All posts in Sports

With major advancements found in both sports psychology as well as sports medicine, avenues are being opened up constantly for all athletes of all fields. Whether you’re just staring out playing T-ball excited for you end of game treat, or training for a national title in your field of expertise, being active and pushing your body needs to be done in a safe and controlled way.

Sports medicine professionals will tell you that rest and relaxation is just as important for muscle growth and development as that of working them to their ripping point. As athletes continue to reach new heights, more and more injuries are being formed, treated, and perfected. Some of the methods of healing have been around for centuries, while some of the new unconventional methods are still being tried and tested. I will list some of both for injured athletes that are seeking quick recovery.

R.I.C.E.

Any high school gym teacher or sports instructor will tell you to R.I.C.E. your injury. This stands for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. If these four aspects of healing are all used together, it relieves unnecessary strain from the muscle, bone, or tendon that has been damaged and allows the healing particles of the body to work uninhibited. As simple as this procedure may sound, there’s a reason it’s so commonly used. It produces results.

Acupuncture:

Founded originally in Asia, this form of medicine revolves around stimulating and then relaxing different muscles and nerves in order to lessen muscle cramping, overuse, overexertion, and swelling. The needles inserted into specific areas of the muscle activate or deactivate said muscle to relieve stress and allow the damaged part of the body to rest and recover. Although thought of as painful and often times frightening, acupuncture can be incredibly stress relieving and peaceful. However, it might take some getting used to in the beginning.

Essential Oils:

Herbs, spices, and oils have been used in medical treatment for as long as the world has history of healing. Plants were found that contained remedies for individual illnesses and these treatments were honed into what the world knows today as essential oils. Different recipes and combinations of these oils can be found online at sources such as Youngliving.com and the healing properties associated with each oil. They range from burns, and irritation, to overexertion and exhaustion.

With so many different avenues of healing at our fingertips, seek out what will help you the best, and get healthy.

There are lots of people who love to ride bikes both as a form of transportation and as a form of exercise; however, similar to other vehicles, there is a chance that a bicycle accident could unfold. It is important for everyone to know about some of the most common causes of bicycle accidents and how they can be avoided. This could prevent potentially serious injuries from taking place.

One of the most common bicycle accidents that might take place is called a left hook. There is a vehicle that is turning left across a lane of oncoming traffic. While the driver of the car may look for cars, he or she is not looking for a bike that is traveling straight. Therefore, the oncoming car turns left in front of the cyclist, who has the right of way as he or she is going straight. Then, a serious bicycle accident takes place. In order to avoid these accidents, cyclists must never assume that a vehicle that is turning left has seen the car. In addition, drivers of cars must keep their eyes open cyclists who also share the road.

Another similar accident is called a right hook. In this scenario, the car and the cyclist are traveling straight. The car passes the cyclist and forget about him or her. The car has passed the cyclist on the left and then, shortly thereafter, needs to make a right turn. When the car slows down, the cyclist catches up to the car. Then, the driver turns right directly in front of the cyclist. The results of this bicycle accident could be devastating and might lead to catastrophic injuries. In order to avoid this, the cyclist must watch for brake lights and think about what the car is doing. The car needs to remember that there is a bicycle just behind the vehicle.

Finally, it is possible for a car and a bike to suffer a T-bone collision. This often happens when a cyclist comes out of a driveway and enters the road without pausing to look both ways. This is a situation where the cyclist has failed to yield the right of way to the car and the fault will often be placed at the feet of the cyclist. To avoid this accident, cyclists must always come to a stop before entering the road. A cyclist needs to remember that he or she is a vehicle and must obey the various traffic laws.

These are a few of the most common reasons why someone might be involved in a bicycle accident. It is critical for everyone to take extra steps to remain safe.

When Barry Bonds left the great game of baseball ten years ago he dreamed he’d be doing in while at attention in left field at the famous AT&T Stadium, with a sellout crowd giving him a standing ovation and yelling their hearts out for his stellar performance as a San Francisco Giant. But it wasn’t in the stars. As everyone knows, things worked out a little bit differently than that.

But this past Sunday Bonds finally got his daydream fulfilled, after nearly eleven years away from the people and the park he gave so much of his life and heart to. San Francisco celebrated the man as a one-of-a-kind wonder and the Giants officially retired his number, amidst the applause and hoopla that a sports legends always deserves, and eventually gets, in this country.

After the extravagant ceremony Bonds indulged in one of his trademark meals — chocolate chip cookies with a large cold glass of milk — while he chatted with reporters out in AT&T Field, where so much memorable baseball history was made. Most of it by Bonds, the way he likes to tell it.

Bonds told reporters he considered the Field to almost be his private property. He should just sign one of my. Custom Baseballs already. With the typical braggadocio and hyperbole that has made Bonds a beloved character in the sports writing community and with his legion of fans, Bonds boasted to the enthralled scribblers that it was his exploits that built the Park in the first place and kept it going when baseball as a whole went through some lean years back at the turn of the century. He told reporters that even though Willie Mays and Willie McCovey never played in AT&T Park, they still gave him the inspiration he needed during down times to keep plugging away. But then again, as baseball’s all-time homerun king, Bonds has a perfect right to have a swelled head and do a little boasting. At least, that’s how all the reporters who covered the event felt about it. Although hardened to the peccadilloes of professional athletes and not much given to sentiment, the reporters at the ceremony in San Francisco cut Bonds a lot of slack and simply quoted him without comment, except to say that one of the giants in baseball history was finally having his well-deserved and long delayed moment in the sun.

The old controversies, of course, weren’t entirely laid to rest by San Francisco’s celebratory blowout for Bonds. The performance-boosting drugs that Bonds took to give him that extra edge in smacking out homeruns like an assembly line are still a matter of debate among sports writers and lovers of the game of baseball all over the world. How much of Bonds’ 762 home runs were due to steroids? There’s really no way of knowing; the only hard, concrete fact is that Bonds was firmly ensconced in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown long before the steroid story broke and sidetracked his career.

Another baseball legend at the event, Willie Mays, has not been shy in wondering out loud to reporters why Bonds got the nod from Cooperstown long before he himself did. It’s not a question he asks out of personal jealousy, says Mays, but rather out of love for the game of baseball itself. It’s a game, says Mays, that gave him the chance to break the color barrier in big league sports and that he still thinks is the greatest expression of American spirit and attitude. But sometimes, he tells reporters privately, it’s just as skewed as any other big business venture in America.