Sports Are Saving Your Life…
Do you love the thrill of the competition? What about the social interactions or just the sheer exercise it brings about? These reasons are a few of the many ways sports can save your life!
Sports and your healthy lifestyle
While physical activity has always been linked to health, the real breakthroughs in evidence of this did not surface until the late 1900s. There are now numerous studies and an overwhelming amount of evidence positively linking sports with a healthy lifestyle.
A life filled with sports can greatly foster a healthy overall lifestyle.
From disease prevention to improving your sleep, here are four ways in which that is true.
Disease Prevention
The effects of engaging in sports on a regular basis are clearly apparent in disease prevention.
Diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, depression, obesity, and osteoporosis can all potentially be sidestepped by playing sports on a regular basis. Since sports require strenuous physical activity, athletes typically stay closer to their optimal body weight than non-athletes.
This means that they will have a lower risk of developing diseases and conditions related to obesity. Obesity is a major cause of many medical conditions in the developed world.
Children can benefit from participating in sports. It helps them develop healthy bones, improve motor skills and develop efficient lung and heart function. Also, by improving cardiovascular endurance, children can decrease their risk for heart disease later in life.
Improve Psychosocial Health
The World Health Organization estimates that 25% of patients have at least one psychosocial disorder, yet most of them go undiagnosed and untreated. Studies have shown that playing sports plays a therapeutic role in helping certain psychological disorders.
Physical self-esteem is important in mental health. Some who get involved in sports at a young age may even find it so inspiring and motivating that they want to make a career out of their love for the game.
Sports also play a large role in positive cognitive function.
Exercise releases endorphins, which are a type of feel-good chemical naturally produced by the body.
Regular exercise that releases these endorphins can help to relieve depression symptoms more successfully and for a longer time than antidepressants. Walking fast for 35 minutes a day, five times a week can have a distinct impact on the symptoms of depression.
Whether the love of sports means becoming a professional athlete or entering a sports program such as a master’s degree in coaching, sports-lovers can turn their passion into a career. In a sports degree program, lessons focus on coaching athletics to teach students technical and leadership skills that are necessary to maximize a sports team’s performance.
The leadership skills learned will help graduates positively impact the lives of others psychologically, inter-personally, and physically.
Overflow to Other Healthy Elements
Changes in one’s environment can give people a new perspective. This has a great impact on future opportunities for participation in other activities. Additionally, the conditions in which a sport is played can have a great impact on other health choices. For example, one may choose to eat healthier food in order to improve performance.
They may also choose to eat less if they are planning on spending the afternoon playing a sport, and do not want to do so on a full stomach.
Sports can also create a sense of inclusion with teammates, can allow people to hone their discipline, and can promote healthy competition in a way that can carry over to one’s personal life.
The effort takes to be successful in sports can be applied to nearly any activity in life. This means if you build these habits early in sports, you may have an easier time transferring those skills to other aspects of life.
Sports coaches and trainers can also function as a source of guidance for developing athletes, and sports can help keep students motivated to stay academically engaged. For many student-athletes, sports provides a type of focus and stability that helps to keep them on healthy academic, professional and personal life tracks.
Improve Sleep
The connection between sleep and exercise may not be as clear-cut as we once thought. Research shows that regular exercise can improve sleep length and quality after around four months. One common misconception, however, is that strenuous exercise one day will help you sleep better that same night.
A recent study suggests that this is not the case. Many people have probably experienced this in their personal lives as well. You may come home tired, sore, and physically exhausted, yet still toss and turn at night.
The key is to not expect an instant translation of exercise to a restful sleep. Just stick to your exercise routine for over four months to gain the most benefit to your sleep cycle.
Wrap-Up
Playing sports is a great gateway to other healthy choices in life.
It also lets you interact with other people who are interested in a healthy lifestyle who can help motivate you to live the best life possible. So pick up a sport as a hobby today – your healthy lifestyle is waiting!
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