Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:26:01 GMT

What Does Your Workout Add Up To?

Ten rounds a week for a year adds to an impossible record youre undefeated.

Steps are steps. Dance for an hour and its like running six miles. Either way, you end up sweating as much as a long-distance runner. Your muscles dont care. Theyre just happy to be worked.

65,000 serves ago I was a beginner. What they call killer instinct only gets you so far. After that, its running til your legs want to cry, serving til your arm falls off and then doing it again tomorrow. Bring that to your workout four hours a day, six days a week for 15 years and Ill look for you in the finals.

Nobody wakes up one day and says, Im going to run across a medium-sized state. Its fifteen miles a week that becomes 780 miles a year. If that doesnt make you runner, its your mind that needs training, not your body.

Nike has launched fresh marketing offensive to promote its womens spring collection. The print advertisement campaign features women as a runner, dancer, a boxer and tennis star Maria Sharapova. The campaign apart from its pet idea of attacking, exploring and challenging the natural instinct and attitude of people, its focuses on the glamour and style as well. The advertisements are showing women involved in different activities related to sports and exercise with corresponding text, which is crucial for the campaign as it narrates the ideological aspect of different activities.

The presentation of the campaign is no different from its some previous campaign if the style and basics are taken into consideration. However, the art direction of the campaign is undoubtedly extremely good. The punch line of the campaign asks, What does your workout add up to?

Via Duncans Print
Posted by: Balendu      Read more     Source

Wed, 23 May 2007 22:57:47 GMT

Summer Splash: Enjoy Poolside Golf

Summer often discourage many golf enthusiasts from going to golf course and doing some putting. They rather prefer swimming to sweating in the green. If you too have been forced by summer to hover around your swimming pool and you terribly miss your golf, then this new creation, Pro-Chip Island Golf, from Solutions will let you enjoy swimming and golf together.

All you have to do is procure this unique gold set and spread the floating island, which looks like a tiny golf course, in your pool and thats it.

The greatest advantage of this kit is that every time you hit the ball there is no ado that ball may roll over into water. This has been made possible as these golf balls have a velcro cross which enable them to stick to the green.

Priced at $49.95 this golf set will surely spice up your summer and perhaps hone your golf skills.

Source: Coolest-Gadgets Posted by: Fineblog      Read more     Source

Mon, 21 May 2007 14:11:04 GMT

The Influence of Technology

For awhile now Olympic sports has had to deal with technology in the form of drugs. Today, there is a new threat, an amputee. Oscar Pistorius of South Africa was born without a fibula bone in his legs resulting in both legs being amputated below the knee when he was 11 months old. Today, at age twenty, he is setting the track on fire with his specially made prosthetics. After easily winning the Paralympics World Cup 100 and 200-meter dashes, Oscar now dreams of running in the Olympics. Certainly, he has the speed to qualify, getting second in the 400 meters in the South African National Championships. There's only one problem, the I.A.A.F., running's governing body won't allow him to compete.

"With all due respect, we cannot accept something that provides advantages," said Elio Locatelli of Italy, the director of development for the I.A.A.F., urging Pistorius to concentrate on the Paralympics that will follow the Olympics in Beijing. "It affects the purity of sport. Next will be another device where people can fly with something on their back." Is this really fair? Should the Olympics exclude runners not only when they are slower but even when they are faster? The Olympics, like any other event, is affected by technology. Either they accept technology as a natural human progression or they become irrelevant. Technology, where it be prosthetics or performance enhancing drugs, is a part of sports and will always be. Posted by: John      Read more     Source

Mon, 21 May 2007 14:09:33 GMT

How This Woman's Father, the Silver Fox, Inspired me to Become a Race Driver

Several decades ago my "bible" as a neophtye sports car competitor was a book on racing techniques by Pierro Taruffi, a handsome, silver-haired gentleman who'd made his name in international Grand Prix and endurance competition. My first attempt at using Taruffi's advice ended in near-disaster. A friend had loaned his 30's Buick coupe to me and buddy Ron Gee, and I was showing off my newly-learned 4-wheel-drifting skills on a dirt track. But this was not a real race track. It was an oval-shaped access road behind what in those politically-incorrect days was referred to as an "insane asylum." Unfortunately a minimum security inmate had been let out for his daily walk. Oblivious to the noise and scattering dust, he strolled onto the track directly in front of our drifting Buick. With the quick reflexes that only the young can muster I steered onto the grass. The car's wheels dug in and over we went, landing on our side. Neither Ron nor I were hurt, the inmate kept walking as if nothing had happened, and with the help of some bystanders we rolled the Buick back on its wheels for a fast escape before the police could arrive.

I was reminded an article in entitled "Taruffi's Daughter Drives in the Mille Miglia." Prisca Taruffi will drive her father's actual Mille Miglia-winning car - a Ferrari 315 S - in the Mille Miglia retrospective, a retro-rallye celebrating the 80th birthday of the 1000 mile Brescia-Rome-Brescia race. The car is owned by American collector John McCaw, who will be Prisca's co-driver, and support is being provided by Ferrari Classiche, the Ferrari division that caters to owners of classic models., Prisca commented, "to drive the same car my father drove 50 years ago is a dream come true. It is something I have hoped to do ever since I started racing. To experience the same sensations behind the wheel of the 315 S as he did is a unique opportunity." This is a lovely story, which you canthe . As for me, I'm stunned to learn that Taruffi had a daughter still young enough to participate and while an insane asylum might have been appropriate for me in those early days, his instructions paid off when I finally drove on a real race circuit. Oh.... and I hate to think what that battered Buick coupe would be worth today. Posted by: Philip Powell      Read more     Source

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 14:25:56 GMT

David Beckhams Fashion Faux Pas

This fashion faux pas is something that might offend hardcore LA Galaxy fans, even before the soccer star has impressed those guys.

David Beckham, who has signed a megabucks deal for the Californian-based Major League Soccer club in the summer, is sporting a Cincinnati Reds cap (Reds play baseball), which is as bad as a Newcastle fan wearing a rugby shirt from London.

The Real Madrid footballer was pictured while wife Victoria was in the UK to be the Godmother in the christening ceremony of Geri Halliwells daughter Bluebell.

Well, the female fans might surely overlook Davids fashion blunder as he looks handsome than ever.

This week, Beckham is scheduled to appear on high-profile US TV show - Idol Gives Back, in which A-listers raise awareness about poverty in Africa.

Image

Via Posted by: Nishtha      Read more     Source

Sun, 15 Apr 2007 14:51:09 GMT

Robbie Williams to Participate in a Charity Football Match

Robbie Williams has a panache for football, and his love for the game has met with an equally good cause.

The celebrated singer is all set to play an exhibition match in Iowa, US to raise money for a leukaemia charity.

Robbie’s celeb-packed Hollywood team LA Vale will face a local team- the Des Moines Menace, which includes Greys Anatomy star Richard Jenik and Heroes fame Santiago Cabrera.

The exhibition match is scheduled at the Des Moines Cownie Soccer Complex on April 21.

Robbie Williams fans have yet another reason to be proud of their hero.

Source. Posted by: Aneezshaikh      Read more     Source

April 9, 2007, 11:02 PM CT

Why people eat less at unbused tables

People watching the Super Bowl who saw how much they had already eaten -- in this case, leftover chicken-wing bones -- ate 27 percent less than people who had no such environmental cues, finds a new Cornell study.

The difference between the two groups -- those eating at a table where leftover bones accumulated compared with those whose leftovers were removed -- was greater for men than for women.

"The results suggest that people restrict their consumption when evidence of food consumed is available to signal how much food they have eaten," said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics at Cornell, and author of the 2006 book, "Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think".

The study, conducted with Cornell postdoctoral researcher Collin R. Payne, is published in the recent issue of Perceptual and Motor Skills. It included 50 graduate students at a sports bar where an open buffet featured chicken wings during the Super Bowl; some tables were bused and some were left unbused.

To use environmental cues to curb overeating and overdrinking, Wansink suggested that college parties could encourage (or require) fresh plastic glasses for each drink and that the glasses be stacked as they accumulate for each person; dinner parties could use fresh glasses for refills while empty glasses, or even empty bottles, are left on the table......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

February 28, 2007, 9:34 PM CT

Surgery Improves Outcomes For Baseball Pitchers

In the largest study of its kind, surgeons at Hospital for Special Surgery have determined that by modifying a classic ligament surgery, they can return more athletes, such as baseball players, to their previous level of competition. The modified surgery repairs a torn medial collateral ligament (MCL), which links and stabilizes bones of the lower and upper arm where they meet at the elbow.

Less traumatic than the classic Tommy John surgery, the modified surgery called the docking procedure, with time, is likely to become the gold standard for treating these injuries.

"This paper, in the largest series of patients ever published, shows that this particular operation in throwing athletes demonstrates better results than the classic operation," said David W. Altchek, M.D., senior author of the study and co-chief of the Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York. The study was presented at a special session of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, held during the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons annual meeting.

MCL injury is most common in professional and amateur athletes involved in so-called overhead throwing sports, such as baseball, softball, football, lacrosse and tennis. These sports involve a throwing motion at high velocity that exerts an exceptional force at the elbow. Repeated over time, this motion can cause inflammation and microtrauma, which can eventually lead to an MCL tear. When this ligament is torn, an individual has a full range of motion and can go about daily life, but a professional or semi-professional athlete cannot perform at their usual level because they cannot exert a significant force......... Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

January 17, 2007, 8:11 PM CT

Training Your Breathing Muscles To Improves Swimming

Swimmers and scuba divers can improve their swimming endurance and breathing capacity through targeted training of the respiratory muscles, scientists at the University at Buffalo have shown.

In this pioneering work, subjects who followed a resistance-breathing training protocol (breathing load) improved their respiratory muscle strength and their snorkel swimming time by 33 percent and underwater scuba swimming time by 66 percent, in comparison to their baseline values. Participants randomized to a similar protocol requiring high respiratory flow rates (endurance) improved their respiratory endurance and surface and underwater swimming times by 38 percent and 26 percent, respectively.

The group randomized to a placebo training program, conducted with the same equipment and protocol, showed no significant improvement in respiratory or swimming performance.

Results of the study, conducted in UB's Center for Research and Education in Special Environments (CRESE) appeared in the December online issue of the European Journal of Applied Physiology and will appear in printnext month.

"Specific respiratory muscle training could allow divers in the military, civilian rescue services, commercial enterprises and sport to perform better underwater," said Claes E.G. Lundgren, M.D., Ph.D., professor of physiology and biophysics in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the study's senior author.........

Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source

January 11, 2007, 6:26 PM CT

How to Swallow A Thermometer

From the football turf to high above the Earth, heat exhaustion can be life-threatening. Now the same type of "thermometer pill" that astronaut John Glenn swallowed as part of space shuttle medical experiments is also helping athletes to beat the heat.

Just as an engine overheats on a hot day, heat exhaustion -- or hyperthermia -- occurs when the body retains too much heat due to extreme environmental conditions or increased internal heat production. This is particularly dangerous among football players. Athletes may train when the heat index is above 100 degree F, all while wearing heavy pads that not only retain heat, but also increase their body weight.

Heat exhaustion can turn to heatstroke, causing the body's heat-regulating mechanisms to falter and fail. Ultimately this can lead to brain damage, organ damage, and eventually death. Heatstroke is the third leading cause of death among athletes in the United States.

Astronauts working in space face a similar threat. During activities such as spacewalks, astronauts may perform strenuous activity that causes a rapid rise in body temperature. A space suit is insulated against external temperature extremes because the side facing the sun can heat to 250 degree F, and the side facing deep space can plunge to -250 degree F. The danger of overheating comes from within as astronauts release body heat and humidity inside the suits, potentially causing heat illnesses.........

Posted by: Jim      Read more         Source