The Physiological Advantages and Disadvantages to Athletic Sports Performance

The relationship between the principles of training and physiological adaptations has a significant impact on performance. Many factors need to be addressed in a training program to make it a successful one for a particular athlete and thus improve their performance.

Task 2 – Describe (P3) or explain (M1) the concept of energy intake and expenditure in sports performance.

Every elite athlete makes it look easy. Splashing through the water or striding gracefully down the track making it look effortless. Some people assume they are “naturals,” that their perfect DNA sequence is what has brought them to this level. Others argue that hard work and drive is what has made the difference, separating the elite from the average. These thoughts are the ones that give rise to the age-old nature vs. nurture debate. Countless hours of studies and research has concluded: it’s both. High performance sports consultant Ross Tucker puts it this way, “The science of success is about the coming together of dozens, perhaps hundreds of factors” (1). The relationship of such factors, including genetics, types and lengths of

Blood doping creates unneeded risk and endangers an athlete’s life for a slightly increased chance of winning a competition. This practice should remain banned and athletes should seek alternative practices that do not come with unusual added health risks. Though there are logical arguments for each side, there is more evidence to support the argument that blood doping should not be legal in athletic competitions. There is too much risk involved for the reward to be so miniscule.

What limits the speed and stamina of most endurance athletes is the ability of their heart and lungs to deliver oxygen at a steady rate

I first learned about this topic on a television show I watch called Hawaii 5-O. The episode had a group of athletes that were blood doping in order to win bicycling races and to get a leg up on escaping the police after robbing their targets. It briefly explained what the group was doing, and why it made them have better stamina and bettered their athletic abilities. Then when Lance Armstrong was accused of many different types of performance enhancing drugs, he admitted to using blood doping among other techniques. He used the method of blood doping that utilizes EPO, which is a hormone that is produced in the kidney for RBC production. He was stripped of all the Tour de France titles in his possession and the bronze medal he won in the Olympics.

The desire to compete — and win — is as old as history itself. From the beginnings of sport, athletes have sought out foods and potions to turn their bodies into winning machines. As early as 776 BCE, the very first Olympic games, there are records of attempts to increase testosterone levels (“Steroid Abuse in Sports”). Ancient Greek wrestlers ate vast amounts of meat to gain muscle mass, and Norse “Berserker” warriors took hallucinogenic mushrooms before battle. The first competitive athletes to be charged for doping, however, were swimmers in 1860s Amsterdam. Doping of all kinds, from caffeine to cocaine to anabolics quickly spread to other sports (“Anabolic Steroids, a Brief History”).

The era of athletic training began in the United States in the year of 1881. At that time the term "Athletic trainer" referred to a professional who took care of athletes. Athletic trainers helped the athletes to recover from injuries such that they can contribute more to the game; athletic trainers are not only helpful after the injury as they also help the athletes to prevent them from any injuries or disabilities. Since in today’s world every sport is getting tougher and tougher it is very necessary to have a good athletic trainer in your team so that any injury occurred can be taken care of. There is also an association named as the National Athletic Trainer's Association for improving the services rendered by Athletic Trainers.

Each year an athlete's creativity comes into play to create ways to become the best in his/her competitive sports; especially when one have to use a lot of endurance and energy to win. In order to be the best you have to put in the work. Some athletes do it the hard way, such as eating healthy, exercising and training. Others use the easy way out, engaging with steroids, enhancements, and blood doping to get ahead of the competition. Many professional athletes have taken to the practice of blood doping in order to gain a competitive edge in their field. But there are those who are crying that doing so can have serious consequences not only to the sports world, but to one’s body as well. Sometimes they look for harmful procedures that increase their athletic ability but can potentially do more harm than good. In this argument, I will be discussing called induced erythrocythemia, commonly known as blood doping, which can lead to medical, physical, and psychological problems.

In an attempt to understand the underlying biological differences of these runners Pui W. Kong hypothesized that one variation is, “related to the fact that Kenyans generally live and train at high altitude (around 2000 m above sea level) influencing their oxygen capacity” (Kong, 2008). One study that addressed this compared Kenyan runners oxygen uptake, as well as blood ammonia

In the medical field, blood transfusions are used to replace blood lost due to emergencies or in patients with conditions that lower red blood cell count like anemia and kidney failure. Athletes improve performance and stamina by using either autologous transfusion, during which their own blood is drawn and stored for future use, or homologous transfusion during which athlete recessives blood from a donor. Erythropoietin is a hormone produced by body to stimulate red blood cell production. In patients with anemia, stimulation of erythropoiesis improves energy and ability to perform daily tasks, but in athletes it greatly increases performance by improving the delivery of oxygen to tissues. Synthetic oxygen carriers like HBOCs and PFCs have the ability to carry additional oxygen, and it is used as therapy when a blood transfusion is needed but no human donor is available. Athletes use synthetic oxygen carriers to achieve the same performance-enhancing effects of other types of blood

Clinical chemistry profiles: All blood samples assessed maintained standard parameters for individuals involved in heavy exercise training. No significant interactions were observed in plasma glucose, carbon dioxide, urea nitrogen, uric acid, total protein, albumin, alkaline phosphatase, sodium, potassium, chloride, calcium, ionized calcium, phosphorus, leukocytes, neutrophils, lymphocytes, monocytes, eosonophils, basophils, hemoglobin, hematocrit, total bilirubin, total iron, platelets, red blood cells, red blood cell distribution width, mean corpuscular volume, or mean platelet

Doping has widely become known as the use of banned substances and practices by sports personnel particularly athletes in an attempt to improve sporting performances. No sensible fan of sport today denies the prevalence of drugs in virtually every major sport, yet none would argue they can ever be eliminated completely. Money alone would seem to guarantee that much. High profile athletes today are competing for high stakes, not just millions, but dozens of millions. The fear of losing everything career, opportunity, contracts, name, fame, and money is pushing more sportsmen all over the world to use performance enhancing drugs, mainly

Youth sports are an incredibly healthy way for kids to grow and release energy. Children in preschool can begin to take part in sports like dance and soccer, and as they grow older, the lists of sports gets longer. However, there are negatives of sports that are often not talked about by parents, coaches, schools, or the media. As a result, stigmatization occurs, leaving children struggling with sports to suffer alone. With youth sports, elevated levels of stress occur, and as a consequence, mental health can decline. Youth sports can have an adverse psychological effect on young athletes and it is an effect that can be damaging for children for their entire lives.

Sports, a very popular past time today, have been around since ancient times.  Greek Olympic Games featured events from chariot races, javelin throws, to wrestling.  In addition, a game similar to soccer was played in China by the second century BC.  In England, a violent rugby type game was even played to settle feuds between villages.  With the development of the industrial revolution and the creation of the first public schools, sports decreased in violence and were played more recreationally and constructively.  Basketball was invented to help the youth in New England spend their energy in the winter months.  Since the early 1900’s sports have been a key experience in the United States (“History of Sports”).  I have played