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There is no doubt that American sports are big business today, with new stadiums and arenas cropping up all the time and sports paraphernalia sales wracking in a huge amount of cash. While the popularity of American sports remains consistent, the list has evolved over the years as the American public has embraced a variety of sports and celebrity players. We have the top five American sports, with a list that may surprise you. For example, while tennis and soccer are both frequently viewed offerings worldwide, neither made the cut for the top five American sports on this list.

1. Baseball

Baseball has long been thought of as the all-American sport – ranking right up there with apple pie and Chevrolet cars as the stuff that this great country was founded on. Baseball can still boast the fact that it is the longest played sport in America, and is the one pastime that has been able to transcend racial prejudice and political problems. The sport came from the English version of cricket, and is still one of the top sports in America today.

2. Football

Football came to this country in the latter part of the nineteenth century, when teams began representing their colleges in this sport. Within a few decades, the sport turned professional, with the first Super Bowl being played in 1935. This sport has overtaken baseball as the most popular sport in this country, undoubtedly fueled by the many gifted players who have become celebrities of sorts across the nation. Today, the Super Bowl is the most viewed television program in the country.

3. Basketball

Basketball is a popular sport in America, but this pastime also has global popularity with Russian players now joining the ranks of the NBA. This sport has also gained a following from the many well known players that have excelled in the sport. Probably the most famous basketball player to date is Michael Jordan. Basketball season is a nice way to span the season between football and baseball for many sports buffs.

4. Hockey

Hockey did not originate in the United States, but it has certainly become a well known sport in this country. Most major cities boast a major league hockey team, and many host minor league and college teams as well. Hockey originated in Canada and one of the appeals of the sport is the fact that these two countries play so closely together. Wayne Gretzky may be the most famous hockey player to have ever played, and he has continued his legacy in the coaching realm in recent years.

5. Golf

Tiger Woods may be one of the top reasons that this sport has made the top five list in the United States. Most golf aficionados never get tired of watching this amazing athlete in action. Golf is equally popular around the world, especially in Scotland where it originated.

Sports are a fantastic way to bring people together and have certainly become a popular pastime for many. These five sports are the most common to find in American households today, with something for every sports fan in this country.

World-class endurance athletes and their trainers are constantly seeking new ways to improve performance and endurance without running afoul of the organizations that monitor their sport or sacrificing their health. At such an elite level, improvements measured by fractions of a second can be quite significant so triathletes and other types of endurance athletes examine every aspect of diet, training, sleep patterns and other factors to gain a competitive edge. Thanks to innovative research on how our bodies manufacture lactic acid and process it, endurance athletes and their trainers now have a much better understanding of how to prepare for elite competitions.

Best of all, their decisions are based on hard scientific evidence instead of anecdotal evidence and supposition. Over the last several years, several sports supplements have been developed to help prevent lactic acid buildup in muscle tissue during intense exercise by including compounds that act as lactic acid buffers. This overview of how lactic acid buffers help reduce lactic acid buildup from impairing performance and endurance during intense workouts has been demonstrated in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

How Lactic Acid is Produced and Processed by the Human Body

When the muscle cells in an endurance athlete’s body need fuel, they convert glycogen or glucose into lactic acid. Next, each muscle cell’s mitochondria, the power plant of a cell, burns lactic acid for fuel. Specific types of proteins called “transporter proteins” expedite the delivery of lactic acid, also called lactate, to each cell’s mitochondria through a network of tiny tubes throughout the cell. Through proper training, an endurance athlete like a triathlete can gradually improve the rate at which lactic acid is burned for fuel in their body so it doesn’t accumulate in their muscle tissue and impair performance, endurance, and cause them to “hit the wall.”

How Lactic Acid Buffers Work

Buffers are substances that help prevent any solution, such as blood or the fluid in muscle tissue, from undergoing a change in pH when introducing an acid, such as lactic acid, or alkali. In order to illustrate how lactic acid buffers work and help an endurance athlete stay competitive, it is helpful to have a basic understanding of the physiology and biochemistry of the human body.

The lungs and kidneys work together to maintain a pH of 7.4 in blood by altering the components of naturally occurring buffers. If the blood’s pH becomes too acid or alkali with pH’s as low as 7.0 or as high as 7.8, the body’s buffers can no longer compensate for the extreme conditions and systems begin to fail one after the other. There are four major buffering systems in the human body:

Biocarbonate buffers found in the blood’s plasma correct the equilibrium shift that occurs when a surplus of lactic acid in muscle tissue creates an abundance of excess hydrogen ions.

Hemoglobin in red blood cells acts as a buffer to byproducts and other threats to the pH balance in blood. For instance, when glucose is broken down into fuel by muscle cells and converted to lactic acid, the byproducts created are carbon dioxide and excess hydrogen ions.

Phosphate buffers are essential for buffering the pH of fluid in cells and are especially important for buffering urine in the kidneys.

Protein buffers also buffer the effects of excess hydrogen ions created when glucose converts in lactic acid. Protein buffers primarily buffer the pH of fluid inside cells.

Lactic Acid Buffers such as Magnesium and Potassium

Many sports supplements include magnesium and potassium in their formulas because these two substances, along with a lesser amount of sodium, help regulate fluids in cells, especially muscle cells, and help equalize or buffer the blood’s pH. Potassium levels maintained in a ratio of 5:1 to sodium help regulate water retention in our bodies and prevent too much potassium from voiding as waste in urine. Potassium protects against kidney damage, strokes and high blood pressure.

Only within the last two decades has magnesium’s importance in maintaining proper pH and overall health been understood. Research has found that magnesium is essential for facilitating the storage of potassium in our bodies. Without magnesium, the human body cannot store potassium. When triathletes and other endurance athletes take sports supplements that contain recommended dosages of potassium and magnesium, the amount of sodium removed from the body increases, as does the amount of excess fluids. These minerals are not only essential to proper health and balance, they also facilitate the body’s ability to buffer and quickly process the lactic acid created during strenuous exercise.

Whether you’re an elite endurance athlete or a weekend warrior, taking a sports supplement with lactic acid buffers such as potassium and magnesium is not only a good way to gain a competitive edge, it is also essential for overall health!

Games are definitely fun, especially for children. But playing in sports can turn into a hospital emergency for your kids. Statistical data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that annually close to 800,000 children suffer from injuries that are related to playing sports; and a big chunk of this number are linked to basketball, baseball, football and soccer. In the same study, it has also been found that over 60% of the injuries are associated with damages in the joints.

For most parents, sports injuries are an acceptable risk for all kinds of sports; in other words, if you do not want your child to get wet, then do not allow him or her to frolic in the rain. But the thing is that long after a sports injury has healed, certain complications may sprout later in your kid’s life. And the most difficult backlash may come in the form of osteoarthritis.

Yes, it is true! Sports injuries can put your child five times more prone to osteoarthritis than someone who has not experienced any abuse in the joints. And while osteoarthritis may come out years later, even after the sports injuries have completely healed, children of today—especially those who love to play sports—are exposed to greater risks of joint diseases. Indeed, osteoarthritis and other joint diseases are no longer confined to the 50- or 60-year-old age brackets; members of the younger generations who have experienced sports injuries may suffer the symptoms of various joint and bone diseases as early as in their late twenties.

But this should not deter you from allowing your child to be out there playing basketball, baseball, football or soccer; the benefits of getting your child involved in sports are clear and incontrovertible. The issue at hands is how you can best protect your child’s joints and bones from being injured in a game; doing so will greatly diminish his or her chances of acquiring joint diseases like osteoarthritis later in life.

Surely, you know a lot about preparing your child’s body for any game; stamina and resistance play important roles on how a player, young or old alike, will perform in any physical sport. But the key to an injury-free playtime is wearing the right protective gear. Giving your child added security against traumas common in any physical sport may be the smartest thing to do.

For a basketball fanatic, injuries in the knee joints can be considered common aside from sprains and ankle strains. So suit up your child with elbow and knee pads; you can also add eye goggles and a mouth guard.

In baseball, swinging the bat and throwing balls may take their toll on your child’s muscles. But all the sliding on the base plate and the risk of being hit by a ball can pose a more serious injury that can afflict joints and other bone tissues. Your child’s basic protective gear should include a batting helmet, elbow and knee pads, protective gloves, and shin guards.

If your child plays football, sprains and torn ligaments are the most common types of injuries to look out for. Invest in sports gear like helmet, chest and shoulder pads, shin guards, and, of course, the right shoes. Soccer is another form of football, but in this sport your kid does not need a helmet nor chest and shoulder pads; shin guards and pads on the elbows and knees will do.

Indeed, osteoarthritis and other joint diseases have become the leading causes of disability in the US; and the victims keep on getting younger each year. Protect yourself and your child from the symptoms of these diseases such as stiffness and pains in the joints. While sports injuries sustained by your child may cause osteoarthritis much later in his or her life, it is good to know that there are specially-formulated products that can improve the health of one’s joints. When the day that osteoarthritis does arrive, you can use products like Phosoplex to help you deal with joint diseases. Visit www.Phosoplex.com for more details.

Carlos Boozer ended his slump with 27 points and 14 rebounds and the Utah Jazz snapped a two-game losing skid by beating the San Antonio Spurs 113-99 on Thursday night.

Deron Williams also scored 27 and had nine assists in Utah’s first win over San Antonio since April 2008. Andrei Kirilenko added 12 points and six assists and rookie Wesley Matthews scored a career high 12 points for Utah, which improved to 2-3.

Tim Duncan had 15 points and 13 rebounds. Tony Parker had 21 points but scored just four in the second half as the Spurs couldn’t overcome the Jazz’s shooting.

Boozer finished 12 for 20 and the Jazz went 44 for 83.

COWBOYS-WOEBEGONE WILLIAMS Cowboys WR Williams repeating frustrating refrain

IRVING, Texas (AP) — While Cowboys receiver Miles Austin breaks records, Roy Williams sounds like a broken record:

The player who cost Dallas three draft picks and a $45 million contract extension has offered the same refrain for weeks now. He’s frustrated, he can’t get on the same page with Tony Romo, and he doesn’t know why.

Williams added a twist this week by declaring himself the No. 1 receiver. He said “things are just doing No. 2′s way,” referring to Austin.

Austin has more yards and touchdowns in the past three games than Williams has in his first 16 with the Cowboys.

Austin set an NFL record with 482 yards in his first three starts. Williams has 447 yards for the equivalent of a full season in Dallas.

TEXANS-DEFENSIVE SWAGGER Houston’s defense has new edge

HOUSTON (AP) — Houston’s defense has a new attitude. Some might call it confidence, but the Texans prefer to call it swagger.

It’s a feeling that’s growing each week as this group improves and Houston keeps winning. On Sunday they’ll see if their newfound swagger can help at Indianapolis, a place where they’ve never won.

Cornerback Dunta Robinson says Sunday is the time for the defense to make a statement. The unit has been bolstered by the emergence of rookie linebacker Brian Cushing. He leads the team and all rookies with 66 tackles.

T25-TEXAS-SECURITY High-tech eyes of Texas security are watching

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The high-tech eyes of Texas see all at Longhorns home games.

University officials have installed 43 surveillance cameras that watch the crowd from all angles in and outside of Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. The stadium used to have four cameras.

The cameras can focus close enough to see facial expressions or catch someone sticking a bottle of alcohol under the bleachers.

The upgrade cost about $400,000 and was done as part of a $175 million stadium expansion and renovation in recent years.

No. 2 Texas (8-0) plays Central Florida (5-3) at home Saturday.

MAVERICKS-D-LEAGUE-LIEBERMAN Lieberman breaks another basketball gender barrier

DALLAS (AP) — The first woman to play pro basketball with guys is also the first hired to coach them.

Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman was introduced Thursday as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks’ affiliate in the NBA Development League, which will tip off next November.

Lieberman is excited about the chance to help prepare players for the NBA and, of course, about breaking another gender barrier. She broke through as a player with the United States Basketball League in 1986.

Mavericks president Donnie Nelson is among the owners of the D-League team and it was his idea to hire her. This is no publicity stunt — she’s been a coach before and has run camps in the Dallas area for 26 years.

BKC–TEXAS TECH PREVIEW Knight’s focus is improving Texas Tech’s defense

LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Texas Tech coach Pat Knight is keeping his expectations for the basketball team to himself — though he knows the Red Raiders can’t fall much farther.

Tech finished 11th in the Big 12 (14-19) last year, the school’s worst season since 2000. That was the year before his dad, Bob Knight, took over the program and led the Red Raiders to four consecutive seasons of at least 20 wins.

Pat Knight’s team won just three Big 12 games last season — one was against No. 9 Kansas — and he openly criticized officiating twice in a three-week span. The Big 12 slapped him with a public reprimand and a one-game suspension.

The younger Knight blamed himself for last year’s abysmal record, saying he focused on the wrong aspect — letting defense slip.

The Red Raiders will rely on man-to-man defense — the mainstay of Bob Knight’s teams.

RANGERS-HURDLE Hurdle named new Rangers hitting coach

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Former Rockies manager Clint Hurdle is the new hitting coach for the Texas Rangers.

Hurdle was hired Thursday, taking over the job that Rudy Jaramillo held for 15 years before turning down a one-year deal at the end of the season. Jaramillo then got a three-year contract to become hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs.

The Rangers plan to emphasize situational hitting over slugging next season. Texas hit .260 last season, 11th in the AL, but was second with 224 homers.

Hurdle was the Rockies manager for seven-plus seasons before being fired in May, and led Colorado to the 2007 World Series. Before being manager, he was the team’s hitting coach for five-plus seasons.