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Showing posts with label Performance Enhancers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Performance Enhancers. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Say It Ain't So: JSF Exclusive Video - Softball Guy Confesses
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Add Hypocrite to List of Michael Phelps Accolades
Alluding to the fact that the still-legal Arena X-Glide swimsuit (to be banned in 2010) was the main factor in his loss to German Paul Biedermann in the 200-Meter Freestyle at the world swimming championships, Michael Phelps whined, "It's going to be fun next year when swimming is back to swimming."
If true to his word in longing for purer, un-enhanced competition, Phelps, a paid endorser of Speedo and wearer of the company's LZR Racer, should simply return contract money and advocate for swimming naked.
US coach Bob Bowman observed, "The (polyurethane) suits make you go out with ... much less energy cost, so at the end you have a punch. Michael had to work so hard to stay with him for 150, then it's just not there at the end. That's what the suits do. The energy cost is reduced going out, so you finish a lot better."
Interestingly, as the Wall Street Journal pointed out last year, polyurethane was a noted component in the design of the LZR:
It featured a "compression zone" around the torso and other parts of the body that reduced muscle and skin vibration, allowing swimmers to conserve more energy. And Speedo engineers, aided by tests in NASA wind tunnels, applied thin polyurethane panels on the swimsuit to minimize drag.
Despite the fact that the LZR started this technological race, Bowman (a paid endorser for Speedo himself) bellows a cry reminiscent of the most ardent baseball purists, "We've lost all the history of the sport. Does a 10-year-old boy in Baltimore want to break Paul Biedermann's record? The sport is in shambles right now and they better do something or they're going to lose their guy who fills these suits."
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Monday, June 16, 2008
Guest Post: The Competitive Advantage
After conversing about a recent Newsweek article regarding MLB's "Ritalin addiction," HHR enlisted our good friend Chris Illuminati from phillyBurbs' The Third I to highlight a different perspective on the use of workplace performance enhancers.
The Competitive Advantage
Guest Post by Illuminati
The competitive advantage. The edge that makes a person just slightly better than another. In sports it's become the norm. Starting with Jim Bouton, North Dallas Forty, the cocktails and needles that the early warriors used to get onto the field and progressing into steroids, HGH, the clear, the cream, and now Viagra, there seems to be no limit nor end of the line. It's either available now or will be soon enough.
With every revelation of a famous athlete testing positive, I would shake my head and wonder 'don't these guys care about their health?' I'd wonder how a person could knowingly take a drug that could do irreversible damage to their body and years off their life. All to hit the weight room harder, hit a ball farther, hit an opponent with greater force, and hit pay dirt with a contract that would secure a comfortable life, no matter how long that life may last. I know money and fame are a dangerous drug but I was positive if I were in that situation I would never look to drugs as an alternative. I would be the bigger person. The real man in a world of cheaters and drug abusers.
Then I read this article.
On the surface it just appears to be another way for the cheaters to use drugs to gain that athletic edge. It struck a nerve with me on a personal level.
About a year ago, I was hired as an online content editor. The position involved a considerable amount of writing and editing.
While writing has always been a strong suit, paying attention to anything for longer than ten minutes was a challenge. I just considered myself unmotivated and lazy.
On the advice of my fiance and some extensive research, I went to the doctor about Attention Deficit Disorder. Everyone thinks they have ADD in some form or another. I took several online tests and passed them all. Of course, the only tests I would pass. The doctor gave me a similar diagnosis and prescribed a very mild drug that could help with my problem. It's not as drastic as Ritalin or Adderall where I will immediately feel as though I am on a drug and it's also not as addictive. The drug takes a gradual effect without noticeable changes.
The doctor said I may not even notice a difference but those around me would notice a change.
Call it a placebo but I noticed a difference within the first week. Long story short, the medication cuts down the chatter in my head. I am not all over the place in my thinking. I can take one task to completion and move on to the next. My writing improved because I could stay focused. I cut in half the time it would take me to complete even the most challenging writing assignment. I fell in love with the results.
I could pump out more material, the web hits doubled, and my work was getting noticed.
It wasn't until I read this Newsweek piece that I realized I may be no different than the athletes I considered cheaters.
Drugs are illegal but there is nothing morally illegal about medication (prescribed or otherwise) to become a better writer. If so, there might not be a Hemingway or a Kerouac, a William S. Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson. I am only hurting myself to gain an edge. I am really doing nothing wrong. If I write the next great novel or an Oprah book of the month I doubt it would be held against me that I take a prescription to keep me from fidgeting in my chair and stopping mid-thought to check the progress of my fantasy baseball team.
Is the medication doing something to my short term health? I feel just as good now as I did ten years ago. Will I see the damage forty years from now? Neither I, nor the doctors, can say for sure. As long as the writing keeps pouring from my focused mind, the prescription will continue to be filled. Even if it means learning something about myself in the progress. If I were gifted with athletic ability instead of writing, and needed a slight edge that only drugs could provide, I suppose I'd be a cheater too.
The Competitive Advantage
Guest Post by Illuminati
The competitive advantage. The edge that makes a person just slightly better than another. In sports it's become the norm. Starting with Jim Bouton, North Dallas Forty, the cocktails and needles that the early warriors used to get onto the field and progressing into steroids, HGH, the clear, the cream, and now Viagra, there seems to be no limit nor end of the line. It's either available now or will be soon enough.
With every revelation of a famous athlete testing positive, I would shake my head and wonder 'don't these guys care about their health?' I'd wonder how a person could knowingly take a drug that could do irreversible damage to their body and years off their life. All to hit the weight room harder, hit a ball farther, hit an opponent with greater force, and hit pay dirt with a contract that would secure a comfortable life, no matter how long that life may last. I know money and fame are a dangerous drug but I was positive if I were in that situation I would never look to drugs as an alternative. I would be the bigger person. The real man in a world of cheaters and drug abusers.
Then I read this article.
On the surface it just appears to be another way for the cheaters to use drugs to gain that athletic edge. It struck a nerve with me on a personal level.
About a year ago, I was hired as an online content editor. The position involved a considerable amount of writing and editing.
While writing has always been a strong suit, paying attention to anything for longer than ten minutes was a challenge. I just considered myself unmotivated and lazy.
On the advice of my fiance and some extensive research, I went to the doctor about Attention Deficit Disorder. Everyone thinks they have ADD in some form or another. I took several online tests and passed them all. Of course, the only tests I would pass. The doctor gave me a similar diagnosis and prescribed a very mild drug that could help with my problem. It's not as drastic as Ritalin or Adderall where I will immediately feel as though I am on a drug and it's also not as addictive. The drug takes a gradual effect without noticeable changes.
The doctor said I may not even notice a difference but those around me would notice a change.
Call it a placebo but I noticed a difference within the first week. Long story short, the medication cuts down the chatter in my head. I am not all over the place in my thinking. I can take one task to completion and move on to the next. My writing improved because I could stay focused. I cut in half the time it would take me to complete even the most challenging writing assignment. I fell in love with the results.
I could pump out more material, the web hits doubled, and my work was getting noticed.
It wasn't until I read this Newsweek piece that I realized I may be no different than the athletes I considered cheaters.
Drugs are illegal but there is nothing morally illegal about medication (prescribed or otherwise) to become a better writer. If so, there might not be a Hemingway or a Kerouac, a William S. Burroughs or Hunter S. Thompson. I am only hurting myself to gain an edge. I am really doing nothing wrong. If I write the next great novel or an Oprah book of the month I doubt it would be held against me that I take a prescription to keep me from fidgeting in my chair and stopping mid-thought to check the progress of my fantasy baseball team.
Is the medication doing something to my short term health? I feel just as good now as I did ten years ago. Will I see the damage forty years from now? Neither I, nor the doctors, can say for sure. As long as the writing keeps pouring from my focused mind, the prescription will continue to be filled. Even if it means learning something about myself in the progress. If I were gifted with athletic ability instead of writing, and needed a slight edge that only drugs could provide, I suppose I'd be a cheater too.
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