A Man with Superhero Abilities

       When we think of a super genetic person the first thing that comes to your mind is the X-Men. The X

-Men have a mutated gene that make them abnormal and gives them abilities that no one else has. Well one person that is a regular human with superpower like abilities is Lance Armstrong, 7 time champof cyclings most prestiguous event, the Tour De France. He is the only person to win the Tour 7 times, and it is amazing if a person can win the tour once in his life. For many years sport doctors have been trying to figure out how he does so well and what makes him amazing compared to the other riders in the Tour De France. Especially the French, who have tried to stick him with blood doping allegations for as many Tour’s as they possibly could.

 

            In the sport of cycling you see many cyclists go down because they get caught blood doping. Blood doping is, “the practice of illicitly boosting the number of red blood cells (RBCs) in the circulation in order to enhance athletic performance. Because they carry oxygen from the lungs to the muscles, more RBCs in the blood can improve an athlete’s aerobic capacity and stamina.” (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&rls=HPIA,HPIA:2005-39,HPIA:en&defl=en&q=define:Blood+Doping&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title)

So when the athlete gets more blood in their system they get less fatigue in their muscles causing better performances by the athlete. It is illegal in all sporting events, and people are trying to get trickier and mask the doping so they don’t get caught. There has been much speculation about Lance Armstrong about if indeed he took part in blood doping. Armstrong in all the tests came up clean 10-10 times. Yet people still think he is taking advantage because he is such a supurb athlete.

 

            Dr. Coyle has been testing Armstrong for his whole career and came out with the results of the study and it shows that he has not been taking advantage of the system and actually is built better than the rest of the cyclists. Over the years his mechanical efficiency has climbed 8%, this means that it increases his velocity and power so he can ride faster. The efficiency rate usually falls when an athlete gets older, but not for Armstrong. Armstrong also dropped 10 pounds of fat (which you couldn’t tell before he had any to loose) to become a better cyclist. http://www.edb.utexas.edu/coyle/armstrong.php

 

 

            There are many other fascinating facts about Armstrong, but I have to leave you with just that much. One last stunning fact is that Armstrong can get a steady heart rate at 200 beats per minute where a normal in shape male can only get between 180-190 beats per minute! It just goes to show you if you train your hardest you can be the best at anything.

The harsh reality of Injuries

 

 

When an athlete is in his prime you think that they are untouchable and have no shot of an injury or other consequences. In the case of Shaun Livingston it was the exact opposite. Livingston was in his third year of his NBA career and was really turning into a good player, he was learning to see the court and really a great athlete.

  On the night of February 27th 2007 at the 8:10 mark in the first quarter Shaun Livingston went up for what seemed to be a routine breakaway slam dunk, but it turned out to be the worst 2 points of his life. When Livingston came down he landed weird and bent his knee cap in and it ended being a (http://www.sportingo.com/sports/a2545_Shaun-Livingstons-knee-injury-could)dislocated)dislocated knee cap along with 4 torn knee ligaments. If you want to see the gruesome video of what it actually looks like you can watch the video from the link below.

 

 

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  Now since my subject is on sports therapy I thought it would be interesting to view Livingston’s recoveries through the medical standpoint. First off Livingston right after the injury had to go to the locker room where he was x-rayed on the knee cap where it came out negative so he went to the hospital where an Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) exam machine showed that Livingston suffered tears to the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), medial collateral ligament (MCL) and lateral meniscus. Livingston also suffered a patella dislocation, in addition to the previously diagnosed tibia/femoral dislocation. (http://www.nba.com/clippers/news/livingston_update_070227.html) All this fancy talk means that his whole knee was injured and usually once an athlete has this serious of an injury they do not recover, and have to end their career right away.

 

   Since the injury Livingston has had to go through some tuff physical therapy if he wants to be back in the NBA. Doctors now estimate it will take him 8-12 months to be in somewhat ready shape to run on his knee again. Doctors have speculated that he will be sitting out all of next year because of the injury.

 

   One problem that doesn’t deal with the physical side of therapy, that Shaun may face is the fear of getting injured again, he could possibly overcompensate his injured leg and not be able to play to his full potential which would definalty cause some problems for his team and his self. Just the freak nature of this injury is tough enough as it is, it is one of the worst NBA knee injuries of all time. Hopefully Shaun will be able to recover on time and get another shot at playing ball.

 

 

Essence of Therapy

  

Today in sports therapy is a vital role at every level of play. These days professional teams pay way to much money to have star athletes hurt, this is where the therapist becomes an artist with different types of materials like wrapping ankles when someone goes down with an injury. To any old guy they would think that all you have to do is strap a piece of tape here and there, but that turns out not to be the case. Depending where you get hurt and bad it is the trainer can wrap it to your demand. With pressure and the right materials the trainer can wrap the ankle and make it ready to play in no time.

  For that reason that is why these people are special, they may have the most underrated job in the whole wide world people don’t give these people the credit they deserve to keep the entertainment industry running.

  Trainers have a passion and in one case they had to help save a young mans life.  During a football game a player was hit from behind and had a traumatic dislocation of his hip, most of the doctors said he would never be able to walk again. But with the help of a dedicated physical therapy team they helped the young man to walk again. To start off they mobilized the player for six weeks then started with five months of hardcore therapy to get this young man to walk again. After a long time of rehabilitation he was able to walk again with not to many problems.

  Now that is dedication to stay by this young man’s side through thick and thin to save his life, that shows hard work and determination on both ends. I would say the essence of sports therapy defiantly is caring and helping other people out.

   Many people don’t like to get caught up with other peoples problems but that is what the sports therapist has to do, they must have an understadment for others, and the work effort to show other people the ways to get better.

  Overall the field of sports therapy defiantly is a tough career, but if you are the right type of person for the field it is a great proffesion, that will reap the benifits of wealth and the ability to know that you help people out on a everyday basis. That is why it is good to be a sports therapist.

 http://www.ptjournal.org/

 http://www.jnpt.org/pt/re/jnpt/home.htm;jsessionid=LFGTyN0kfYJ8QN1v7HDT1z0JjSZzLB1xJKDMTd0lKn1CgC7QxpV2!634347399!181195628!8091!-1

Image Relating to Physical Therapy

http://harvest.cals.ncsu.edu/applications/calswebsite/filelibrary/physical_therapist.gif

 

  

           To me this assignment is rather difficult; it made me wonder what image I can use that will have to relate to physical therapy. Luckily for me I found a cartoon that brings all of the aspects of physical therapy into one.  This image really gives you a good idea of what physical therapy is all about. It shows the person doing the work the struggles of the patient and the intensity of the actual workouts.

 

            The first thing you notice with this picture is the sweat coming of the patients head. Who ever said the road to recover was easy. As you can tell the patient is struggling to walk because he is using that stand to keep him from falling over. When recovering from an intense injury the road to recovery is not easy. I have seen first hand the hardships of recovering after a surgery. Two months ago my grandma had replacement knee surgery, (which has been a difficult task to overcome for her) She still struggles to walk after two months. But with the help of physical therapy she has been improving rather quickly and gaining more motion in her knee.

 

            Another thing that you notice when looking at the image is the size of the legs compared to the body of the man. To me this indicates that he has been hurt really badly and has had major swelling which comes with surgery. Also the frown on the mans face shows the pain he is going through to do small tasks like walking. Most physical therapy patients don’t particularly want to get better, especially if they were hurt on the job. These people are being paid for doing no work so they figure it is no big deal if they don’t get better right away. That attitude can end up getting the person weaker and not fully recovering from the injury.

 

            The thing that popped out at me most was the smile on the trainer’s face encouraging the patient to work hard and telling him he could do it.  The trainer extends a helping hand out to the man showing him that he can do it and encouraging to take step after step. This is a quality that a physical therapist must have to successful. As a physical therapist you will meet people that are very unenthusiastic about working out. The trainer must be there to push an re insure the patient about what they are doing is right.

 

Help Me!

 

    Now a days the word help can be interpreted so many different ways, can you help me on this project, can you help me smuggle in some drugs. The word can be used in good content or in bad content. So when it comes to sports therapy the only content it is used in is the good variety.

     In physical therapy most everything a trainer deals with is helping people out, whether it be stretching or rehabilitating an injury. The trainer is a vital role to not only to the person that they are helping, but to the persons sports team. If it weren’t for trainers many star athletes would be hurt for and couldn’t come back to help out there team win an important game or a maybe a championship.

     One example of the trainer helping a athlete and his team win the world series was game 2 of the 2005 world series when Curt Shilling was injured with a ruptured tendon sheaf on his right ankle. Shilling was scheduled to pitch game 2 of the World Series, but with this injury it looked improbable for him to start until the Boston trainers stitched his right ankle so that his tendon would stay in place.

    As a result Shilling went on to win that game and they won the world series overall. It may have been a different outcome if Shilling wasn’t able to pitch and they had to pitch someone else for him. This story is the ultimate dream of a sports trainer, it is like there world series, to help an injured star athlete who is in need of some work.

    Another example of help coming in at a critical situation was in 1988, Kirk Gibson had been a knee injury just before the series started. So it was looking like there was no way that he was going to be able to swing a bat, but when he was wathching the game in the clubhouse, (while he was getting physical therapy) he heard the anouncers saying that he wasn’t gonna be out there, and they were in some ways bashing him. Gibson then walked out to his coach and told him he would be ready if he needed him to hit.

   And indeed Gibson got a shot at hitting. In the ninth inning with a full count and a bumbed knee, Gibson went deep to give the Dodgers the win in game 1 of the series. The image of Gibson hobbling around the bases will be seen for eternity.

   Without the help of the physical therapy he would have not been able to hit and it potentially would have costed the Dodgers the game. As you can see a little help goes a long way.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_Gibson

www.jumprevolution.com/index.php?file=profile&video_id=4644 - 73k

nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/6948862/

The Art of Physical Thearpy in Sports

     

    In most of the sporting world athletes are worn down during the long and enduring season. Eventually this may end up in an injury for the athlete. This is where the Physical Trainer applies therapy to get the athletes back on his feet and get back in the game. In this blog I’m going to write about how therapists and how they play a vital role in getting athletes back in shape after having to sit out of their game for lengths of time.

       This subject is important to me because i have been the person who is hurt and needs therapy to get back into the game. When I have been getting therapy I was really interested in what they do and how they perform different tasks to help the athlete get back into shape. I know what is like to be the person hurt, and I really appreciated the help, and I think it would be a worthwhile job to help people out with their problems and get them back into shape. I have always been that person to help someone in need, and this job definitely wraps around all my interests which are sports and helping people out.

     This blog is unique because I have yet to come across a blog that has the same idea as what I have come up with. It is a subject that I know personally and should have knowledge on it, and I will be able to find lots of different interesting facts on this profession.

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