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Do you have pain in your lower back when you play tennis?

Does the pain come on before or after playing as well, and now you are wondering if it is a herniated disc?

1.) Tennis and Back Pain

Playing tennis is one of the most popular sports worldwide and is a great source of exercise. However, if you believe you have a herniated disc and love the great game of tennis, you will want to know how to treat this problem as soon as possible. A herniated disc, which is also known as a slipped disc or ruptured disc is an injury that takes place primarily in the lower back. Non-surgical, real life treatment methods are discussed in this article.

2.) Herniated Disc Injuries

If tennis is one of your main passions and are wondering if you can play the game while suffering from a disc issue, then the answer can vary. One of the great benefits of playing tennis is the stretching and twisting of your torso that provides a great workout. You can’t quite get the same work out when you run on a treadmill, right?

Unfortunately, when a disc injury happens this type of activity will only aggravate and could cause potential damage to the spine. When initially dealing with a slipped disc, you should rest your back, of course. But the problem is that many of us do not have time to constantly rest; right?

Obviously, we have to tell you that the best advice is to consult your physician before doing any type of strenuous activity, most especially a game like tennis.

3.) Pain Relief

However, a herniated disc is a fairly common injury and many people can play tennis while having a herniated disc. This issue is that many people have pain when playing because of the slipped disc and simple parts such as serving the ball to your opponent can cause searing pain. If you are eager to get back on the tennis court without any pain, there are a few things you can do to potentially speed up the process.

A.) Physical therapy

This is a good way to test how injured your back is and how much activity you can sustain. One of the most important things you can do is improve your posture. One of the most common causes of herniated discs is having poor posture in the workplace and at home. By focusing on ergonomics and having good posture at all times, you could prevent future slipped discs and help strengthen your back muscles.

Many individuals have had a herniated disc and returned to play many more games of tennis. The important thing to remember is not to rush back into playing and always get an ok from the doctor before playing again.

B.) Back Support

Improving your posture and refraining from potentially harmful movements are key to your healing process. One of the very best ways to achieve these two things is by using a lower back brace. No, they do not have to be bulky and, No, they are not easily seen by others. Pain relief has been noted by many individuals the instant these braces have been applied and this can be one of the things that you notice as well!

It is important to get medical advice on braces from your local, licensed orthotist. These individuals are brace specialists and can help you get the best brace for your needs and also bill it to your insurance.

In recent years the World of Cycling has been turned upside down by doping cases involving all kinds of top stars, “Le tour de France” leaders and recent winners tainted with the doping question.

This got me thinking about our little world of tennis and in all fairness these questions popped up in my mind, what if:

- Police raids, like those in cycling in Italy, France, Spain or Belgium, were made at all major tournaments’ Australian Open, Miami Open, Italian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, US Open at the tennis player’s guest houses and hotels? What would the Police find? Nothing?

- Independent labs examined the blood and urine samples presented by the players rather then labs controlled either by the ATP or ITF? Would the results be different?

Since the ATP and the ITF run the drug testing programs, isn’t this a bit of the case of the fox in the chicken coop? And I decide who gets eaten or not? Which some South American players often complain about. “BBC SPORT Tennis boosts drug testing Friday, 28 June, 2002, 17:05 GMT 18:05 UK”

Are drugs and doping systems like; Steroids (Anabolic), EPO, HGH (Growth Hormone), cocaine, amphetamines and some other forms of blood doping not effective in tennis? Well, these and many more questions started reeling in my ever curious mind and I decided to investigate a bit and learned that:

“Blood doping is the process of artificially increasing the amount of red blood cells in the body in an attempt to improve Athletic performance. In the past this was accomplished by a blood transfusion. The athlete would “donate” a unit of blood into storage and then 3 weeks later, after the body had completely replaced the blood loss, transfuse the unit back into the body. This would occur just before a big race, effectively giving the athlete an “extra” unit of blood. This enables performance improvements in endurance sports because of the extra oxygen carrying capacity. The practice has been outlawed. Not just because it is unfair but because of the dangers involved. EPO has put a whole new spin on blood doping. No need for messy transfusions, just shoot up with EPO to increase your circulating erythrocyte mass. Until recently accurate testing has been difficult because the recombinant human EPO made in the lab is virtually identical to the naturally occurring form and there are no firmly established normal ranges for EPO in the body. The only previously available route to curtail cheating for sports governing bodies was to ban an athlete if the hematocrit (see side bar) level was too high (e.g., above 50%). Thus, over the past 10 – 15 years some athletes chose to cheat because, as long as they kept their hematocrit levels below 50%, there seemed little risk of getting caught. Of course the other way to get caught was highlighted in the disastrous 1998 Tour de France. Several team doctors and personnel from several teams were caught red-handed with thousands of doses of EPO and other banned substances. Ultimately about 50% of the teams withdrew from the race – either for cheating or in protest” Rice Edu – Erythropoietin Feb. 2005 Mark Jenkins Whoa! At this point my brain started racing at 100’000 miles an hour, boy what this could do to tennis players!?! And what about steroids?

“Anabolic steroids are drugs that resemble androgenic hormones (sometimes called male hormones) such as testosterone. Athletes consume them in the hope of gaining weight, strength, power, speed, endurance, and aggressiveness.” Thomas D. Fahey Exercise Physiology Laboratory, California State University, Chico, Chico CA 95929 USA We all know that tennis benefits from all of those!

So I went on with my digging and:

- Following on comments made by Nicolas Escude former ATP player at the French open 2002. In Paris, French Davis Cup player Escude said: “To say that tennis today is clean, you have to be living in a dream world.” Have things changed?

- “SYDNEY, Australia (AP) — John McEnroe has reportedly admitted he unknowingly took steroids during his tennis career.

“For six years I was unaware I was being given a form of steroid of the legal kind they used to give horses until they decided it was too strong even for horses,” McEnroe was quoted as saying in The Daily Telegraph newspaper in Sydney on Monday.” CNN – WorldSport – Report: McEnroe admits to steroids – Sunday, January 11, 2004 Posted: 8:52 PM EST (0152 GMT) The Associated Press – Then I read that; “In his book ”You Cannot Be Serious”, McEnroe said he suspected that steroids and amphetamines had made their way into the top levels of the sport in the 80′s. “

- This made me think about other guys, Vitas Gerulaitis came to mind and the FBI investigation on cocaine: The New York Times, Gerulaitis Trailed, Agent Testifies By UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL Published: August 31, 1982

All of this got me really ticked off because I played during the Gerulaitis/McEnroe era and these guys whose games I respected and enjoyed (especially McEnroe’s), were these guys after all just cheats?!…and how many more were then cheating and are the new top players cheating today as well?

Then I thought about the Petr Korda a Wimbledon steroid doping case that was aired to the press anonymously and kept under wraps by the ITF/ATP for almost 3 months since they received the results!…Are we kidding, what’s the official message here?

This last question has me wondering about certain goings on in tennis of latter years that are outright disturbing.

Unless induced with illegal means, performance has a pretty much up and down curve of progress and two players that at the begining of their careers were close in their matches, the results tend to be close throughout life. When do things start getting suspicious? I’ll give you an example:

- A player has 3/5 win loss against another player and plays him on clay where he has always lost and beats the other player in straight sets 6/2 6/3 in a major event.

Other examples of suspicios “progress”:

- A player that is way past his prime and whose performance was in decline, all of a sudden comes to a major and wins six five setter matches playing like he’s possessed by the devil, running like a 20 year old, dropping one set only along the way, with on court temperatures sometimes over 40 degrees Celsius! Spaghetti alone cannot do that, something must be in the water!

- Another tell tale sign is, if a player is too dominant for too long! As we all know there is no amount of training that can retrograde the natural cycle of regeneration of our cell system, meaning several losses in a year should be the norm for any player because of the natural low red blood cell count resulting in lack of performance, unless foul play is involved; Within a year this natural cycle of renewal repeats itself about 12 times in high and low cycles of approximately 21 days each! If a Superman exists among our tennis stars that can beat such cycles, I’m sure scientists do not believe in it!

- Players flying home in between rounds during Grand Slam events! Hum? Is this a new form of training? Boy oh boy all alarm bells and the “Big Ben” start ringing!

- A player that was winning or getting to almost every final of each tournament he played, after the “Big Ben” started ringing does not do anything for almost 8 months! Was there an official warning and the whole thing was thrown under the rug?

- The dubious presence of suspicious types on the player’s “entourage”! When the ATP has great professionals right there on site at the player’s disposal day in and day out?

How easy is it to cheat? Apparently, very, very easy!

In time I saw three major TV documentaries/interviews one with Lyle Alzedo Famous Football player LA Raiders, ( Not the size of the dog in the fight by Mike Puma Special to ESPN.com ), then Ben Johnson (100 meters runner) Ben Johnson, “Drugs & the Quest for Gold – Broadcast in Canada by CTV and Discovery channel between July 10th and July 16th, 2004. More recently after the 2006 Tour de France I saw an interview on German TV with a Spanish ex-professional bicycle rider Tour de France level and from seeing and earing their statements and the ones of their doctors the conclusion to make is; what all athletes using performance enhancing drugs have in common is:

- Its all about when they get injected with anabolic, HGH or EPO or G.O.R.K.(God Only Really Knows!)

- If there is enough time between the drug intake and the competition, apparently they will get a clean test during the competition. (That’s why Rasmussen missed random drug tests May 8 and June 28, saying he was in Mexico, when in fact, he was seen in Italy!)

- In interviews, athletes have declared to have year around performance enhancing drug programs with their physicians that have it all studied to the T!

- When caught they did not take anything illegal, here is an example of a great explanation by Dieter Baumann German Olympian; “that someone had manipulated his toothpaste “…. I must add …and pigs have wings and fly, my son! Dieter Baumann From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The past BALCO controversy or the more recent Spanish blood doping (EPO) labs are two known cases of top athletes using professional cheating. One of the main culprits at the Spanish Lab Dr. Eufemiano Fuentes declared: “Treatment only for cyclists? I’m also indignant about that. I’ve worked with other sports, like athletics, tennis and football. There are a lot of names that haven’t come out, there has been only selective leaks. I don’t know why.” Doping probe doctor treated other sportsmen By Simon Baskett Reuters Wednesday, July 5, 2006; 12:26 PM The Washingtonpost

Is this a cover up? A selective witch hunt?

- In many cases athletes who get caught do not name others, but claim that many, if not all at the top of their sports, are using performance enhancing drugs! This is highly disturbing!

Considering that the tennis circuit and tennis business overall is in the billions of dollars, all of what I just wrote and much more which would turn this article into a book, make me ponder about the seriousness of officials in curbing performance enhancing drugs in tennis and leads me to the question:

- Should we legalize performance enhancing drugs in tennis/sports?

Now lash out at me! Tell me what you think? Are the Kings and Queens of our beloved tennis tainted or is this just a figment of my altered imagination? The forum is yours…

No matter how much you are going to batter me, my next article will be:

Should we legalize performance-enhancing drugs in tennis/sports?

Final note: Sadly another sports man is under suspition: Wednesday, August 16, 2007, ” Thorpe, 24, retired from competitive swimming last November, but was dismayed to learn his test results had been leaked to the French newspaper L’Equipe, which reported the swimmer’s test produced abnormally high readings for testosterone and luteinizing hormone (LH), both products figuring on the list of banned substances.” Ian Thorpe in fight to clear name of doping – PerthNow By Adam Cooper August 16, 2007 03:50pm Article from: AAP [http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,22256056-5005401,00.html] “ASADA is alleged to have picked up the irregularity on the sample, but in another test, found the increased levels to be naturally occurring and dismissed the case. ” (Why would ASADA nail one of their home boys?)

For quick access to all links to the referenced articles please go to www.tenniscruz.com

Every year, a group of major college football teams (members of NCAA Division I FBS) will change their helmet logos, colors, or design. Teams do this for a number of reasons. Some simply want a more modern look and feel, others want more consistently with other team uniforms, some feel that it helps recruiting young athletes, and others simply want to sell more merchandise to fans that may already own a full-size football helmet, mini-helmet or football helmet t-shirt with their old team logo, but are ready to open their wallets and buy sportswear and collectibles with the new logo design. There is also a feeling among some college sports departments that using multiple designs is an effective way of keeping fans and players excited, and of course having a larger variety of merchandise to sell. This technique was pioneered by the University of Oregon Ducks through their unique partnership with Nike.

The most notable change in 2011 without a doubt is the Arizona State University Sun Devils switching their helmet logo from Sparky to a large trident. The trident or pitchfork on the side of the helmet is enormous and looks like it is thrusting forward on the flat black or yellow helmet. The new helmet logo and design is extremely popular among the younger generation of college students, high school students and recent college graduates. The older generation is still a bit disappointed with all the change and continues to purchase collectible football helmets and gear with the familiar Sparky logo.

Some of the other new major college football helmet logos for 2011 included the Bowling Green State University (BGSU) Falcons, and Temple University Owls. Bowling Green State added a large falcon next to the letters “BG”. Temple went back to the double outlined “T” logo that they had in the early 90′s and mid 2000′s before they went to the word “TEMPLE” spelled out on their helmet. Western Michigan added a large “W” and shrunk the bronco down and outlined it in black rather than brown.

Most of the other football helmet design changes in 2011 did not involve a change of logo. Teams that changed their football helmet paint scheme, stripes or design without changing their actual logo included the Purdue University Boilermakers, Washingon State University Cougars, University of Kentucky Wildcats, University of North Texas Mean Green, Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers, Fresno State University Bulldogs, and University of Wyoming Cowboys.