Blog Post #3 – How do sports benefit people?

Hello everyone! In this blog, I will be talking about my first subtopic which is physical health and endurance. One of the things playing sport changes a person is their physique and body endurance. In this subtopic, I will give specific physical fitness components that sports help improve and how they can affect one’s daily life. I will also research the short and long-term effects of people getting exercise with people who don’t. Let’s go!

Improved physical aspects

As different sports strengthen different muscles and have different amounts of impact of them, there are quite a lot of physical aspects that get improved by doing any sport and type of exercise. Exercise increases growth and connections for nerve cells in the hippocampus, the part of the brain that helps to maintains mood. Better connections to the hippocampus can decrease it’s size, which can lessen depressive symptoms. Another thing that the nerves can help with improved brain functioning and better sleep quality. (1)

Different sports can target and strengthen different parts of the body. In team sports such as volleyball, it improves the muscle strength in both the upper and lower body, more in the thighs and calves. It is a tactical sport that requires concentration, fast decision-making, and communication. Another team sport such as soccer combines many ways of movement such as running and agility throughout games. In soccer, there are specific times where you run faster, and some where you jog. (2) In individual sports, there is nobody else to count on when you are doing your sport, thus making the person naturally motivate themself and be confidence while alone. Individual sports such as swimming depend on the speed, swimming techniques, and endurance of one person. The one who performs the best by swimming the fastest wins and can say the win was with no help and pure training by that person themself. As swimming has different styles, the a lot of the body is worked on, such as sometimes you would need most aide from the arms, and some days you would need more aid from the legs. Another good individual sport is boxing. Although it could be dangerous can one can be easily hurt, it is a good way to increase offence and defense in fighting whenever it is needed in real life situations. To do well in boxing, one must have good strength, technique, and speed all over. In doing boxing, one’s physique gets damaged, but always comes back much stronger and durable. (3)

Difference of People Exercising and Playing a Sport vs. People Who Don’t

There are massive and little differences of people who exercise daily compared to those who don’t. As each person has different conditions of how much free time they have in the day, even doing as little as 20 mins of exercise can make massive changes to someone physically and mentally. By doing a sport, you reduce risk of cancer and decrease body fat percentage. (4) Even if it isn’t sports, exercise can also benefit your body, no matter how old you are. Studies have tested the elderly with an average age of 62 who had little to no exercise daily. The elderly were given fitness trackers for a week to measure how much exercise they would get. On average, the participants exercised 8 times a day, resulting to an average of four and a half mins in total. This data was used to analyze their health outcomes 7 years later. Those who did exercise 3-4 times daily were up to 40% less likely to have died prematurely compared to those who did none. Unfortunately, the percentage of dying prematurely did not decrease for those doing more activity than 3-4 times daily. This proves that little physical activity daily can decrease the risks of dying early. (5)

Conclusion

Playing a sport and exercising is very beneficial to your body. From sleeping better, to being happier, to having advantages in your daily life, exercising is the right thing to do.

Thank you for reading my blog!

1. https://www.1907.foundation/health/how-exercise-can-benefit-mental-health?utm_term=importance%20of%20exercise&utm_campaign=CN_GG_1907__MentallyTough&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=9125771043&hsa_cam=19822691656&hsa_grp=149753276289&hsa_ad=651217536642&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-300393538058&hsa_kw=importance%20of%20exercise&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw3NyxBhBmEiwAyofDYTHdGmoGS9syhBcbABlXGmgNTelmr2n14cHO-c37yqQKOnz4x5bD4hoC7f4QAvD_BwE
2. https://www.nowtolove.co.nz/health/body-fitness/why-you-should-take-up-a-ball-sport-32980/
3. https://medium.com/@meidanpk/list-of-individual-sports-solo-sports-to-play-94749290f584
4. Benefits of Youth Sports (health.gov)
5. What the scientists are saying…. – Document – Gale Power Search (oclc.org)