BELFAST gym equipment specialist Blk Box has completed an elite gym at the new £11.5million training facility of European Rugby Challenge Cup winners Bristol Bears.
The gym at the English Gallagher Premiership club’s high performance centre in Abbots Leigh, Bristol was designed with top athletes in mind and includes a wide range of Blk Box manufactured equipment.
Blk Box is one of the leading manufacturers of strength and conditioning equipment in Europe. Founded eight years ago by Belfast entrepreneur Greg Bradley, the company is headquartered in Titanic Quarter, where it employs 70 people.
The gym for the Bristol Bears is the latest in a series of facilities Blk Box has created for major sports teams, clubs and companies.
Last year, it competed an elite training facility for Irish Rugby at its high performance centre in Abbotstown near Dublin. Other teams and companies the firm has worked with include Adidas, Everton FC, and Kerry GAA to name a few.
Bristol Bears have had a successful past year, winning the European Challenge Cup in October, and finishing third in the 2019/20 Gallagher Premiership. They are also having a very successful 2020/21 season, and moved top of the Gallagher Premiership on Saturday with a win over Exeter.
The club’s new £11.5m state of the art training facility is officially called ‘Bears High Performance Centre’. It includes two full-sized rugby pitches, a covered indoor 4G pitch, medical facilities, hydrotherapy facilities, board rooms, players’ lounge, team analysis rooms and the 515 sq m high-performance gym provided and installed by Blk Box.
Kevin Geary, head of athletic performance at The Bristol Bears said: “We are delighted to have chosen Blk Box to design and instal our athletic performance gym. They’re a quality brand whose performance values are aligned with our own, so it’s great to be in partnership together.
“The design provided by Blk Box allowed us to maximise the entire space and the layout ensures that we can be really efficient with our time. We found their service to be second to none and look forward to developing our partnership with them for years to come.”
Greg Bradley, chief executive of Blk Box, said: “Bristol Bears have had a fantastic past year and are one of the leading sports teams in the UK and Europe. They have some of the top rugby players in the world in their squad, so it really is a fantastic project for us to be involved with and one that our team took great pride in.”
