My name is Chris. As well as working as a Personal Trainer, I've been a Firefighter in London for just over 11 years, played Senior Cricket to a competitive level for around 20, but more recently I've been involved in Crossfit for the last 5-6 years. Anyone who knows the world of Crossfit knows that competing at various events can start to take a toll on the body, in particular, the joints. Last year, I was seconded during the pandemic and worked with the Ambulance service. The manual handling of patients and lifting of equipment began to really aggravate my shoulders, which only intensified when I was able to continue training at Crossfit. Lifting anything overhead would be uncomfortable and have repercussions, and as a result in July I damaged a rotator cuff. By this point I was fed up of being injured and the feeling that came with it. It was starting to really impact my day to day life and hobbies. I’d heard good things about collagen but never really looked into it. I had tried other supplements previously, meant for improving joint pain etc, but never had any positive impact off the back of it. I saw Pura Collagen pop up on Instagram as they were doing a giveaway on their flex+ product. I got lucky and won the giveaway. I was excited to start using it, in the hope I would see an improvement in my niggles. I was then lucky enough to be gifted further product to see if it helped my injury ongoing. I started using it around August 2021 and in September I managed to compete at the Turf Games (Functional fitness event) with only around 8 weeks of little to no training. My previous injuries and overhead work felt OK at this stage so I thought why not go for it? Off the back of this, I continued using flex+ and had another competition in October up in Manchester. I was able to get some PB’s overhead and had no repercussions, if I’m honest my shoulders felt better than they had for the whole year! After years of niggles and intermittent training through injury and the pandemic, I now swear by flex + and recommend it to everyone I know who has ever struggled with niggles in their joints. I’m able to train worry free, without pain and even able to overheard squat with a barbell again, which was huge for me. I start my day with Pura as I have my collagen in my coffee in the morning. I then have the second scoop in my protein shake, which makes it the perfect pre or post workout drink!