilst Brushing Your Teeth

Efficiency is the name of the game, and the time you spend brushing your teeth is an ideal time to burn a few extra calories, improve your mobility, and add in some strength gains. For most of us brushing our teeth is a pretty routine activity that happens a couple of times a day. We stand, often blankly, contemplating what the day will bring or what it brought. So here are our 5 best tips to a better you, in front of the mirror using just one hand! The best part is... it takes 3 minutes, FLA...

Regaining Focus: Tips For A Ridiculously Productive Life

Whilst I'm an eternal optimist, I've never been scared to share my shortcomings in the bluntest, most honest form. After all its how we grow, learn, evolve and improve. Its in this spirit that I share with you the fact that a few weeks ago I got into a real rut. It had been building up for some time, and in retrospect it was easy to see. I'd simply overstretched myself. From a physical perspective I was lagging. Workouts were tough. I felt lethargic. And really, honestly, I couldn't be b...

Beating Calf Pain for Runners

Here at BLACKROLL NZ we're fortunate to deal with runners from all walks of life. Their number one gripe when it comes to "bits that breakdown"? Calves. The causes can be varied and can include: a general lack of flexibility or mobility can be to blame, incorrect footwear, high heels (even for the ladies), over-training, insufficient or often non-existent warm-ups or cool downs, incorrect running form, or a muscle imbalance. ...

Beating Office Pain

As a nation we're spending increasing amounts of time working at a desk. To say this isn't great for our bodies would be an understatement. A number of BLACKROLL users have found the use of these few tips to be highly beneficial to getting them through their work day pain-free, and with an increased range of motion. Perhaps the biggest issue we hear about when it comes to what we classify as "office pain" (we all know that feeling on a Monday morning!) are hands. Your hands are very unique whe...

6 Of Our Favourite Exercises for Killer Abs

A stronger core has unparalleled advantages. With a stronger core you'll enjoy better posture, better performance, reduced lower back pain, better, deeper breathing, and a better waistline! All 6 simple exercises can be performed using your BLACKROLL. Some folk are still amazed when they realise BLACKROLL is the complete fitness tool, its just not an amazing myofascial release tool that will give you mobility, performance, and recovery in spades, but thanks to its unstable nature, and unique su...

Taking a minimalist approach to health

Minimalism isn't a new movement, but it is a liberating one. Minimalism is about de-cluttering your life from all the "stuff" that's inhibiting your freedom whether that be fear, guilt, worry, or any other negative emotional state. It seems as a society, we've become so obsessed with "stuff", that our mates in the US will this year throw away 40% of the food they purchase as waste. And if this statistic did make the TV news, you'd definitely know about it: as American's now own more TV's than ...

4 Simple Exercises to Cure Back Pain

With 45,847 new claims to ACC for lower back and spine injuries in 2014 due to sports alone its clear that a nation we've got some kind of issue with back pain (source: ACC Statistics). Isolating the underlying cause is well beyond our humble scope, but clearly something is askew. However the time we now spend sitting be it at the office, in the car, or in the comfort of your own home, may have a direct correlation to back pain. Sitting is a static type of posture that increases stress in your ...