Even Scientists have to pay attention to what is new in their field. While we all read articles in the Sports Medicine journals, those articles are not the newest information available. For the newest discoveries, findings, and applications, we all attend 'meetings'. Sometimes these meetings are held on the state-level, sometimes the regional level, and sometimes the national / international level. This week sees the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), o...

Why cheat? Good question. It is often thought that athletes cheat, especially those taking some form of Performance Enhancing Drug (PED), because they can not be the best any other way. However, as we all read about doping and PED scandals in many different sports, many times it is the elite athlete that is doping - the one that is already at the top of their game. So, why do they cheat?

Have you ever heard of Seminole Firewater?  We recently put up a podcast with Dr. Jeff Zachwieja who was with the Gatorade Sport Science Institute, and of course, the importance of hydration during exercise with certain sports drinks was talked about.  That podcast led to an interesting email exchange with one of my colleagues (Dr. Maury Dennis) who happens to be a Florida State University alumn.  He wanted to know when we were going to do a podcast on "Seminole Firewater"...  I don...

In the last several years, the men and women of our military services are never far from any of our minds. While most of us are more likely to think of sports medicine as relating to athletic performance or normal exericse, many don't realize that our field has been linked to military service for many, many years. Ask many veterans what the initials "PT" mean to them and in most cases they will tell you 'physical training' (and maybe with a sneer in place).

Since we put up our podcast conversation with Dr. Carol Garber this past Friday, I've had couple of interesting email conversations, and one in particular with my friend Kevin, has struck a chord that needs to be amplified a bit.  I think if you listen to Dr. Garber, you may get the sense that Exercise Scientists are only interested in state licensure and are a bit elitist to boot.  I think it is critical that we drop back a couple of steps to look at some context for this conversation that ...

Science fiction is a great way to stretch and exercise your imagination, especially when it is in areas that you know something about. For all you football fans out there, you should check out the Galactic Football League series by Scott Sigler as a great example of how science fiction can make you think about what you already know in different ways. For me, a particularly pertinent example of this 'reexamining what we know' came with the movie "Wall-E".

How do you know the Sports Medicine professional you are seeing knows what they are doing? When we go to a physician, or an accountatnt, or even hair stylists, we all know to look for some type of licensure or professional certification to ensure that the individual we are seeing has knowledge and experience that pertains to what we're there for. But how do you do this when you see Sports Medicine professionals?

A quick test: Raise your hand if you think that "Sports Medicine" only pertains to elite athletes..... This is an important question to us because after all, we are an "Institute of Sports Medicine and Human Performance". Does that mean that we are and should be only concerned about what happens on the practice field and in the arena? Or is there some way that what we do and study is applicable to everyone?