Travis Rodery

November 1, 2011

Grogan

Intro to College Writing

Becoming Better

      “If a man or woman is born ten years sooner or later, their whole aspect and performance shall be different”(Wolfgang von Goethe).  Our gene pool just does not allow us to produce dozens of athletic monsters like swimming great Michael Phelps and Usain “Lightening” Bolt.  Since we are not born to be over six feet tall and be the fastest human on the planet, we rely on performance enhancement to help us reach our athletic goals.  Not the performance enhancement that most people think of when they hear the words, which include anabolic steroids and other substances such as tranquilizers that mutate the genes of our bodies.  Substances that commonly go along with the term performance enhancer, like steroids and amphetamines, can increase strength and stamina, clearly putting an athlete at an unfair advantage.  These kinds of drugs are illegal because they present extreme health risks with excessive use.  My definition of performance enhancement is, a legal way to alter the body to reach its absolute peak performance level.  Legal ways to do help your body develop better and perform to the max include standard pharmaceutical drugs, highly developed prosthetics, and new vigorous training methods. 

       Cheating has been the common thought when it comes to performance enhancing.  Athletes like Barry Bonds and Mark Maguire have made a bad name for athletes.  Now that the truth is out about professionals using illegal means to achieve goals, everyone is going to assume a top notch athlete is cheating because he is better than everyone else.  The classification of substances as performance enhancers are not entirely clear cut and objective (Adams).  Many athletes take amphetamines like caffeine, Adderall and Dexedrine to increase alertness and energy they need to perform at the highest level possible.  Some stimulants reduce fatigue, suppress appetite and activate the central nervous system, which increases heart rate and blood pressure (Adams).  There are serious side effects to stimulant usage, such as heart abnormalities, extreme weight loss and drug dependency (Quinn).  Due to these serious side effects, athletic associations have made them illegal for athletes to use.  On the other hand, hard work in the gym, the weight room, and with the addition of prescribed drugs by physicians is a legal and safe way to make yourself better.  Since there are no very serious side effects to the body with most things done by athletes, it is not cheating by any means.  Legal substances like protein powders and creation can have the same effect on the muscles of the body as steroids do, but on a much smaller scale and a less harmful effect to your body.  Does it make it cheating if protein is ingested after working out because it helps you gain mass and weight.  No, the protein you take replaces all the calories you lost while working out.  Performance enhancement is on a much larger scale than much people think, it is just the bad one like steroids that people assume it is cheating and illegal. 

            An athlete is known to work out and train harder than anyone else wants to and does.  In order to keep up with their bodies’ needs they have to put protein and vitamins back into their bloodstream.  The supplements they indulge their bodies with are called pharmaceutical drugs.  These can range from simple powders on the store shelf or over the counter prescribed substances.  There is of a variety of substances, including medications, procedures and even devices that are intended to improve athletic sports performance.  Some of these substances are naturally occurring, easily available and completely legal.  The use of stimulants to improve athletic performance is prevalent in both college and Olympic sports and likely in professional sports as well.  Lets walk through a whole workout, the before, the during, and the after it.  I will show you how important and how legal a pharmaceutical drug is and how it enhances performance.  Before and during your work out, you have to make sure you stay properly hydrated. Staying hydrated is essential for everyone, but athletes have an even greater need to maintain proper hydration.  Sports drinks like Gatorade and water are one of the most important nutrients of life and have many important functions including regulating temperature, lubricating joints and transporting nutrients and waste throughout the body (Thomas).  After your tough workout, the body is tired and the muscles are dead due to the lactic acid build up that occurs.  In order to refuel and to build muscle so that you can perform better in your sport, you need protein.  Protein is a necessary nutrient that everyone needs to function properly.  The use of protein powders mixed in with either water or milk has been a legal was to improve the body.  Some athletes prefer creatine instead, which is a compound synthesized in the body and transported to muscle tissues where it fuels short bouts of intense energy production (Thomas).  For some athletes, creatine supplementation improves repeated bouts of high-intensity exercise, such as sprinting, weight lifting or power sports.  Another key component the body needs is vitamins.  Vitamins are essential for the body to function properly, but there may be a link between the B-vitamins and performance in high-level athletes.  B-vitamins are used to convert proteins, carbohydrates into energy, and used for cell repair and production (Hashey).  Sports and training take a huge toll on an athlete’s body.  The body becomes stiff, sore, and sometimes hurting.  Athletes do not like to take days off, so they rely on different varieties of painkillers.   A painkiller, properly known as an analgesic, is any member of the group of drugs used to relieve pain (Thomas).  Baseball players can have sore arms because of the 162 games they play, so they rub some icy hot on their arms and take a couple of Motrin and they are good to go without pain.  All of these painkillers are perfectly legal and are used daily by regular people, but athletes just use them to their full potential.  All of these combine into creating a bigger, faster, and stronger body, the body you need to perform at the highest level possible.

            In every sport, an athlete needs to be bigger, stronger, faster, and bester than his opponent.  This leads us to our net step in the legal way to better ourselves in sports.  Performance enhance in the weight room, is one of the most crucial factors into improving performance.  Basic athletes go through easy workouts but top notch athletes have taken a step ahead of everyone else and left them in the dust.  Intense training methods have been developed by the latest and best strength and conditioning coaches.  These workouts are designed to focus on a specific part of the body.  The main building blocks in all sports are: flexibility, agility, endurance, speed and strength (Kennedy).  These main blocks for success are reached by stretching, conditioning, and doing core works outs.  Stretching keeps your body agile while engaging in any type of resistance or cardio training routine.  Conditioning and cardiovascular exercises are aimed at improving your heart muscle and cardiovascular system, meaning having better stamina and not getting tired as easy.  Core exercises train the muscles in your pelvis, lower back, hips and abdomen to work in harmony.  This leads to better balance and stability, whether on the playing field or in daily activities (Davies).  Nowadays the concept of the mind and its development is also considered a prerequisite to sporting success.  New methods have been evolving over time for each sport.  For example, many distance runners are starting to do a lot more high altitude training.  Altitude training stimulates a more efficient use of oxygen by the muscles.  Exercising at high altitude has been shown to cause muscular adjustments of selected gene transcripts, and improvement of mitochondrial properties in skeletal muscle (Davies).  Some athletes have gone even farther than that, such as UFC fighter Wonderlay Silvia.  He has gone as far as only breathing through a snorkel while doing all of his training, in order to improve his stamina.  Athletes such as Blake Griffin have taken a different approach to get into shape.  If it was not hard enough to run on a hard service, Griffin takes it to the next level and trains in the sand.  Training on sand provides many benefits for Griffin.  He develops more strength in his lower body running on sand. Since the sand shifts beneath him as he runs, Griffin’s ankles, arches, and calves are much more engaged and will become stronger in the process (Griffin).  For many years, basketball coaches and their players have sought to improve power in order to enhance performance.   Throughout this century and no doubt long before, jumping, bounding and hopping exercises have been used in various ways to enhance athletic performance. In recent years, this distinct method of training for power or explosiveness has been termed plyometrics.  Plyometric, plyos for short, is a type of exercise training designed to produce fast, powerful movements, and improve the functions of the nervous system, generally for the purpose of improving performance in sports (Davies).  It can help increase an athletes’ vertical, and in basketball a higher vertical equals more blocks, rebounds, and dunks.  Being in the weight room is the place where the most time is sport for performance enhancement.  Athletes train their bodies into faster and stronger humans and doing things better than the rest of the competition.

     Some unfortunate humans have been born with a birth defect or have had a life changing incident occur which forced them to lose a limb.  Scientist and researchers have teamed together to develop new technology to enhance the handicapped athletes performance.  A prosthetic device is an artificial replacement for a part of the body that has been removed (James).  These devices may be a limb or a joint; the purpose of the prosthetic may be entirely functional, cosmetic, or both (James).  The term prosthetic is derived from a Greek word, meaning to add to or to add on.  Research has taken modern prosthetic devices far beyond the old fashion pirate peg legs and captain hooks.  The development of effective prosthetic devices for use in sport engages a number of scientific disciplines including, the use of new composite metals, the study of body movements, and the demands of the body in sports.  Once operative, a prosthetic used in sport will involve the ongoing support of experts from the sports medicine, orthopedic medicine, physical therapy, and athletic therapy disciplines. With the help of this new technology, physically unable people are now able to fulfill their dream of becoming a successful athlete.  An example of someone using prosthetic devices to their full advantage is South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius when he became the first disabled athlete to compete against able-bodied runners.  Oscar is missing both of his lower legs, and he uses J-shaped carbon-fiber prostheses, called the Össur Flex-Foot Cheetah.  In might sound ridiculous but, some experts believed that Pistorius's setup would allow him and other amputee sprinters to move their legs faster than able-bodied runners and reach high speeds more easily (Torrice).  People missing their legs running faster than people who train their whole lives, makes sense right?  To defend them, scientists and researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied the running mechanics of six single-amputee athletes as they sprinted on a treadmill.  They found out the obvious that they do not have any advantage over people with two good legs.  Official results were, the Össur Flex-Foot Cheetah legs produce less force with each step, therefore, lightweight sprinting prostheses most likely does not give amputee athletes a leg up (Torrice).  This just comes to show that performance enhance is perfectly legal and can even save the hopes and dreams of those with different bodies.

     Legal ways to do help your body develop better and perform to the max include classic and new training methods, up to date pharmaceutical drugs, and new developed prosthetics.  Most people are not born with amazing athletic skills like freak athlete Lebron James.  Therefore, we rely on performance enhancement, which is a legal way to improve your body to help reach its maximum performance.  Pharmaceutical drugs like protein powders and vitamins help our bodies’ recover and tack on lean muscle.  Prosthetics give the medically impaired, like sprinter Oscar Pistorius, a chance to be involved in sports again.  Training has evolved over the years with new technological advancement and research and athletes are wreaking all the benefits and becoming monsters, the legal way.  Due to most people not being born from great athletic parents, we are forced to become better on our own with the help of performance enhancement.

Works Citied

Adams, Henry. "Performance-Enhancing Drugs, Anabolic Steroids, Steroid Use in Sports - The National Center For Drug Free Sport, Inc." Drug Testing Services, Drug Screening Policy Development, Drugs in Sports, Drug-Use Education Programs - The National Center For Drug Free Sport, Inc. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://www.drugfreesport.org/drug-resources/performance-enhancing-drugs-steroids.asp>.MACKENZIE, B. (1997) Plyometrics [WWW] Available from: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/plymo.htm

Davies, Phil. "Strength Training For Sport." Phil Davies' Sports Fitness Advisor - Get Fit for Sport & Life. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/strengthtraining.html.

Griffin, Blake. "Conditioning." Blake Griffin. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.blakegriffin.com/pages/training.

Hashey, Joe. "Top Six Recovery Methods for Athletes." EliteFTS - Powerlifting and Strength Training Products and Knowledge for Lifters, Athletes, Coaches, and Trainers. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.elitefts.com/documents/recovery_methods.htm.

James, Dave. "Prosthetic Research and Sport - Knee, Injuries, Leg, Muscle - World of Sports     Science." Internet FAQ Archives - Online Education - Faqs.org. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.faqs.org/sports-science/Pl-Sa/Prosthetic-Research-and-Sport.html.

Kennedy, Renee. "The Benefits of Exercise." Rob's Home of Sports, Fitness, Nutrition and Science. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.topendsports.com/fitness/benefits.htm.

Mossop, Brian. "Study Finds Athletes Fast Approaching Peak Performance | Playbook | Wired.com." Wired.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.wired.com/playbook/2010/09/peak-performance/.

Quinn, Liz. "Performance Enhancing Drugs PEDs - Performance Enhancing Drugs in Sports." Sports Medicine, Sports Performance, Sports Injury - Information About Sports Injuries and Workouts for Athletes. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/performanceenhancingdrugs/a/ErgogenicAids.htm.

Thomas, Nicole. "Painkillers." Parents. The Anti-Drug. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. http://www.theantidrug.com/drug-information/otc-prescription-drug-abuse/prescription-drug-rx-abuse/painkillers.aspx

Torrice, Michael. "No Sprinting Advantage With Prosthetic Limbs - ScienceNOW." Science/AAAS | News - Up to the Minute News and Features from Science. Web. 10 Nov. 2011. <http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2009/11/04-02.html>.