The pressure on high school athletes to compete and perform has never been higher than it is now. As college tuition rates continue to rise, many student athletes rely on scholarships to help them get a higher education. But in some sports, kids are paying a price for trying to stay competitive. Is it worth it? Depending on the position they play, many times bigger is better when it comes to football. Specifically, recent reports show that nearly 50 percent of high school linemen are overweight, and that obesity in football players far outpaces that seen in other male children and adolescents. Two recent studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association and the Journal of Pediatrics found that weight problems among high school football players, especially linemen, were much greater than those of other young males. The problem tends to be greater among linemen, since they are typically the biggest players in football. And the size of these athletes appears to be increasing as time goes on. Another study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found 45 percent of young linemen were overweight and 9 percent had severe adult obesity. That compared with 18 percent of male children and adolescents overall who are overweight. So why isn't bigger necessarily better? Well, in the short term, it's not healthy to be carrying so much extra weight (most of which is not going to be muscle weight), especially for such young kids. But the long term effects of these excess pounds can be even worse. As anyone who's had long term weight problems knows, it puts extra pressure on your bones and joints- which can lead to arthritis, lower back problems, joint damage, knee injuries and more. If you have teenage athletes in your family, do you see this kind of pressure to stay competitive? How does your family handle it? If you're a former high school athlete, did you experience this kind of pressure yourself? |
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