Overtraining In Sports Medicine

Another issue pertaining to sports medicine is overtraining, this is especially true in competitive sports. In order to gain an edge on opponents, an athlete is told to lift weights to stimulate muscle growth. The everyday life of athletes, and even more so students athletes, consists of training in the majority of their free time. Hours of freetime are sacrificed to improve their athletic ability. This is all done to gain an edge over the opponent. In moderation, pushing an athlete to challenging routines is beneficial. When intense workouts or prolonged periods of effort are combined with plentiful rests the effects can be result in stronger, faster athletes. The issue then becomes when an athlete is pushed way beyond their capacity and

The first stage is called functional overtraining. The symptoms include excessive fatigue and a decline in performance. The second and far more damaging stage, sympathetic overtraining, consists of hormonal and mechanical imbalances, and nervous system problems. The third stage of overtraining syndrome is parasympathetic overtraining in which neurological and hormonal exhaustion occurs and ultimately result in physical, chemical, and mental injuries (Philmaffetone.com). In most cases an athlete is not diagnosed with overtraining syndrome until the symptoms are very prevalent because the first and third stages can be confused with other common illnesses. A multicenter, multicountry study found that at least 35% of all teenage male swimmers had experienced some form of overtraining symptom at least once. The same was true for an astonishing 60% of elite male runners (National Center for Biotechnology Information). In high school athletes it is a lot more difficult to diagnose the overtraining syndrome because OTS symptoms are similar to that of stress common among teenagers. Although rules are in place that limit the amount of time players can spend on a given sport like the California Interscholastic Federation ban of sports on Sundays and limiting of playing time to 18 hours per week (CIF). However, many athletes choose to play clubsports as well (which violates CIF

Another common occurrence in high school sports are concussions resulting from head impacts. Concussions are not solely limited to high impact sports like tackle football, lesser contact sports like baseball also possessive a fair amount of concussions. The range of athletes in danger of experiencing concussions range from cheerleading to basketball and diving. The effects of a concussion can be devastating ranging from delayed verbal/motor response, inability to remember recent or past events, confusion/difficulty concentrating, disorientation, slurred or incoherent speech, and even loss of consciousness (Sportsmd.com). The greatest challenge is diagnosing concussions because they cannot be detected by MRI, X-Ray, or CT Scans because the impact to the brain leaves to physical damage to the brain. Instead, experts use systems like the Standardized Assessment of Concussion (SAC) or Balance Error Scoring System (BESS) to detect possible inconsistencies in an athletes brain activity (Sportsmd.com). Rules are out in place to attempt the reduction of concussions in sports like football. Although football players are required to wear a protective helmet, the helmet does not guarantee that a player wearing it will not receive a concussion. Certain efforts have been made to outlaw some tackling moves that could cause concussions or neck injuries although these illegal moves can still be seen in