Wrestling

Wrestling is a worldwide competitive sport where there are two contestants that use their maximal muscle strength to try and force the other player to touch their shoulder to the floor. As you may know wrestlers are subjected to compete in specific weight classes with similar age groups in order to have a fair competition.

I chose to write about this sport because my brother has been a competitive wrestler since as long as I can remember. One thing that I saw him struggle through was the amount of health issues that these competitive athletes can have. He was constantly on diets and try to cut weight before his matches so he would be able to weigh in as less as possible. Athletes would do this because it was better to get into lower weight classes so it would be able to give them some sort of an advantage. It came to the point where his coaches were encouraging the wrestlers to cut weight because of the heavy competition. These habits consisted of eating small meals with limited portions while also putting forth a lot of vigorous exercise. This sport contains a lot of strength training to be able to defeat the opponent. Right before competitions sometimes wrestlers try and cut out as much water weight as possible to decrease their size. Ive seen athletes run in a full sweat suit in the heat or run with a trash bag to sweat all that extra water. Being an athlete myself, I understand that people do whatever they can to win however, sometimes this can be very unsafe to the athletes body. In the severity of this situation athletes can have long term effects that can result in kidney failure and heart malfunctions. Some other physical problems that some people develop later on in life is hypoglycemia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

In 1997, the death of 3 collegiate wrestlers sent a message to the public on what this strenuous activity can do to an athlete. Since then there has been a lot of changes in the rules and weight classes for precaution. Today, it is common for people to stereotype wrestlers as the starved and malnourished athletes however, in most cases there are many who participate in this sport that don't participate in extreme weight loss. I think its amazing how much muscle strength and endurance that these athletes contain. In experiencing the the intense weight training that my brother regularly works out to, I find it unbelievable how much dedication it takes to built up this type of strength.

A Time Consuming Sport

This week I chose to write about gymnastics because it was once a sport that consumed a big part of my life. In reading many articles and hearing from others I found that many people felt that this sport requires dedication in the amount of training hours. It can really take away from ones social life and the opportunity to focus on multiple sports. In my own experiences this was my reason for quitting. From elementary school to the beginning of high school I would spend countless amounts of hours at the gym almost every night. As I grew older I realized that this was not something that I wanted to continue with and decided to take another path. Writer Eleni Edwards comments that "in order to thrive in gymnastics you must maintain a high level of dedication."Gymnastics is a sport that involves a performance of exercises that require a lot of physical strength, flexibility, agility and coordination." ( new york times). I always found that gymnastics took more time then any other sport I was involved in.

Often times we notice that elite gymnasts are of a certain stature. They are small, slender and have defining muscle activity. Female gymnasts are known to have lighter body masses compared to other athletes and females of the general population. Elite gymnasts are at the increased risk of the adverse effects for growth and maturation in their lifetime. Because this sport requires various stresses and high impacts to the body it directly effects one growth patterns. Gymnastics requires that athletes build up muscle strength, endurance and flexibility at a young age. While these athletes participate in this intense training their muscles begin to develop and its preventing a normal growth spurt because theres so much built up muscle holding it back. The greater the number of years in gymnastics the greater reduction in growth. However this also works to an advantage for these athletes because the smaller the better. Short gymnasts ofter have an advantage of spinning faster while tumbling and getting around easier on the uneven bars. From my own experience I remember watching taller people do the bars and sometimes there heals would hit the low bar or even the ground if they wernt able to hold their body weight.

Snowboarding

This week I chose to write about the extreme sport of snowboarding. This is known as one of the fastest growing snow sports where it branches into the five domains of slalom, boarder cross, big air, slope style ad half pipe. Each of these requires specific technique, varying skills and great levels of physical fitness. Riders physical demands possesses strength, power, speed, and flexibility where each is as equally important as the other. Every Sunday I take a day trip to Vermont with some friends to go snowboarding at either Stratton or Okemo Mountain. As a snowboarder, I find that this sport requires as much physical fitness as any other sport would. In my own experiences I always feel a lot of stresses on the lower extremities because of the constant body maneuvers that are directed by your leg movements. When you are carving and turning your board you use various leg muscles such as your Sartorius, rectus femoris, gastrocnemius, bicep femoris, achilles tendon and of course your quadriceps. After my first run of the season I usually wake up the next day feeling very soar and stiff because I don’t regularly work out all these muscle groups that are used when riding. Besides all the physical aspects that relate to snowboarding, I feel that this extreme sport comes with a lot of courage, confidence and challenges. One thing I really enjoy about snowboarding is being able to cruise down the mountain and enjoy the atmosphere however, it takes built up confidence to increase your speed knowing you can easily slip or loose control. While riding up the ski lifts, I frequently witness accidents, where someone looses control or people getting ridden down by the ski patrol. This can be a very dangerous sport because you have to be cautious of your surroundings and what path you are taking. I give competitive and free style riders a lot of credit because it takes a lot of courage to be able to do all the fancy tricks and jumps. If you have never been, I highly recommend trying it at least once because it is truly an excellent work out and a nice day away from home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnVupEzu59g

Competative Rowing

This week I chose to look into the sport of competitive rowing. Many people have their own opinions of the correct way in defining sport. Some people strongly believe that any thing that partakes in active movements and require physical exertion with the ability to compete or participate in a game is a defining sport. However, when researching rowing I was surprised to see that many find rowing to not be defined as a sport. While researching this topic I found rowing to be a physically demanding sport that predominately requires strength and cardiovascular endurance. Endurance gives your body the ability to supply oxygen to your working muscles through your heart, blood vessels and lungs. A typical rowing training program would be one that consists of strength, speed strength, stamina, structure, suppleness and strength endurance which all contribute to optimal performance. Strength refers to how strong a rower needs to be in competition. Developing ones body resistance and using free weights permits each rowers intensity. Speed strength show physically how strong each crew member is to perform each stroke in any given moment. I found stamina to be the most physically demanding where each member has to keep up their endurance throughout the whole competition to move in unison. This could easily be thrown off if one person falls behind. Structure is important relating to ones body size, shape, weight, age, and sex. They are categorized like this because it effects the way they perform and who is placed where on the boat. Suppleness refers to flexibility where this is beneficial for a greater range of motion. A rowers stroke comprises of leaning forwards, bending the legs while sliding forwards in their seat, after the oar is in the water they proceed to apply pressure to the oar while moving in the opposite direction in their seat that releases there legs into a straight position. Lastly, strength endurance refers to how long the body can last during each race. Each crew member is obligated to stay in shape to contribute to the competition.

I also found that in the sport of rowing they have rules according to what type of boats they are allowed to use. This is important in competition because it increases the level of difficulty in balance. The smaller the boat is the more difficult it is to control. They also have two forms of rowing that adjusts the level of difficulty. Sweep rowing is when a crew member holds one oar with both hands. I would imagine that this would be easier because all of your strength is being used on one oar. The other type is sculling rowing, which is when each crew member has two oars, one in each hand. This can be easy for some rowers if they excel in balance strength.

Through my research I found rowing to be a very competitive sport. In this clip I found it shows how swiftly they move through the water. They almost make it look easy but it because they are physically trained to be able to withstand that kind of vigorous activity to move gracefully through the water.

Welcome to my blog!

Hello everyone! this is my sports and health issues blog. My goal is to pick out a different sport each week and research topics about them. This could be anything from physical training, supplement use, stereotypes, common injuries, techniques in preventing injuries and lots more! I'm interested in writing about sports that I am familiar with as well as sports that I am unfamiliar with. Another reason for choosing this topic is because I am an athlete myself and just like any other athlete I experience my own stresses and accomplishment which contribute to my everyday life. I'm hoping to be able to share some interesting information that readers can learn from and relate to. So keep reading and I hope you enjoy my blog!