How far can we keep pushing the human body?

[jzmtl]

So it's cool to see people running faster and faster, lifting more and more. World record being broken is cool and all that, but you guys thing we are pushing our body a little too hard while doing these? See this video on what just happened in the olympics. WARNING NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

There gotta be a limit on what our body can take, and I think we are pretty close to that, and even what we are doing right now are getting very destructive to parts of our body.

Or are we headed down the way of insects, strong people specialized in sports, big headed people specialized in thinking, pretty people specialized in acting etc?

 

[LED-holic]

That was pretty gross, and I hope that guy recovers.

Regarding your second observation - specialized people for specialized sports / activities, that is very interesting and could prove to be true long term...

 

[jtr1962]

My guess is with the coming nanotechnology, super-strong implants to replace bones, perhaps genetic engineering tossed in, you ain't seen nothing yet. Probably by the 2100 Olympics you'll have people who could lift 25 times their weight, and someone will be the first human to run a mile in under a minute. I don't even want to think about how fast the cyclists will get. For those who say it'll never be allowed, the fact is that the audience pays the bills, and the audience wants farther, faster, stronger regardless of how it's done.

Speaking of cycling, in sports where humans use machines to improve their inherent abilities we are already seeing records we could only dream of a century ago. Although not legal for olympic cycling, streamlined recumbents have allowed a human being to exceed 80 mph under their own power.

 

[m16a]

Did he dislocate his arm backwards...

Wow. Hope the guy is ok!

 

[TONY M]

Nasty dislocation that... At least he didn't look like he was in too much pain!

I wonder how much the 100meter WR will fall in the next decade. Bolt is the best runner yet, totally eclipsing Powell and Ben Jonsons run 20 years ago when he also celebrated before he hit the line.

 

[PhantomPhoton]

Baseball pitchers already go in for surgery to have their tendons tightened so that they can throw faster. (no rules against that yet)
I'd say we'll see more kinds of enhancement surgery in the near future. Yea nanotech and genetic engineering are probably soon to follow. There's already been controversy over amputees using prosthetic legs. The fear is that the prosthetic leg is actually more efficiently uses energy and therefore such thletes will have an advantage over people with standard issue legs.

I will say that for gymnastics, the major reason that athletes can do bigger skills compared to 15 years ago is the equipment got better. More responsive spring floors, flat top pommels, rings with shock absorbers, the change from a vault horse to the table, bouncier bars made of fiberglass and composites rather than straight wood, spring steel high bars with a double swiveled head, reflex beams with springs, etc etc.

Our training has also gotten better. As knowledge of peaking cycles got out of the soviet bloc countries and to the west we saw large increases in performance for many sports as well.

 

[Badbeams3]

Perhaps they were faster back in the Roman/Greece days...cleaner/better air...we don`t know. Some of the war prisoners might have been pretty fast too...probably nothing like an angry tiger heading for you to motivate...

But I imagine we get faster/more powerfull as we get taller/bigger...I understand people on average were shorter/smaller in the past...don`t know why.

And maybe we eat better now...perform better. Anyway...dinner time...off to Mcdonalds! They got Mcflurries:thumbsup:

 

[Hmmm]

PhantomPhoton: have you ever had a pair of parallel bars snap on you?

 

[Norm]

PhantomPhoton: have you ever had a pair of parallel bars snap on you?

PhantomPhoton: hasn't visited since 05-22-2012, did you notice this thread is 4 years old?

Norm

 

[HighlanderNorth]

Nevermind, didnt realize how old the thread was....