Father and son physios support ‘Battle of Britain’ strongmen

^{Physiotherapists Nathan and Tony Barnett (centre) with the Irish strongman team}

Tony Barnett and his son Nathan provided physiotherapy support during the Ultimate Strongman Battle of Britain competition, held in Bangor, Northern Ireland, on 1 July.

The five-hour event saw teams of professional strongmen from England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland take part in multiple rounds. These included giant tyre flips, tug of war, pole flipping, overhead dumbbell presses and a 200kg carry relay.

Tony Barnett, lead physio at Bangor-based clinic Bodytone Physiotherapy, told Frontline: ‘We applied a few basic sports taping techniques, but most of the athletes came prepared with very heavy-duty lifting wraps and straps so we only needed to tape new injuries.

‘A few were carrying pre-existing conditions. Everything from minor tendinitis all the way to a full thickness tear of the long head of biceps.

‘But on the day, the injury rate was remarkably low. The worst we had to deal with was a severely sprained wrist. And the athletes told us it was an extremely quiet day for injuries and that we’d ''got off lightly''.’

Team Scotland won the event, which was filmed for Channel 5 television.

Author: Robert Millett