Sports | Elk River Idaho

The Importance of Protective Attire for Extreme Sports

MATAMATA, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 16: In this h...

Protective attire has always had a place in extreme sports. It is the recognition that someone could get hurt or killed is why the organized competitive extreme sports organizations require competitors to wear helmets and pads. It is not the success that causes the injuries, it is the missteps, the misjudgements, and unforeseen conditions that cause the trip to the hospital.

While those who perform extreme sports undoubtedly are proud of their scares and close escapes, the protective quality of their attire has contributed to helping them escape with injuries that could otherwise have been much worse.

Helmets have their place in protecting heads from bearing the full weight of impact with an unforgiving object. Knee pads and elbow pads present serious skin scraping injuries and also reduce the impacting force of a fall. Even the protective suits have a place in keeping the body from getting scrapped up. The proper shoes or boots are an essential protective shield for the feet. Protective body suits protect the body from the temperature and from incidental contact with damaging objects.

Protective attire is an important part of extreme sports. With all of the tricks, adrenaline rush, sense of danger, and risk-taking associated with the sport, it is the one thing that cannot be ignored. It won’t prevent someone from making a mistake but it will play a role at least in migrating the injuries received. It is impossible to move on to the next adventure in extreme sports, if sidelined by an injury.

Filed Under: Sports Tagged With: Clothing, Extreme sport, Sport

Sports Therapy

If you have sustained any kind of sporting injury you must first and foremost see a qualified doctor or specialist. There are hundreds of types of sports therapy but if you are just getting into sport and want to know some of the most popular types of therapy’s you can get a brief overview here:-

1. R.I.C.E Stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. These are basic steps that should aid any minor sporting muscle injury. Rest the arm, ankle or injured part of the body immediately, Ice the affected area to keep swelling down and soothe pain, Compress the injured muscle to again stop swelling and finally elevate the injured area. For example put a shoulder injury in a sling or sit with an injured ankle raised up.

2. Massage. There are many different types of massage so do your research and find what suits you. Thai, deep tissue, oil and sports massages are all usually available in most towns. Professional sportsmen use massage before and after events to keep muscles warm, supple and prevent injury. Massages are also great after long distant sports such as marathons when the muscles have been in for a rough ride!

3. Water therapy releases tension gently and supports the body in the water. Pressure on joints and muscles is lifted, the body is light and has buoyancy in the water and can recover through gently resistance and training. The water is also a great support for injured limbs.

As with all sports it’s wise to always try and prevent injury through following the correct warm up and warm down exercises and keeping hydrated.

Filed Under: General, Sports Tagged With: Elevation, Massage, Muscle

Strength Training

Strength training — and weightlifting in general — tends to get an unfairly bad rap because many people fear the dreaded “bodybuilder” look. Fair enough, too. The Mr (or Mrs) Olympia look is an extremely specific niche, and few find it attractive; indeed, the extreme cases barely even look human.

Luckily, these stereotypes are largely the product of hysteria and general misinformation. The enormous muscles that bodybuilders sport are the product of an extremely specific diet and exercise plan that takes more work than most casual exercisers have any desire to do.

Strength training describes weightlifting programs that focus on building raw muscle strength rather than focussing on size like bodybuilders do. This means that strength trainers lift heavy weights for between four and six reps.

Strength training is an excellent exercise program no matter what your goals are. For one, it’s efficient — if you focus on compound exercises that work multiple muscles at once, like squats, deadlifts and bench presses, you can work your entire body in 45 minutes to an hour.

Strength training also speeds your metabolism up. By lifting large amounts of weight for small repetitions, you put your muscles through a lot of strain. This forces your body to re-build them to a stronger level in anticipation of the next time you work out. It uses protein to do this, which leaves your body burning carbohydrates and fat for its day-to-day operations. The net result is that you burn more calories during your rest period — walking to and from the gym and even watching TV will be healthier activities if you are regularly strength training.

There are, of course, downsides. If you are going to embark on a strength training program, you need to make sure you are doing it right. If, for example, you squat with a large amount of weight and put it on your knees instead of your hips, you could do a lot of damage to your joints; if you deadlift with a curved back, you could slip a disk. So make sure you speak to a trainer beforehand and always, always focus on lifting correctly rather than lifting heavy.

Filed Under: Safety Tips, Sports Tagged With: Muscle, Physical exercise, Strength training

Weight Lifting

Weight lifting has gained popularity in recent years as more and more people have discovered its benefits. It is no longer just the purview of bodybuilders screaming in the corner of the gym, looking and sounding positively inhuman as they grunt and scream to move a weight through the air.

But weight lifting doesn’t need to be like this. Indeed, you can be extremely strong, fit and lean without the truck-like shoulders or breast-like pecs that the guys in the corner of the gym have. Those guys have devoted their lives to lifting weights; you’re probably just trying to get (or stay) fit and healthy.

There are a few key points you need to understand. The first is the difference between an isolation exercise and a compound exercise. If you’re a beginner, you should probably stick to the latter. Isolation exercises work one single muscle, while compound exercises work entire muscle groups. Working single muscles can feel like more of a workout and have more immediate, tangible effects, but it also opens you up to the possibility of injury.

If, for example, you have extremely well-developed biceps but haven’t developed your shoulders, pecs or back, your biceps will be able to hold and lift more than these muscles. This will make it possible for you to lift something partway — but when the other muscles kick in they’ll be overwhelmed, possibly straining or tearing.

So, whether you’re lifting a lot of weight for a few reps or a little weight for a lot of reps, you should start with compound exercises. These are a little more intimidating and technical than most isolation exercises, so you should consult a trainer beforehand. Doing a compound exercise incorrectly puts the strain on the wrong joints and muscles, and also opens you up to injury. However, the benefits are innumerable, ranging from more energy, better muscle tone, and lower body fat, so if you are physically able you should consider a weight training program today.

Filed Under: General, Sports Tagged With: Fitness, Muscle, Physical exercise, Weight loss, Weight training

Abdominal Training

You want nice abs. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Even the most well-adjusted person can’t help but see a model or actor with washboard, 6-pack abdominal muscles and feel just the slightest pang of jealousy.

It is easy for these pangs to manifest themselves as endless situps, crunches or other abdominal exercises. Like all exercise, these are better than nothing — but they probably aren’t going to get you the washboard stomach you want. This is because the real key to a nice set of abdominal muscles is not actually strong abs. Rather, it’s low body fat.

Have you ever seen a really skinny guy take his shirt off? He’ll often look surprisingly ripped. This isn’t necessarily because he is. Rather, he just doesn’t have a layer of fat covering his abdominals. You, on the other hand, probably do. So to get a nice set of abs, you shouldn’t be focusing on the abdominals. You already have these. Rather, you should be focusing on the layer of fat covering them.

The bad news gets worse. You can’t actually get rid of fat on your stomach alone. Your body doesn’t work that way. Your body eliminates fat uniformly. If you lose a pound of fat, it is going to be partly from your stomach, partly from your face, partly from your thighs, and so on.

As I said above, exercise is important. But you can only burn so many calories. It’s much more efficient to cut fat from the front end — change your diet. You need to reduce your calories by around 500 a day, cut out the trans fats, and avoid simple carbs like sugar, white bread and other foods without much nutritional content. Lean meat and vegetables are your new best friends.

It’s going to take time, too. Healthy weight loss is a pound or two a week. After awhile, you’ll see hte difference — your stomach fat will have burnt off, and the 6-pack you never knew you had will make itself known. Enjoy.

Filed Under: General, Sports Tagged With: Abdomen, Abdominal obesity, Adipose tissue, Stomach

Interval Training

Interval training is cardiovascular training that is extremely effective for both cardiovascular strength and fat loss. It works your heart extremely hard, which gives it the ability to move more blood wtih each individual pump. This gives you better endurance for running, walking, having sex or performing any other cardiovascular activity.

It also improves your metabolism, making your body burn more calories both before and after you work out. So, someone who regularly interval trains will burn more calories watching TV at night than someone who does not.

Interval training is also quick (albeit brutal). Most interval training sessions are around twenty minutes long, so if you don’t have much time you can easily smash a session out after work, or even during your lunch hour. This makes interval training a good option for the busy exerciser.

You need to ease into interval training, both in terms of general training and for individual workouts. You should start every interval training session with a five-minute warmup, where you work at a gradual rate and keep your heart beat just slightly elevated over your resting heart rate.

Once you’re warmed up, you need to increase the speed or intensity for a “work” interval. The key is to be working as hard as you can. If you’re on an exercise machine, you can either start going as fast as you can or increase the level to a higher level.

Your intervals should be short — around 30 seconds, but this is not set in stone. You can make them 15 seconds if you want, or a minute long. They shouldn’t be much more than a minute, though, as the key to interval training is short duration, high intensity.

Once you’ve finished your first work interval, you should have a rest. Don’t stop exercising, of course. Rather, just slow down to the speed you were going when you were warming up. Your rest interval should be twice as long as your work interval when you start this training. Over time, you can make it shorter and increase the total number of work intervals.

The whole workout should be 20 minutes long. This doesn’t feel like much, but trust me — you’ll feel it.

Filed Under: Games, Sports Tagged With: cardiovascular, exercise machine, Interval training

The Success of Sport Themed Movies

Sporting events and great sporting achivement evokes such a passion and emotion throughout the world it’s only natural that storylines about true champions, inspirational winners, passion and commitment to a sport and the determination to achive make such great movies.

You can go right back to early movies like Elizabeth Taylors debut in National Velvet, Chariots of Fire, up through the decades to Raging Bull, The Rocky movies, Sea Biscuit and more recently The Fighter. There are so many great movies about sport but what is it about sporting movies that captures our imagination and sends us in droves to the movies?

1) They are all relatable, and once you can relate to a situation or a character you are emotionally attached.

2) Human spirit. We all want to see good people overcome any roadblocks and succeed, it also inspires us to do the same

3) Admiration. We adore and throw love and affection on a true champion. Look at Mohammed Ali or Rocky Balboa. True geniuses of their chosen field of sport whether fictional characters or not

4) The underdog. The gripping emotion you feel when you see The Champ defeated or Sea Biscuit win. Sometimes the emotion is so high you can barely watch yet glued to the screen at the same time as if you really are on the track or front row at a boxing title fight.

So, the next time you are in the video store, see how many great movies there are about great sporting events or sportsmen and women. Rent some out, ignite some passion in your belly and get inspired!

Filed Under: Games, Sports Tagged With: Boxing, Chariots of Fire, Rocky Balboa, Sport

Unusual Sports From Around The World

It’s always sports season somewhere in the world and millions of fenthusiasts every day are registering at local sports clubs, becoming fan members of a premier league footy team and buying up merchandise of their beloved teams left right and centre.

But what if you over it a little this season and fancy a change? Well you may want to try these unusual sports for size if you’re brave enough!

In Finland, there is the annual wife carrying championships. Yes, you guessed it they actually carry their wives or partners across a bizarre obstacle course, through water and race to the finish. If you’re thinking of taking up this sport you may want to run it past your wife first!

The Aussies love the tuna throwing championship held in Port Lincoln, Adelaide annually. The current champion is an ex hammer thrower who threw his tuna 37.23 metres. So that’s what happens to retired world sport champions!

In Gloucestershire the English aren’t as quiet and reserved as you may think. Once a year thousands turn out for the annual cheese rolling championships. This strange and surprisingly dangerous sport has entrants rolling a rather large hard cheese down a hill and running after it. It’s so bizarre its makes the news headlines most years and there are often cheese rolling related injuries.

The Welsh are not to be outdone. The annual competition of man vs horse pits human against equine in a race of stamina and speed. Competitors race through trees, down steep hills and negotiate an obstacle course. The horse is more often than not the winner.

Maybe after reading the above a game of baseball, tennis or a local swimming group seems much more suitable. The grass as they say is not always greener, so grab your Lakers cap, pick up your golf clubs and enjoy!

Filed Under: Games, Sports Tagged With: Adelaide, Gloucestershire, Sport, Sports

Extreme Outdoor Sports: The Adrenalin Surge Syndrome

The great depression ushered in a decade long period of tough economic times. It is also when the seeds of extreme outdoor sports were planted to sprout into the ever growing popularity of extreme sports today.
Perhaps, some individual- feeling hopeless at finding work- needing relief from their personal depression devised a pastime such as hang gliding. Throughout history the original intent leads to stumbling across an unanticipated finding. In this case the adrenalin surge, so exhilarating that it demands repetition and soon spreads to others
History of Extreme Sports Expansion
Some activities classified as extreme sports today have existed for many centuries. Rock climbing, hiking and skiing to name an illustrative few. In common, these sports shared the feel good, thrilling, adventurous and a sense of accomplishment but not the adrenalin surge provided by development of clearly dangerous extremes over the past eighty years.
Focus on the descriptive names of “modern ” extreme sports such as Bungee Jumping, Hang Gliding, Para Gliding, Cliff Hanging, White Water Kayaking and Surfing. There should be no doubt of the ability to induce adrenalin surges. Many people think the life threatening jeopardy is too high a risk and perhaps the risk takers are a bit on the looney tunes side. However, extreme sports continue to grow in popularity and variety driven by devotion to experience adenalin surges. Needless to say, we are seeing the adrenalin surge syndrome alive, well and prospering.
Surge Seekers Cause Creation of Support Industries
American entrepreneurs-recognizing opportunity- have created the facilities to provide support and creature comforts for extreme sports practioners. Some of the more well known locations are Aspen and Vail in Colorado, Sun Valley and Elk River Lodge in Idaho. Exercise your browser to find a location that fits your desired extreme outdoor sports interest and your choice of accomodation levels.

Filed Under: Outdoor Sports, Sports Tagged With: Bungee jumping, Colorado, Great Depression, Hang gliding

Where Do Your Sports Lead You?

: Image via Wikipedia

When it comes to extreme sports, there are pretty much two kinds of people: the types who would try it once, just to say that they had done that, and the types of people who get one taste, and just want to go back again and again, like a fat man at the buffet. If you are among the “obese” types of extreme sports people (who are usually about as fat as Bruce Lee), you need to find out where the best extreme sports are going on and be there. While visiting is a great way to “get your feet wet,” it’s a lot like dating. Once you have found what you love, it is time to commit to it on a full time basis.

Don’t be afraid to search out the best cities for your chosen sport. Maybe you want to take on Class IV rapids. There are tons of cities and towns in Colorado that can help you find the streams of your dreams. Maybe you love to climb rocks. Have you ever heard of a little town called Boulder? Okay, Boulder, Colorado is anything but a small town. But if you can find some bigger rocks closer to all of the amenities of a big city, you should move there instead. Granted, a lot of people can get pretty terrified of moving – not for the thrills you are going to experience in the open country, but for the costs of moving.

Don’t stress over that. You can go online and find all kinds of moving quotes. You can get everything from renting a truck and doing your own loading to just pointing to where stuff goes, and let the movers do all the work. That way, you can focus on doing what you love to do the most – getting your thrill on, whether you are into skiing in the Poconos, or surfing in Hawaii.

Filed Under: Sports