What Are Limitations of Human Performance in Sports and Exercise

Do athletes have to use drugs to break past their physical limits? According to clinical eviAï¿½dence and research on the limits of human physiAï¿½cal performance, the answer must be “no”. Sports experts try to calculate the absolute limit of human performance by taking the highest value for each crucial physiologic factor such as maximal oxyAï¿½gen uptake, the greatest possible rate of burning energy, and the highest examples of physical stamAï¿½ina.

A theoretical limit of human performance is then estimated by comparing these data with curAï¿½rent performance records. Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt lowered his own record in the 100-meter dash to 9.69 seconds in the Beijing Olympic Games, 0.03 seconds faster than the mark he set in May of the same year. Bolt knows that he could have achieved better; he visibly eased his pace when he saw that he already had secured the gold medal. According to research, the theoretical limit of the 100-meter dash could be as low as 9.2 seconds.

The world record set by American athlete Jim Hines in 1968 was 9.95 seconds; thus, in four decades, the best performance improved by 0.26 seconds. Whether this research on performance limits can be considered reliable or not, it is beyond doubt that elite athletes will continue to break current records. This is because almost all athletes carry some level of both acute and chronic stress in their musculoskeletal systems as the effect of strenuous and often excessive long-term training.

Younger athletes such as Michael Phelps can adjust and adapt to this stress, whereas older athletes are progressively less able to tolerate it and increasingly experience handicapped performance as a result of physical deficiency, soft tissue dysfunction, and chronic pain in their musculoskeletal system. ISDN can reduce this acute and chronic stress, and by improving and restoring the homeostasis of human movement, it can help athletes break through their current physical barriers to achieve better results, while prolonging their athletic careers for many years to come.

Many sports injuries are caused by repetitive overuse, which leads to soft tissue dysfunction and bone injuries such as stress fractures and bone spurs. The Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang was unable to compete in the Beijing Olympics because he injured his Achilles tendon right before the event. The world famous Chinese basketball player, Yao Ming, suffered a stress fracture in his foot 8 months before the Beijing Games. The likelihood of such injuries can be greatly reduced if chronic and acute stress in the musculoskeletal systems are effectively managed.