Introducing Ben Hallam

Ben is the newest member of the Bespoke family and I am thrilled to have him
He runs the Performance Lab here (Bike fit studio, treatment room and our Assessment room)

Being born into a cycling family, Ben was always destined to race bikes. His uncle, Ian Hallam, was 3 times Commonwealth champion on the track and Ben followed in his footsteps, winning the junior national pursuit championships as well as representing Great Britain at 2 Junior World Championships and 2 Under 23 European Championships. Ben also applied his pursuiting prowess to win multiple junior and under 23 time trial titles. While chasing the professional cycling dream, Ben spent 4 years living and racing on the road in France and Belgium which culminated in completing the Tour of Britain.

Looking for ways to use the sporting experience, Ben completed a degree in BSc Sports Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention in 2010. The degree focuses on the assessment and treatment on musculoskeletal injury through electrotherapy, soft tissue treatment and therapeutic exercise prescription.

Ben has developed his bike fitting philosophy based on the principles that he learnt from the degree. The core principle to Ben’s bike fitting comes from Burke (1988) who said that the key thing to remember when setting a bike up is that “the body is adaptable and the bike is adjustable”. This means that:
A) The body will adapt to a bad position (compromising posture and core stability) and consider this to be “normal”.

B) The body and the bike must be assessed and adjusted simultaneously. Adjusting the bike to a poor posture will reinforce the poor posture and cap the performance potential of the rider.

C) Through treatment and corrective exercise, body has potential to adapt towards maintaining a good posture and position. Therefore, bike fitting often has to be a progressive process where the bike is adjusted as the body adapts.
Therefore, during the Retul bike fitting sessions, Ben will identify areas of tightness and weakness in the body that can cause incorrect movement patterns, decreasing performance and increasing the susceptibility to injury. Ben can then address these issues in a one to one to one clinical session.