We Give You:
The BfR Annual Report 2017!
Curious for a look backstage at BfR Professional? Well, here’s your chance…
Almost one year ago, our New Year’s resolution was to make BfR Professional happen – for real. As founders of BfR, we (Lars and Martin) had already spent over one year meticulously planning and testing prototypes for our occlusion straps. Now a Kickstarter campaign starting in December 2016 would demonstrate to us whether there was any interest out there. After all, not that many people knew about blood flow restriction training then.
Off to a flying start
Fortunately, you guys were curious about this totally new way of working out – and about us. Our Kickstarter left us 125% funded, and in January and February 2017 we sent out our first products: the BfR Pro ARMS straps and the BfR Pro Elastic Training Tube. By then, our website and newsletter were also up and running. Things were quickly picking up speed, and in April we got our first interns in order to increase our efforts within sales and market research.
In mid-May, two other BfR babies were born: the BfR Pro GluteBuilder and the BfR Pro LEGS. Like all other fathers, we were of course extremely proud to send them off into the world!
Bumpy road ahead?
Creating and launching new products can get rather addictive, and over the summer we decided to up our game and start developing the prototype for a digital product. Second generation BfR equipment, enabling you to take your training to the next level. We’d just received a grant from The Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, so we knew we had the money as well as the vision.
However, no pain, no gain; things got a bit uphill for a while... Imagine dozens of meetings with potential business partners, redesigning packaging, insane amounts of coffee and equally insane hours. And ordering a thousand new product manuals, only to find out that you’ve managed to turn the text upside down, doesn’t exactly help! But the point of mistakes is that you learn from them. That’s always been our philosophy.
For example, we learned that always doing things at the very last minute isn’t a sensible idea. Unless you like high blood pressure, that is. After having to speed build a wooden promo stand minutes before a crowd of eager bodybuilders and athletes would come surging through the doors of the Newcomers 2017 in Herning, we’ve solemnly made each other a promise to at least try to be in good time.
The Newcomers fair turned out to be a huge success, though, and our digital dreams are well on their way, so basically we haven’t looked back. Another philosophy of ours is that success isn’t something you get – it’s something you create.
Autumn ramp-up
In the second part of 2017, we brought in graphics and communications interns because we wanted to boost the visual identity of BfR and give our communication an overhaul. After all, everybody wants to look and sound good, right?
At BfR, we’re always eager to improve not just our muscles but also our minds, so in August we attended Inspire Convention 2017 in Denmark where one of the world’s leading BFR researchers, Prof. Jeremy Loenneke, spoke. And in November we flew to Portugal to join Web Summit 2017 in order to show off our digital prototype and do some serious business dating.
On Black Friday we were lavishing discounts on you guys, which you generously rewarded. Now it’s December, and we’re finishing off 2017 with an Advent Calendar on Facebook and Instagram. So swing by our page and profile if you feel like getting your hands on our products, body boosting supplements and a unique Christmas discount.
One big BfR family
All in all, it’s been an amazing year, and although we’ve learned a few lessons, getting enthusiastic feedback from you guys makes it all worthwhile. Lots of exciting things are in the pipeline for 2018, probably including our digital BfR product, an app and more youtubing.
So, the humble wish we want to make for Christmas this year is that you will keep following us and share your personal BfR stories with us and the rest of the BfR family. We’re together on this one.
Thank you for making 2017 an awesome BfR year!
Lars and Martin
Team BfR Professional
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High-Level Business Dating
On a gloomy November morning, at a truly ungodly time of day, three guys got on a plane in Billund Airport. They were sleepy and had barely had the time to grab some breakfast or do their hair. And then there was that slightly nervous sensation in their stomachs. All in all, not the best basis when going on a date.
Pleased to meet you, Web Summit
Fortunately, a case of the jitters tends to go away once you’re on a roll, and we’re proud to say that that was exactly what happened. You see, those three Danish guys were us: Lars and Martin, the BfR founders, and Peter, our new tech consultant. As announced in our November newsletter, we were headed for Lisbon, Portugal to attend the world’s largest tech summit as part of its ALPHA programme. The goal: to promote ourselves, do some sweet talking and make new acquaintances. (Basically, everything you do on a standard date, right?).
Being a small Danish start-up at an international summit boasting 60,000 participants can be a bit daunting, but people there proved very open and curious. The opening ceremony on Monday with top speakers like Stephen Hawking and Margrethe Vestager dazzled everybody.
Abu Dhabi living
On Tuesday, we were busy at our BfR Professional stand promoting our occlusion training equipment, getting feedback on our digital prototype for the next BfR generation and connecting with potential investors. (This was when we got a memorable offer to move our business to Abu Dhabi!).
Wednesday was just as busy and exciting: Various business people from China, Hungary and Chile requested meetings with us, and we even managed to get roped in for two interviews for Portuguese television. On Thursday, we wrapped up our summit adventure by going to heaps of workshops and talks to gather inspiration.
The end of single life?
Now we’re back in Aarhus, processing our experience. Was it worth the time and money for us to go to Web Summit 2017? Absolutely. We may be a young company, but we’ve come home with international inspiration as well as a number of potential sales leads and partners. And let’s face it: Everybody likes being liked. That’s what dating is all about. So, motivated as ever, we’re going to transform all of this into value for you.
Whether we end up pursuing high living in Abu Dhabi, sipping cocktails in rooftop bars, remains to be seen..! But for now, we're staying put here in Aarhus.
Team BfR Professional
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How to Stay Motivated with Our Favourite Instagram Influencers
As we explained in our last blog post about how to hack your brain and never skip a workout, motivation in itself isn't enough to get you up and making a beeline for the gym or put your running shoes on and heading for fresh air.
It takes a lot more to build a habit of living healthily with regular physical activity which will get you from a "should" to a "must" when it comes to working out.
Your life comes from your rituals.
Tony Robbins
You need to develop and harness that extraordinary psychology that will promote the right state of mind which in turn will take you from thinking and waiting into action mode.
And this is as true for getting yourself to the gym or doing a home training session as it is for anything else in life, be it a job, running a business, prioritising family time or other meaningful relationships.
When founding BfR Professional, we both had 10+ years of experience with training and keeping fit. So we know how it feels to take a break from training before regrouping and recharging in order to get back into the game. Consistency is the absolute key to long-term health and well-being.
Our top 5 influencers here at BfR
Right, let's get to the point of this post (!) where we've gathered a top 5 of our favorite sources of motivation on Instagram which applies not only to fitness and training but life in general.
Influencers:
Dr. John Rusin is a strength and performance coach with years of experience with fitness and training sharing a mix of instructional videos with great exercise tips and tricks based on scientific research and years of practical experience. One of the main focus points is creating a balance between volume and intensity on the one side and injury prevention on the other.
Dr. Rusin has developed his own training programmes called Functional Hypertrophy Training (FHT) which can be used by anyone. On top of that, he is also an advocate for blood flow restriction (BFR) training, which we of course like a lot!
2. @themateuszm
Mateusz M is a millenial guy who has a simple mission in life: "I want the world to be better because, I was here." Simple, yes, but hard to achieve! Or, is it?
Nevertheless, Mateusz M is killing it, especially on his YouTube channel with 954,470 subscribers and counting creating video content for motivation and inspiration for all and prompting us to take action in life and make a difference.
His most popular video "Dream" has almost 40 million views! Check it out here.
3. @before5AM
Joe Duncan is the man behind @before5am and is a firm believer that your day should start before 5 AM (doh!). The potential we all have is predicated on the amount of hours we dedicate to working towards our goals, and by starting early he believes that this will give you a competitive edge on everyone else.
@before5am typically uses long captions so you have to do a bit of reading, but do yourself the favour of taking the time to read and reflect on his message before scrolling on to the next "rah rah" motivation graphics.
Taking time to reflect is key - always remember to reflect.
4. @jayshetty
Jay Shetty is a digital influencer and former monk (true story) who shares his world view of positivity and gratitude with the world on a daily basis, either on his Instagram account or YouTube channel.
In about 7 years, Shetty went from being a monk to launching his own YouTube channel in early 2016 and later his own digital morning show for the Huffington Post. Another proof of his uprise to online fame is him joining the Forbes 30under30 list with the 30 most influencial and innovative entrepreneurs in the Media category in Europe.
5. @garyvee
The final influencer and motivator on our list is the super entrepreneur and businessman Gary Vaynerchuck who truly embodies the word "hustle".
Since BfR Professional was established back in 2015, it has been a constant motivator to follow the NYC based entrepreneur Gary Vee and how he operates his businesses sharing insane amounts of content, both on Instragram and on his YouTube channel with extremely practical advise on how to run and scale a startup business.
However, @garyvee is in himself a motivational and inspirational character who shares his view on how he thinks we should look at the world and how blessed we are with our lives and the era that we live in with endless opportunities. (Brace yourself for a fair amount of foul language, though!).
Check out one of our favorite videos here titled "One life".
There you have it! Our list of the top 5 motivators right now whom you can start following today and hopefully become inspired by and prepared for a better tomorrow.
To your success,
Lars & Martin
Team BfR Professional
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Who we are and how we can help you reach your goals
In this short video pitch, the team behind BfR Professional explains in Danish who we are and what our mission is. (English translation written out below).
Often people think that blood flow restriction (BFR) training is only meant to be done by hardcore bodybuilders and fitness athletes, but that's far from the truth.
BFR training also enables people who aren't comfortable with or able to do heavy lifting to still obtain the same level of hypertrophy (muscle growth) as with traditional high-load workouts.
For example, it's extremely effective for the purpose of rehabilitation and injury prevention for persons of all ages (+18). Many women also enjoy using occlusion straps to build more strength and firmness in thighs and bottocks.
The growing popularity and use of BFR (or occlusion training, as it is also called) across the world is undeniable; however, we still come across many people who've never heard about this amazing training method.
Here at BfR Professional, we want to move your physique from A to B with our customised products as fast as possible in the most effective, gentle way by the use of occlusion training. This trending workout form is based on an old Japanese training method named “kaatsu" which means “increased pressure”.
Therefore, we'll be releasing more inspiration and valuable insights over the next months here on our blog as well as on our Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channel.
Stay tuned and make sure to sign up for our inspirational newsletter (which often comes with special offers and discounts) in order to not miss out on anything from our world.
Translation of the video is done in English below - just scroll down a bit.
BfR Professional - Bliv mere fit på kortere tid med os from STUDENTERVÆKSTHUS AARHUS on Vimeo.
Translation:
We are BfR Professional and have a question for you.
Did you know that if you strap our products onto your arms or legs, you can train faster and more effectively?
Are you tired of the never-ending training sessions and heavy weights or are you struggling with injuries as we've done ourselves for the past many years? Or do you just need a great alternative to your current training routine? Then we have the solution for you.
We want to move your physique from A to B as fast as possible in the most effective and gentle way by the use of occlusion training which is based on an old Japanese training method named “kaatsu”, which by the way means “increased pressure”.
It is simple and intelligent training for all so if you desire faster and more effective training sessions at home, while travelling or in the gym, then visit our website at www.bfrpro.com.
To your success,
Team BfR professional
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Kickstarting a Startup Success
The idea behind BfR Professional all began more than two years back when one of our founders, Martin, first heard about the concept of blood flow restriction training and how it has the potential to revolutionise the way people do fitness today.
He enthusiastically shared this knowledge with his longtime friend Lars, who would later become the other founder, and thus the seeds of what would eventually become BfR Professional were sown.
Want something? Go create it yourself!
The scientifically proven training method of blood flow restriction (BFR) has been rather extensively researched and especially within the recent decade. The idea of training with lower weights, while still gaining significant muscle strength and growth, is appealing to many of us.
However, we became increasingly frustrated about not being able to find any customised equipment for this new training method, so we decided to create our own product.
After many months of product development, tests and redesigning, we're now ready to introduce and share with you the first generation of our blood flow restriction gear. The product is named BfR Pro ARMS, which is essentially a custom-made elastic anti-slip band designed to be used on your upper arms for blood flow restriction training, which is also popularly known as occlusion training.
ARMS will come in four different sizes suitable for more or less everyone who wants to take on this new and upcoming way of training to complement their existing workout routine. Furthermore, we are already now planning to introduce the LEGS version specifically designed for blood flow restriction training, so stay tuned here on our blog and social media. Also don't forget to sign up to our newsletter on our website!
Come cheer us on
We'ill be launching our product and opening for sales this coming October through an online campaign using the world’s largest crowdfunding platform: www.kickstarter.com. Naturally, we will be posting and keeping you updated about our progress and details concerning the campaign continuously, and we urge you to stay tuned if this new and scientifically proven training method is something which you would like to try out for yourself. Obviously, we would love your support on kickstarter.com!
After all this time, we are more than keen to share our knowledge and our products with the world. We promise that we'll aim to give all the guidance necessary both here on our blog, Instagram, and Facebook, where we'll be talking about not only how our specific product can help you in connection with blood flow restriction training and reaching your physical goals, but also more generally how blood flow restriction training can benefit you. We simply want you to train smarter and better. We believe in your potential.
Take it to the next level
Lars & Martin
Team BfR Professional
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