How Do Sports Keep You Healthy? – Impressive Tips 2024
Wondering how to spend your leisure time with no regrets? Worry no more, sports gives you more than what you thought it would be. There are different ways in which you can benefit from engaging in sports. In this guide, I will discuss how sports help you mentally, develop your professional skills. I will also cover the best sports that can help you keep fit and healthy.
Many people play different kinds of sports all over the world. American football, Baseball, Basketball being the top three most team sports played mostly in America respectively. The National football league had at most 67,604 fans at each game in 2012. Baseball is the second most played sports in America.
Basketball makes it 3rd in the rank of most popular sports in America. National Basketball Association has produced some greatest basketball players like Michael Jordan, LeBron James and with estimated 14,000 attendances per match. Badminton, Ice skating, Mountain biking, Swimming, Boxing, Golf, Tennis are some of the few individual sports played in the US.
Let us now get into details about how sports can keep you healthy. We will cover the physical and mental benefits of sports and how it can help you improve your productivity.
MENTAL BENEFITS OF SPORTS
Research says that participating in sport can positively affect your mental health in addition to its physical benefits. Several games improve your mental ability, like playing darts for both kids and adults. You just need to get the best dart board cabinets to make your game interesting. Additionally, you can consider having the best magnetic dart board to enhance your game. Below are some of the way it benefits you mentally;
Improvement in the concentration level
Any physical exercise helps in the improvement of concentration level when doing something and you seem dizzy. Physical education is the best example introduced to keep leaner's active in most cases. Regular physical activity helps keep the mental skill as sharp as you age.
Three to five times a week of 30 minutes of physical activity come along with mental health benefit of sharp thinking, learning, and using good judgment.
Decreases stress and depression level
Stress comes from many factors, likewise to depression. Overthinking of something negative can lead to stress, thus reducing your life span in general. Engaging in any sports activity makes you forget of these factors, and you won't think of negative things. This can be one of the top mental benefits of sports to our body.
More exercise you do makes your body release happy hormones called endorphin. It affects your mood and makes you feel more relaxed and stress-free. Therefore, whenever you feel down, grab your best cheap hoverboards and hit the road, and you will find relief.
Sports improves sleeping habit
Sport men and women tend to have a better sleep. This is because it makes you fall asleep faster and deepening your sleep. Well scheduled training time table makes you know when to go to bed and wake up from bed. This makes you start your day in a good mood and state of mind
Helps to maintain a healthy weight
Individual sports such as swimming, running, cycling and weight lifting are all the best way to burn calories. When you keep the recommended weight range, you reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes, high cholesterol level, and hypertension in the body.
Social integration and respect for rules
Team sports mostly, and any physical activity allows people to meet and play with different people. So people will be able to meet new friends and become more sociable in the end.
Togetherness is developed, i.e. Team spirit is built, making task accomplishment easier and faster as work is done together. Leadership skills are also developed as the team will need a team captain or leader at one point.
Improved self-esteem
When you look at yourself as the outstanding performer in most occasions, it gives you the confidence to do the same again and again. You will be proud of yourself who results in better self-esteem and self-confidence.
With the energy that sports give you, complicated tasks will be handled with a lot of confidence, and any success will make you even more proud of yourself.
Leadership traits
Mostly team sports like baseball, football, volleyball needs a leader say captain or the team coach, thus acting as the breeding ground for leadership. Team leaders, when they leave the team, tend to transfer their leadership potential to other areas of their career, i.e. workplace and other offices.
Improved mood
Any sporting activity, for example, running around, strength training at the gym will have a beneficial effect on your mood. In most cases, team sports where you get to meet new friends. Jogging with music in the evening or morning makes you enjoy the day in a good mood as well.
HEALTH AND FITNESS BENEFITS OF SPORTS
When you think of sports as the best way to keep healthy and fit, yes, you are right. Sports come along with many benefits that can't let you disappointed. Some people find it easy to run around doing exercise whereas others have to time doing that and rather prefer taking a walk, swimming, golfing and many more.
All these are done to keep healthy and be fit. I looked at some of the health and fitness benefits both sportsmen and women have in their day to day lives.
- By frequently engaging in sporting activities, you will be able to control your body weight and reduce fat level in the body.
- Reduced blood pressure. Physical activities keep your heart and blood vessels healthy, helping to prevent hypertension.
- You are able to attain the satisfaction and interest in developing your fitness level and personal skills, thus living a happier and healthy life.
- Anxiety, depression and stress can be best controlled by engaging in most of the sports and physical activities. Example, team sport makes you meet new friends and socialize easily.
- Most sports improve concentration and stamina. Sport personnel look generally strong and fit and healthier than non-sport personnel.
- Stronger bones and muscles are developed through engaging in most sporting and physical activities.
- Sports help your body to adjust to even schedules and also activities that can cause complications to the body by lack of in the joints and muscles weakened by lack of movement.
- Coordination, balance and endurance of the body systems are supported by participating in most sports.
- You can easily combat depression and nervousness through sports.
- Families get time to be together in most sporting events. Either by playing themselves in their homes or going to watch others play.
- Sporty people live a healthier lifestyle than most non-sporty people.
- Through competitive sports, you experience the highs and lows of winning and losing, thus taking charge of all situations as normal.
- Increased energy level is also one of the benefits of keeping fit by engaging in some of the sports and physical activity.
- Being physically fit boosts your moods and attitudes to something of interest to you. Be it office task, personal assignment you are to accomplish when in good moods and attitude.
- Sports allow you to set personal goals and challenge yourself to meet the set goals.
- People who engage in sports and exercise daily are less likely to develop certain types of cancer like breast, colon and lung cancer. This is because most athletes' are prevented from using certain toxic substances.
- Exercising regularly helps in improving the immune system of the body.
- Enhanced aerobic fitness. Activities like cycling, running, or swimming can improve your body's ability to transport and utilize oxygen in the lungs and blood.
- When a person maintains a high level of fitness, he/she can live a longer, healthier life than expected. Thus prolonged life is another health benefit of sports.
HOW SPORTS IMPROVE PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Most people who engage in sports activities at a young age end up being professionals in what so ever sport they have been actively participating in when they mature. According to research carried out the British Universities & colleges Sports (BUCS), students who are active in sport at the university earn 18% more on average as compared to those who did not.
Leadership skills
One of the essential skills sport can help a person develop is leadership skills. Leadership skills are essential on and off the field. They help create great work in the office, pitch and mostly personal growth.
Time management skills
A person who works knows the mental health and fitness benefits of physical exercise will schedule time well to favor his or her duty time. This is only achieved by people who can best manage their time. By keeping the scheduled time, you are developing the skill as well.
Teamwork
When people engage in sports, they learn how to work as a team. As the word team itself stands for Together Everyone Achieves More, there is no "I in a team".
Communication skills
Talking of team sports, a lot of communication is required between the team members. Captain and coaches do most of the communication; however, best opinions can be got from anyone in a team. This gives chances to any team player to air out their views and looked at as a team to see how best it can help the team.
Some retired sports persons end up taking another career, for example, politic that requires more of good communication skills. Hence, it wouldn't be an issue. Likewise, every workplace and industry has communication channels that must be followed when raising any issue which still calls for good communication skills.
Self-discipline
The most important requirement for personal development is self-discipline. Leaders need self-discipline to be successful. An undisciplined person learns nothing and remains at the same state or stage of life. Sports can give participants self-discipline and understanding for example:
- Teaching them what they need to practice for better results
- Allow them to recognize the challenge at hand and how to go about it
- Their contribution to the team and make the necessary improvement as possible.
- Organizational skills
Ask yourself a few questions like; why do some functions flop? Poor organization skill contributes to this. Other duties assigned to an individual in a team calls for more development in some skills in one way or the other.
When you play any sport and made a leader say, the captain of a team, a lot is associated with the leadership positions just like in any workplace or industry. Organizing a group of people for an occasion itself is a skill not everyone can possess.
Other skill that can be developed through sports may include the following;
- Handling of pressure
- Competition and sportsmanship
- Management skills
- Decision-making skills
- Commitment skills, etc.
Best Sports for the Body
A good sport for the body must be the one which is easy to play with low risk of injuries. It should also improve both physical and mental health of the person participating in the sport activity. It may include both team sport and individual sport, respectively.
Below I take a look at some of the healthy and recommended sport for your body.
Swimming: Regarded as one of the best sport for the heart, it's associated with many benefits for the body like improving lung capacity, building muscles, improving the respiratory capacity, low-stress activity and also burning of calories. Being an individual sport, it can be done at any time at indoor pools and beaches.
Tennis: Over 600 calories is burnt when you play tennis for only one hour. The sprint, pivots, slams, and serves on the tennis channels your strength and requires exertion of energy in short but powerful burst.
Running: Human bones grow and become stronger by responding to physical demands. Those who run regularly are not posed to bone and muscle loss as they age at the same rate as those who don't or even don't try running. It is also good for mental and overall physiological health.
Squash: It is considered as the healthiest sport in the world many times by Forbes Magazine. It helps in burning calories, increases aerobic fitness, boosts flexibility, develops strength and power, and improves hand-eye coordination.
Cross-Country Skiing: This burns more calories than any sports or exercises, i.e. up to 1,122 calories per for intense mountaineering. Skiers are about 40 per cent fitter than physically fit individuals.
Volleyball: It makes a list of healthiest sports because it builds agility, strengthens coordination and boosts mood, increases metabolic rate, and also burns plenty of calories.
Other recommended sports for the body are listed below:
- Basketball
- Cycling
- Rowing
- Gymnastics, etc.
Conclusion
Sports aren't just good for our body but also for our minds too. Organized sport has many psychological and social benefits for our bodies. As seen above, there are many mental, health and fitness benefits of sports to our entire lives. Frequent practicing of any sporting activity will keep you in a good mood. It keeps you more focused, allow you to have a great sleep, be less stressed with better self-esteem as well.
Many professional skills that are important in our careers are also developed through sports, as seen above. Choosing the best spot for your body is also key in keeping the body healthier and fit. Sports with low injury risk such as swimming is the most recommended for our bodies.
