Pain Tolerance In Sports Essay, Research Paper

Pain Tolerance In Sports

Pain and pain tolerance play a role in every person s life day in and day out. Different people deal with pain in many different ways. Some people have a certain treatment or way that they get rid of pain, some people take pills, or some people just deal with it. Athletes usually deal with pain more than a regular person because they are putting their body usually at risk to get injured. Athletes deal with pain in their own certain ways, just like a normal human being does.

Pain is transmitted to the brain from sensory nerves. Substances that decrease pain either interfere with the ability of nerves to conduct messages, or alter the brain s capacity to receive sensations. (4). Body weight can relate to pain tolerance, women who are overweight experience pain faster than women with ideal weight. Endorphins, and enkephalins area natural painkillers that your body produces. Exercise can be used as a form of pain tolerance; exercise may sometimes raise the level of natural occurring painkillers that the body produces. Amino acids can be beneficial to reducing pain. L-tryptophan, which is produced in the central nervous system, acts as a precursor to serotonin. It regulates your mood, and can sometimes alter your responses to pain. Studies have shown that people who take L-tryptophan daily will have significant pain reduction.

Adrenalin is another form of pain tolerance. Is an athlete is in the middle of a sporting event he is probably not going to fell pain as much as he would just walking down the street. When an athlete is in the heat of competition they do not want to come out of the contest, therefore they tend to overlook their injury. if an athlete can put his mind somewhere and concentrate on something else, they will have tendency to forget about their pain, and their injury. . This is proven when a well-conditioned track runner will experience minimum levels of analgesia as a result of running on a treadmill, and more pronounced analgesia from sedentary competition. It is expected that pain responses will be most profound altered from baseline levels during the competitive situation. Thus, we suspect that the cognitive state is a sufficient condition to activate pain-modulatory circuitry, although a combination will result in the greatest change form baseline responses to pain. (1). The American Dream grew tarnished over the decades of the 60 s and 70 s, as many observers inside and outside of sports decried the win at all costs philosophy that they saw pervading our nations politics as well as its sport philosophy. (5). I think many coaches took this personal, so they tell there kids to play through pain, no matter how bad the kid is hurting. The kid s worries about the coach yelling at him so he plays through the pain. This is a form of pain tolerance, but not a very good one

In Baseball guys are always have problems with their arms, wrists, back, and other muscles that they are constantly using. Pitchers deal with pain day in and day out. After throwing over one hundred pitches just in a game, not counting the one-hundred they threw in the bullpen to get warmed up, a pitchers arm can become very sore. A pitcher never wants to miss a start, sore arm or not. (2). A pitchers shoulder has many minute muscles that are a major contributor in throwing a baseball. Every time a pitcher lets go of the ball the force of the arm moving forward is tearing down those tiny muscles. Throwing a baseball is not a natural motion for the arm; this results in the breaking down of the muscles. Putting that amount on stress on one certain place can result in some serious injuries. You will rarely find a pitcher who has not had or is experiencing problems with their arm. There are certain days when a pitcher goes out to throw and his arm feels great, but that does not happen all the time. The other times his arm is usually hurting him, or is sore. Many pitchers take anti-inflammatory for their arm, or rub some Flex-All on the sore spot to heat up the muscles.

Catchers are always having problems with their legs, especially their knees. If you can imagine squatting down for two straight hours, there is a lot of stress that is put on the muscles and joints of the knee. Catchers who have been catching all their lives have serious knee injuries. Most of them eventually have to have surgery, and that is the reason many of them have to quit catching, or quit baseball in general. Some players set goals for themselves, and they want to reach these goals so bad they will do whatever it takes to reach these goals. What an athlete has to do to prove himself depends on who is setting the standard for his performance. (3). Many athletes set these goals and they will do whatever it takes to reach these goals. This means playing through pain, and doing whatever it takes to reach their goals. When they think about their goals they don t think about a nagging injury that they have, or how sore their arm is, they can block that out and concentrate on the game.