Sports Then and Now

Professional athletes are constantly striving for physical perfection and athletic greatness, and that very often means injuring themselves in the pursuit of those goals. Some injuries and maladies are more common than others among professional athletes, regardless of the sport or activity that they participate in. Here are five of the most common professional sports injuries that befall athletes:

Pulled Muscles

Overexertion and rapid acceleration often lead to pulled muscles, which are the bane of any athlete’s existence. The severity of pulled muscle injuries varies widely: athletes who pull their biceps muscle attempting to throw or lift a heavy weight may only be sidelined for a couple of days whereas athletes who pull their hamstrings running may miss several months. The spectra of a pulled muscle can be mostly avoided with proper stretching and warming up, but they can never be completely eradicated from the sports world.

MCL/ACL Tear or Strain

The knee is an amazing joint, but it is also very complex and fragile and therefore susceptible to painful injury. The MCL and ACL ligaments are frequently damaged by quick stops and starts or rapid attempted changes in direction. These injuries can be devastating to an athletic career, and injured parties require surgery and several months of intense physical therapy to fully recover. Read the rest of this entry →

Contact sports, by their very nature, are the most dangerous for kids of any age to engage in. These include football, soccer, and baseball and often incur the most serious injuries in kids. Others sports that commonly lead to injury are cheerleading, roller skating, ice skating, floor and apparatus gymnastics, and trampoline competitive sports.

Most Common Injuries in Kid’s Contact Sports
According to one of the top brain injury attorneys, for high school and junior league football, one of the most serious injuries is head trauma. Others may include torn ligaments and ACL and MCL separations, spinal injuries, and wrist, ankle and elbow injuries. Some of these sports injuries may also occur in Little League and high school baseball, though less often. In soccer, the common injuries are broken bones, sprains and strains to muscles, and spine and neck problems. About 80% of soccer injuries occur to the feet and legs.

Cheerleading, Gymnastic and Trampoline Injuries
Cheerleading injuries can be serious, depending on the type of acrobatics involved in the routines, and how soon they are treated. Broken arms or legs can often occur during the performance of aerial acrobatics like front and back handsprings, front and back somersaults, and splits from a leaping position, which can also cause strain on the upper thighs and hips.  Read the rest of this entry →

Wouldn’t it be great to get as fit as a professional athlete?

Believe it or not, it’s not impossible to build the body of your dreams. Sure, athletes get paid to stay in shape – their job is essentially to work out. You, on the other hand, might find yourself sitting on your hindquarters all day long, staring at a computer screen.

Maybe you feel as though your girth is like the universe – infinite, mesmerizing and constantly expanding.  That’s OK: We’ve all been there before.

The good news is that by doing some research and figuring out a routine that works best for you, you’re taking the right steps to begin sculpting the body of your dreams. It’s easier than you think.

Get a Full Night’s Sleep

You might be tempted to try and burn the candle at both ends, but in the long run, this kind of behavior will certainly come back to bite you.

On days when you plan on working out, be sure to get eight to 10 hours of rest beforehand. Sleep helps you recharge your batteries and heal your muscles.

Eat Well-Balanced, Filling Meals

The food you eat gives you the fuel you need to take your exercise regimens to the next level. The best athletes in the world are very conscious of what they’re eating. Read the rest of this entry →

Every good athlete knows the benefit of a sports massage, and it is often a factor in their success. Some elite athletes even have sports massage therapists who travel with them to help them improve performance, prevent injury and feel better as they are exercising or playing their sport.

Ancient Massage
Massage generally has been in existence for thousands of years. In China, there are documents claiming that massage was used 8,000 years BC for ailments. The ancient Persians and Indians were also known for healing with massage, and the Ancient Romans were treated to a massage before and after Olympic events. Knowledge of massage continued to progress until the Chinese created the first schools of massage in 100 AD.

Late 1800s
There is debate about who introduced the theories and techniques of medical massage to the scientific community. Some attribute them to Johann Mezger, and others to Pehn Ling. However, terms such as effleurage (gliding), petrissage (kneading), tapotement (pounding), friction (rubbing) and vibration (shaking) were used at this time, and they continue to be used to this day.

The Finnish School of Massage officially laid out sports massage methods in 1900. Read the rest of this entry →

Jim Peters set the world marathon record four times between 1952 and 1954.

The first modern marathons were held at the 1896 Summer Olympics, and were won by two Greek runners – Kharilaos Vasilakos and Ioannis Lavrentis. In the ten years that followed, their times of 3:18:00 and 3:11:27 (respectively) would be beaten by runners from Britain, Japan, and America – the last of which was run by Johnny Hayes at the 1908 Summer Olympics in what is considered to be the first marathon over a now official distance of 42.195 km.

Top Runners from Around the World
From 1908 onwards, the field of marathon running began to be dominated by an elite set of countries who regularly produced high performing marathon standard athletes.

In the men’s races, Sweden, Japan, American and the UK were regular contenders for the top spot, with many of their runners continuing to break records. A roster of familiar faces began to creep in: Son Kitei of Japan, Jim Peters of the UK (who broke the world record four times between 1952 and 1954), and Derek Clayton of Australia, who broke his first record in 1967 and followed up with an encore in 1969. It wasn’t until 2002, however, that the title of ‘World’s Best’ was introduced and presented for the very first time to American runner Khalid Khannouchi for his time of 2:05:37.8. Read the rest of this entry →

Abebe Bikila was known for running marathons barefoot, including his victory in the 1960 Olympics.

Of all the sports and exercises in the history of the world, the most fundamental and common is undoubtedly running. The prizes in the very first footraces were the largest. In the first footraces ever it was a race to elude predators. It is easy to visualize early man going into a sprint to reach the safety of a cave or fire while pursued by a sabre tooth tiger or equally ferocious animal. While hard to call it a sport with those stakes, it is none the less undoubtedly the origin of the sport of running.

As the centuries went past the first Marathon was thought to be run around 500 BC and the survival skill of running evolved into a sport. Since those earliest days the question of what is the best footgear to run in has been asked, answered, and refined hundreds of times. The sandals laced up around the ankles protected the feet from rough terrain but the earliest Olympiads foreswore those often times for bare feet to save those few ounces in weight. That is not dissimilar to the last 100 years where shedding of weight while preserving protection and support has become a billion dollar industry highlighted by the likes of Nike, Adidas, and New Balance among many others.

The technology and science has gone from the basics of protecting the soles of feet and proving traction, to increasing cushioning and comfort, to literally having loaded springs that artificially increase stride and speed.  Throughout all this advancement in technology, there were still famous runners like Abebe Bikila that won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympic Games while running the marathon barefooted. Read the rest of this entry →