Essay --

Volleyball is a very popular sport. It is played throughout the world on state, national, and international levels. The weight pressed on certain parts of a female athlete’s body can negatively affect her bone structure. The upper and lower appendages and the neck structure of female athletes have been known to experience detrimental effects when subjected to the loading modalities, and the different stages of menopause affect the bone mineral densities in specific parts of the bone structure in female athletes. Various sports have been shown to help develop higher bone masses at loaded bone sites. For example, high-impact and odd-impact loadings produce the strongest bone structure in the lower extremities, such as the legs; and high-magnitude loading produces the strongest bone structure in the upper extremities, such as the arms and torso. The lower extremities have the weight-bearing component, which is needed for the dynamic loading required, and muscle performance is primarily focused in the lower extremities. The upper extremities contain the nonweight-bearing component, but unlike the weight-bearing bones, no bone loss has been found (Nikander et al. 2006). A study was performed in order to better understand how different sports and their loadings on the bone structure affect muscle performance and joint moment, depending on the structures of the upper and lower extremities. The purpose of the study was to see if dense bone masses help construct stronger bone structures in athletes and if the nonweight-bearing upper extremity affects bone structure. The subjects that were tested consisted of one hundred and thirteen female athletes. These athletes were representative of volleyball, hurdling, tennis, badminton, squa... ... of the three menopausal stages experienced some bone loss, but the athletes were shown to have higher bone masses. The femoral neck was strengthened due to the different impact loadings on the area. The athletic training and history of volleyball players were a benefit to the bone mass and structure because there was not much loss or detrimental effects of these areas. The preconditioning of the athletes aided in how the bone structure would be affected by the different loading modalities. Like that of the bone structure of the nonathletic referents that were observed in the studies, bone structures at first could be severely affected by the high-impact and odd-impact loadings of volleyball. But, as athletes become used to the various loadings on different parts of their bodies, positive correlations between the loadings and the bone structure and mass occur.