Matthew Toming: Advances of Sports Medicine in America

     The US is still a frontier-busting nation when it comes to sports because the movements made over the years to increase athletes safety and awareness have advanced tremendously. Pushing boundaries and taking risks has gotten sports medicine where it is today.
Concussions are a primary focus of trainers around the country because they are a very serious injury and long term effects can be disastrous. In my Interview with St. Stephens athletic trainer  Elizabeth Bird, she defined a concussion: "A concussion is a result in changes on the cellular level of the brain from a blow to the head either direct or indirect that produces symptoms and sometimes alteration in mental status"(Elizabeth Bird). Elizabeth went on to explain that new ways to prevent and detect concussions are growing rapidly. The LSU football program has recently given their players  special mouth guards which can detect how hard a hit is and if a certain hit might have caused a concussion. The St. Stephens football team, as well as other football programs across the country, are trying a new method to prevent concussions by using guardian caps. These caps serve as an extra layer around the helmet to limit how severe a hit can be to the head.  Sports medicine has become very commonly known for giving cortisone injections to athletes to decrease swelling and help them be able to preform at a high level, even when injured. A teammate of mine was very suggestive towards this form of treatment: "It really helped me not feel any pain in my hip, and when I played the injury did not prevent me from going my hardest"(Trevor Bell). This form of treatment helps athletes play on injuries and makes them feel better. 
      Even though America has pushed the frontier in sports medicine and has made some great discoveries, they have showed lack in being able to push forward as well. The most dangerous sport in the world is basketball because there is so much cutting and pivoting involved. The fact is that even though knowledge and technology have improved over the years, athletes who play basketball have still come to sustain bad knee and ankle injuries at a very rapid rate.           In my post, I conclude that Americans love playing sports, as it is a necessity in many peoples lives. America has made this more enjoyable by pushing the frontier and making many new discoveries. 

Uzoma Akunebu: Sports in America

Sports in America

The idea of the west is pushing forward and progressing past the known boundaries. This is greatly expressed nowadays through varies sports, and the type of athletes playing that sport.
Athletes who participate in "extreme sports" are known as adrenaline junkies. Because they like to push themselves and the laws of physics to its boundaries. They try to overcome, before thought of as impossible, obstacles, like scaling Mt.Everest or racing a plane at 265 mph, just to gain an exhilarating experience. Pretty much the higher the danger, the greater the rush for the athlete. The types of sports tend to differ from what we considered normal sports, because usually they are done solitary, which is not that different, but they are very dangerous and most have fatal consequence if the athlete fails to produce whats expected. Also most sports, you compete against another opponent, but usually you are competing against mother nature and the weather, and even yourself and self-motivation ..
 
But while those athletes like to push the limits of mother nature, some, including professionals, like to push themselves to the limits by using PED's to increasing their performance levels. Giving them which  inhuman like advantages over other athletes. Some PEDs include steroids or HGH, which allow the body to build muscle much faster than normal.

Citations-"Extreme Sports." Http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_sport. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.
"Steriods in America." Normal.http://www.si.com/more-sports/2008/03/11/steroids1. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Oct. 2014.

Dr. Huth: Fitness, American Style

Just as early European settlers marched westwards and pushed the boundaries of what they believed to be wild and unsettled lands, Americans have also been known for pushing the boundaries of fitness. And, similarly, not always for the greatest reasons or with the greatest results . . . 

President Theodore Roosevelt fully lived the "no pain, no gain" life, and he quickly came to represent the American spirit of physical challenge and extreme risk-taking. In a 1999 article on presidents and physical fitness for The Washington Post, Abigail Trafford writes, "No other president was such a glutton for physical punishment. Yet many of them have set the pace on physical fitness for the rest of the country." Physical fitness was a signature of Roosevelt's presidency, and according to Trafford, his exploits served to demonstrate the
power and strength of the US on an international stage. 

Around the same time, Muscle Beach in Santa Monica, California, grew into a national, if not international phenomenon. Muscle Beach is where the American fitness boom began. Gymnasts and weightlifters gathered to display their feats of extreme bodybuilding, and crowds of onlookers followed. In an article for the Los Angeles Times, Howard Zinkin, fitness "pioneer" and first to hold the Mr. California title, remarked upon the influence Muscle Beach had upon the American public: "By observing the athletes' exercise routines and their impromptu shows, people picked up the not-so-subtle message of fitness. Besides it was great free entertainment, something Americans needed [then]."

Finally, according to a recent article in the New York Times, the latest CrossFit craze is just another example of extremism in American sports and fitness culture. In"Why Are Americans So Fascinated with Extreme Fitness?" Heather Havrilesky claims that nowadays anything labeled as "extreme" is automatically assumed to always be better than the original, even if the extreme version is really nothing more than a perverted version of something that doesn't need improving, such as basic exercise. As evidence, Havrilesky points to recent reports of some CrossFit participants who have so embraced the extreme challenge of the program that they have suffered extreme bodily harm in the form of rhabdomylosis, a condition where a severe muscle injury can release muscle fibers into the bloodstream. Havrilesky even compares the American delight in fitness extremes to a nation-wide religion. However, this is not exactly a good thing: 


"Our new religion has more than a little in common with the religions that brought our ancestors to America in the first place. Like the idealists and extremists who founded this country, the modern zealots of exercise turn their backs on the indulgences of our culture, seeking solace in self-abnegation and suffering."

Is Crossfit really just another form of Puritanism? Both certainly do celebrate the power of suffering. The big difference, though, is that to me it seems that the American love of extreme fitness has just as much to do with spectacle as it does with suffering. Americans will suffer, but they want to make sure they look good while doing it and that someone is watching!