Supersized in the NFL Analyzing data from the 2003-2004 season, researchers say "more than a quarter of NFL players had a body mass index that qualified them as
class 2 obesity" -- equivalent to a 6-foot man weighing between 260 and 300 pounds.
Even those players weren't the biggest ones:
the study counted more than 60 players -- 3 percent -- with body mass indexes placing them into
class 3 obesity, with individual weights approaching 400 pounds.
"I don't know what's going on in the minds of coaches", said lead researcher Dr.
Joyce Harp, an assistant professor of nutrition and medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Players' growing girth "is a major concern," said
Dr. Arthur Roberts, a former NFL quarterback and retired
heart surgeon (.pdf file) whose
Living Heart Foundation works with the players' union to evaluate heart-related health risks faced by current and retired players. More inside.
posted by matteo
on Mar 1, 2005 -
42 comments
Over the past few years, doping in sports has grown into an arms race of biology, chemistry, and technology as atheletes attempt to push their limits and escape detection. While it's hard to estimate how widespread the problem is or how much it actually improves one's performance, one amateur athelete for Outside Magazine
decided to test the latest on himself as he spent 8 months training for an ultramarathon cycling event. The article also notes
pro-cheating sites filled with
atheletes trading stories of their own programs. Disturbing stuff, when you think of all the records being broken in sports these days. As
Rafe says, this might be one of the most important sports articles ever written. note: it's a long article, but worth it.
posted by mathowie
on Oct 27, 2003 -
14 comments
"the biggest anti-doping program in Olympic history." ``I'm very pleased,'' International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch said of the doping withdrawals. ``I'm very happy. This is very good news. It shows the new system for detecting doping substances will work very well. ... The objective is to have clean games."
Detecting doping? With what? Like a radar, err.. dopler?
posted by tiaka
on Sep 6, 2000 -
0 comments
