Top 10 Ways Sports Help You Become Healthier

December 24, 2020 By Sourav

You must have heard of the saying, “All work and no play, makes Jack a dull boy”. Well, that’s true. A life lacking mental or physical activities is a dull life. Playing sports can bring differences in people’s lives. While there is no such thing as quick fixes but sports have the ability to positively impact your health and mind over the years. Sports can be really beneficial for our overall constitution and development. And, these are the ways sports help you become healthier.

Ways Sports Help You Become Healthier

10. Sports as recreation for both players and non-players

Recreation is an activity that stimulates, amuses, and even diverts us from our daily grind of living. It is a very significant part of our lives that we, most of the time, choose to ignore with excuses for a tight routine. Researches opine that sports and such recreation are beneficial in reducing anti-social behavior and deflecting the mind away from criminal impulses, especially for young adult children.

For school-level learners, recreation helps build retention, social and cognitive skills, attitude towards learning, physical and mental wellbeing. Recreational activities can help develop a positive type of risk-taking attitude both in the participants as well as non-participants. It can be a vehicle to enhance academic achievements, job-readiness, or even enjoyment and relaxation that will help renew health and spirit. This one surely among the ways sports help you become healthier.

9. Sports for a flexible body

There have been countless studies telling you how sporting and exercising are beneficial for the body and mind but little attention has been paid to flexibility. But why do we need flexibility in the first place? Because the doctors say so! David Geier, the director of sports medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina says, “Flexibility is the third pillar of fitness.” And for that, it is one of the primary ways sports help you become healthier.

Sports that involve a lot of stretching can set flexibility right into your body. This is because when we stretch our muscles we also length our tendons that are attached to the bone. Besides, more flexibility means stronger muscles. So participating in sports can make up for all your loose/short muscles that you daily develop by hunching over the computer for hours.

8. Sport helps build strength

Building strength - physical and mental - is easier said than done. We require strength to go on with our active life. It is vital for everyday survival; you’d need strength to catch a bus, to kick a ball, to even maneuver through a tightly packed concert crowd. Participating in sports can increase your muscular strength. In the West, strength training actually became popular in the 1980s following the release of the bodybuilding movie ‘Pumping Iron’ and the subsequent popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

But, you don’t have to go on and start ‘strength training. Just play anything with considerable sincerity; play cricket play football, play kabaddi, just play regularly. Strategize to win, it’ll strengthen your mind. Keep at it daily and pretty soon you’ll find your muscles as well as strength looking all pumped up. This one surely among the ways sports help you become healthier.

7. Sport helps increase stamina

Stamina is the enduring strength and energy that individuals have in them to perform their daily duties. The ability and capacity to perform may become lanky over time with old age setting in accompanied by the inefficiency of the heart, lungs et al. With long working hours and shorter periods to rest, one has to have the significant stamina to survive longer and in better condition than the opponent.

Sports can work you up to build more stamina. Playing will push you to your limits and it’ll help increase the efficiency of your blood circulation system. So go right ahead and indulge in sports like running, walking, swimming, etc to build up some more stamina. It surely deserves a place among the ways sports help you become healthier.

6. Sports equips you with speed

The world is moving fast, and we all need to move along with it or else we’ll have to end up bundled in a corner cursing our luck or fate. That is the mark of a loser. And if you don’t want to be a washout, you need to move quickly, think quickly, and make credible or even incredible decisions quickly.

‘Quick, quick, quick’, is the world of the century. Sports can come in handy here. It will equip you with the necessary training to become quick- mentally & physically, improve your skill, and perform better. This one surely is one of the ways sports help you become healthier.

5. Sports as a bodyweight moderator

Over the years, all those extra fat and muscles piled up inside as a result of the junk food you‘ve stuffed into yourselves have finally, got you combating with overweight. Don’t worry, in order to keep up with the fast pacing world, many of us have become victims to junk delicious fatty on-the-go foods. But here’s the news. Sports can save you! Being over-weighted can go down hard on peoples’ self-esteem and a person without confidence can get inclined to self-imposed social isolation.

Excessive body weight also runs the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, and joint damages. Following this, depression sets in. To avoid this get involved in rigorous activities every day for a minimum of 60 minutes. The chemical reaction during exercising not only burns calories but increases metabolism suppresses appetite and decreases calorie intake requirements. This one surely among the ways sports help you become healthier.

4. Sports as a heart diseases resister

A study made on 4,000 retiring people by a bunch of researchers from the University College London has revealed that a stroll down the street can cut the risk of heart diseases by half. Yes, mild sports like gardening, country walks et al can reduce the chances of heart diseases. The science of it is pretty simple. Participating in games, get you panting because of you, then require more oxygen.

Your lazy heart swings into full action and starts pumping with all the vigor it can afford. And also sporting burns down calories which go on to prevent fat globules from blocking the arteries. Ultimately a healthy heart prevails and cardio-diseases are also kept at bay. This is one of the main ways sports help you become healthier.

3. Sport converts stress into energy

Even though our lives are assisted by technology, we are enveloped by stress. Today, the amount of stress (associated with ambitions, relationships, education, Career, health et al) individuals face is perhaps more than what our non-technology-maniac ancestors had faced. The kind of lifestyle we lead and the vicious competitions we adhere to, all these spirals into stress. Sporting can be a great stress buster.

Competitive sports played in a positive manner can bring great changes in your mind that get diverted yet focused, amused, and de-stressed. Moreover, when participating in sports, while you are in the adrenalin rush mode, the brain secretes endorphins that combat stress and pain adding to your well-being. Without any doubt, this one surely one of the ways sports help you become healthier.

2. Sport helps gain confidence

Learning, doing, achieving, very naturally has the ability to boost confidence and make life enjoyable. While sports experiences have the power to positively as well as negatively affect our self-esteem, remember that positive self-esteem is the key to well-being. Playing sports with a good heart helps us cope with exhilarating wins and killer losses in life. Leadership and communication skills are also enhanced.

But, it is to be noted that discriminating and stereotyping individuals based on their gender, sex, age, body size, ethnicity, or ability, can mar the very point of sporting. As sporting leads to less anxiety, a more optimistic lookout, and a better body image, our self-confidence naturally goes up. And it is this self-confidence that helps you achieve your ambitions in life.

1. It makes you feel alive!

It sure does! Our actions are undoubtedly associated with our thoughts and feelings. Enjoying your activities, getting drunk in your close vicinity, having a healthy competition with your pals - all these will make you feel good. Feeling wild, young, free, and alive enriches your life in a way that possessing materials things like money, can’t.

Not just that, a game played with the best sportsmanship spirit (irrespective of wins and losses) makes you live a fuller life. For many it's football, for many it's skiing, for many, it's bungee jumping that makes them feel alive. What makes you feel alive?