British rower's broken ribs inspire gym invention

A rower with hopes of being an Olympian who fractured his ribs twice has designed a new piece of gym equipment to help prevent the injury.

Max Parker, 23, a student at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) created the GymMax to support sportspeople who - like him - endure such high training loads that they can fracture their own ribs.

He said: "It's not an uncommon injury."

The university said he had improved athletes' training experiences.

Mr Parker, who is currently training for the FISU World University Games, has ambitions to represent Great Britain in the Olympics.

He said he had fractured his own ribs twice but could not find specific equipment that focused on strengthening muscles while supporting the rib cage.

Mr Parker, who comes from Hickling, Nottinghamshire, and studies product design, said: "I've been rowing at a high level for six years and I've had rib stress fractures twice now.

"It's not an uncommon injury in competitive rowing, but from my perspective there's not a lot of work that's been done on how to prevent it occurring.

"The injury comes from the repetitive motion that puts a strain on the ribs.

"It's usually a very small fracture, often only a hairline crack, but is quite painful."

He said his GymMax, which is made from a plywood base with two layers of natural rubber for grip, allows athletes to easily train with resistance bands by hooking them on to stainless steel bars.

He added it allows people to practise a range of exercises against resistance including side planks, planks and press-ups.

Paul Kennea, senior lecturer in product design at NTU, said: "Max has taken his own personal experience of a competitive sports injury and used it to design something which will help other athletes, like him, to cope with the amount of training which is required to compete at the top level."

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Nottingham Trent University