Why don't more people play sports?
One of the main reasons is laziness. She is as old as the man himself.
People constantly find excuses not to go to training and lie on the bed. Most believe that we are a soul, and there is no point in pumping up the body if it is not immortal. This is what the ancient Greek philosopher Plato thought. He elevated the soul above the bodily shell. Therefore, intellectual work surpasses physical work in popularity.
Plato's idea was adopted by the Romans when Christianity began to spread. These ideas also passed there, although the Bible does not say a word about the immortal soul, in the form in which Plato perceived it, and what’s more, it denies the afterlife.
Thus, the idea has taken root in the consciousness of modern man that intelligence is the path to development, and physical labor is the lot of slaves.
Another reason is that people tend to associate physical strength with lack of intelligence. This is a wrong point of view, since with the right approach, sports contribute to development even more than mental work.
The benefits of sports
Scientists unanimously say that playing sports is the key to intelligence. Many books on self-development contain a lot of facts about the influence of physical labor on the brain. If you look at modern society, you will notice that not only adults are chained to the sofa. Many children and teenagers cannot get out of their gadgets all day long. This lifestyle will not have a good effect on mental abilities. In the future, such people will suffer from diseases of the back, heart, and flat feet.
It has also been proven that playing sports allows you to use your brain to the maximum, increases concentration and creativity.
Sports activities bring many benefits:
Practical exercises for the brain
If you organize yourself, you can find the benefits of sport not only as physical training, but also as the development of the practical side of mental abilities. Even during ordinary cleaning of the apartment, the brain strains more than when solving mathematical problems.
Developing an organized person
Sports require not only regular training, but also organization. An incorrect load schedule will only aggravate the problem, so a person needs to think through every step.
How is sport good for health?
Being physically active has been proven to be beneficial not only for your physical health, but also for your mental well-being. It is believed that it even prolongs life.
Below are 10 ways that regular exercise can positively impact your body.
They can help you feel happier
Regular exercise has been shown to improve mood and reduce feelings of depression, anxiety and stress.
During exercise, the areas of the brain responsible for the formation of feelings of anxiety and stress are affected. It also increases the brain's sensitivity to serotonin and norepinephrine, which alleviate feelings of depression.
Exercise also stimulates the production of endorphins, which stimulate positive emotions and reduce sensitivity to pain.
In addition, exercise has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety. They also help people recognize their fears and deal with them.
An interesting fact is that the intensity of physical activity does not matter. There is a positive effect on your mood regardless of the level of intensity of your training.
A study of 24 women suffering from depression found that exercise at any intensity suppressed feelings of depression.
The effects of exercise on your mood are so powerful that giving up regular exercise will take a very short time to make itself felt.
One study surveyed 26 healthy men and women who regularly exercised. They were asked to either continue regular exercise or stop it for about 2 weeks. Those people who stopped exercising reported more frequent episodes of low mood during the study period.
Regular exercise can help you reduce feelings of anxiety and depression.
Exercise can help you lose weight
Many studies confirm that physical inactivity is one of the main factors in the development of obesity.
In order to understand how exercise promotes weight loss, it is necessary to trace the relationship between physical activity and energy expenditure.
Our body spends energy on 3 main processes: digesting food, providing physical activity and maintaining vital body functions such as heartbeat and breathing.
When you diet, reducing the amount of calories you eat causes your metabolism to slow down, which in turn slows down your weight loss process. Regular exercise, on the contrary, helps activate metabolism, which helps “burn” excess calories and reduce weight.
Research has also shown that a combination of aerobics and strength training can maximize the amount of fat you burn and maintain adequate muscle mass, both of which are important for maintaining a healthy weight.
Exercise is very important to keep your metabolism active enough to burn more calories throughout the day. They also help maintain muscle mass and lose excess weight.
Exercise is good for your muscles and bones
Regular exercise is vital to building and maintaining strong muscles and bones.
Strength training is especially effective when combined with eating enough protein.
This happens because when you exercise, hormones are released that increase your muscles' uptake of amino acids. This helps build muscle mass and improve muscle endurance.
As people age, they gradually lose muscle mass and strength, which can lead to pathological fractures and disability. Regular exercise is important to prevent muscle loss and maintain muscle strength to combat age-related changes.
Exercise helps build denser, stronger bones in young people. They also prevent osteoporosis in older age.
An interesting fact is that sports such as gymnastics, running, football, basketball provide the formation of bones of greater density than swimming or cycling.
Is sport harmful to joints?
Regular physical activity helps build strong muscles and strong bones. They also prevent osteoporosis.
Exercise increases the body's energy levels
Physical exercise is a powerful energy stimulant for the body, both for healthy people and for those who suffer from various diseases.
One study found that regular exercise for 6 weeks reduced fatigue in 36 people who had previously experienced fatigue.
In addition, physical exercise can increase energy reserves in the body of people suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome and other serious diseases.
In fact, exercise is even more effective in combating chronic fatigue than other treatments, including passive therapies such as relaxation, stretching, or no treatment at all.
Regular exercise has also been shown to increase energy reserves in people suffering from chronic progressive diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
Regular physical training increases the body's energy reserves. This statement is true, including for people suffering from serious illnesses.
Exercise reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases
One of the main reasons for the development of chronic diseases is lack of physical activity.
Regular exercise has been shown to increase tissue sensitivity to insulin, cardiovascular endurance and overall endurance. They also help lower and stabilize blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
In contrast, a lack of physical activity - even for a short period - can contribute to significant accumulation of abdominal fat, increasing the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and early death.
Therefore, daily physical activity is recommended to combat belly fat and reduce the risk of developing diabetes.
Daily physical activity is essential to maintain a healthy weight and reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases.
Exercise helps improve skin condition
Your skin can be negatively affected by oxidative stress in your body.
Oxidative stress occurs when the body's antioxidant system is unable to fully repair the damage caused by free radicals to the body's cells. This can damage intracellular structures and worsen the condition of your skin.
Even though very intense and strenuous exercise can worsen oxidative stress, regular moderate exercise helps your body produce natural antioxidants that help protect cells.
Likewise, exercise stimulates blood flow in the skin and prevents age-related changes.
Regular moderate physical activity helps strengthen the body's antioxidant defenses and improve blood flow, which protects the skin and slows down the aging process.
Exercise improves memory and other brain functions
Physical exercise helps stimulate brain function and preserve memory and thought processes.
Initially, physical exercise helps increase heart rate, and at the same time improves blood flow (and with it oxygen) to the brain.
Exercise also stimulates the production of hormones that promote nerve cell growth.
In addition, the ability of regular physical exercise to prevent chronic diseases has a positive effect, including on the brain, since diseases can have a negative effect on it.
Regular exercise is especially important in older people, as the aging process, combined with oxidative stress and inflammation, contributes to pathological changes in brain structure and function.
Exercise has been shown to help enlarge the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning. This helps improve the mental activity of older people.
Regular exercise has also recently been shown to reduce pathological changes in the brain in Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
Regular exercise promotes blood flow to the brain and improves brain function, including memory. In older people, this is especially important for maintaining cognitive function.
Exercise helps you relax better and improves sleep
Regular exercise helps you relax better and improves your sleep.
In terms of improving sleep quality, depleting the body's energy reserves during exercise helps stimulate restorative processes during sleep.
It is also believed that increasing body temperature during exercise improves sleep due to the process of stabilizing it during sleep.
Many studies on the effects of exercise on sleep quality show similar results.
One study found that 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week helped improve sleep quality by 65%.
Another study found that regular exercise over 16 weeks improved sleep quality in 17 insomnia sufferers, allowing them to sleep longer and more restfully than a control group. It also allowed them to feel more alert throughout the day.
In addition, regular exercise appears to have a significant positive effect on sleep quality in older adults, who are known to suffer from sleep disorders.
You can be quite free in choosing the type of exercise. Both aerobics alone and aerobics in combination with strength training have an equally positive effect on the quality of sleep.
Regular exercise, whether aerobic exercise alone or in combination with strength training, can improve the quality of your sleep and keep you energized throughout the day.
Exercise reduces pain
Chronic pain can sometimes become unbearable, but exercise can help combat it.
For many years, recommendations for reducing chronic pain included rest and decreased physical activity. However, recent research has shown that exercise is a fairly effective means of combating chronic pain.
A review of several studies found that the quality of life of study participants improved and pain decreased with regular exercise.
Several studies have shown that regular exercise helps control pain associated with a variety of conditions, such as chronic back pain, fibromyalgia (ligament pain), chronic soft tissue pain in the shoulder, and others.
In addition, exercise can dull the perception of pain and increase pain tolerance.
Physical exercise has a positive effect in the presence of chronic pain. They may increase pain tolerance.
Exercise can improve your sex life
It has previously been proven that exercise can increase sexual arousal.
Regular exercise strengthens the cardiovascular system, blood circulation, muscle tone and flexibility. All of this can have a positive impact on your sex life.
Regular physical activity can improve sexual function and feelings of pleasure, as well as encourage more frequent sexual activity.
In one study, women aged about 40 noted that they began to experience orgasm more often when they began to regularly perform various physical exercises - sprints, strength training, etc.
And 178 men studied confirmed that more hours of exercise per week stimulated their sexual function.
One study found that taking a regular 6-minute walk near home helped 41 men with erectile dysfunction reduce symptoms by 71%.
Another study of 78 men with a predominantly sedentary lifestyle showed how 60 minutes of walking a day, about 3-4 days a week, improved their sexual behavior, including frequency, functionality and satisfaction.
In addition, the study found that women suffering from polycystic ovary syndrome, which may reduce sexual arousal. Regular exercise for 16 weeks significantly increased sex drive.
Exercise can increase sexual desire, function and performance in men and women. They may also help reduce the risk of erectile dysfunction in men.
You will live longer
“Whoever does not smoke or drink will die healthy” - you can hear from every not very developed subject.
There are so many beautiful, interesting and no less exciting things in life than smoking and alcohol.
How can you consciously, on a daily basis, suppress your genetic line, poison all systems of the body, deliberately make your brain less efficient, using many substances that kill a person?
Well, I understand, it’s a holiday, there are stupid traditions of drinking “to your health,” but why do this all the time, every day, especially when smoking?
A smoker is like a walking stinking cesspool, which outwardly does not always look sick, and does not always look unhealthy.
The body is inertial.
If you start smoking, don’t expect your health to fail instantly, no.
At first you will get used to it. The body will get used to the undeserved pleasure received from the drug (nicotine), and then the body will begin to give up over the years.
Your heart hurts, but it’s hard to breathe, on the fifth floor without an elevator - well, it doesn’t matter, and so on until some system fails. And he will refuse in any case.
“But my grandfather smoked and lived to be 90 years old!”, yeah, only if he hadn’t smoked, he would have lived to be a hundred, and he would have been healthier.
And don’t compare yourself to generations that are older than us.
Their health was stronger due to food, better ecology and due to the fact that previously there were not so many medications that could suppress any infection.
But why should I read morals to you, this is the business of each person, and I cannot judge anyone, everyone has their own story.
I will give you an example with one experiment. 20 thousand mature men were involved, the experiment lasted 8 YEARS! The experiment revealed that the mortality rate among men who did not engage in sports was on average TWICE HIGHER than among those who regularly engaged in physical activity.
It's up to you to think and decide.
By the way, I have a cool article on my blog about how to live long.
Where to start and what type of training to choose?
Exercise and physical activity are great ways to add variety to your life, feel better , and most importantly, be healthier. For exercise to become an integral part of your life , you don't need to rush into it recklessly. That's why it's good to keep a few things in mind before you start living a more active lifestyle along with exercise.
Check your health.
“An expert in something was once a beginner.” And while light physical activity, such as brisk walking, is safe for most people, health professionals recommend that you consult your doctor about your health before starting an exercise program. This is especially important for those who are not used to prolonged physical activity, as well as for people over 40 years old. Early monitoring can diagnose any health problems that may put the body at unwanted risk of injury during exercise. Also recommended for:
- diabetes mellitus type I and II
- kidney disease
- arthritis
- high blood pressure [1]
Based on the examination, your doctor will advise you on what exercises you can do and what you should avoid so that you can focus on the second stage.
Create a training plan and set realistic goals.
This is the most common reason why people stop exercising after the initial excitement and euphoria. Playing sports whenever you want when you are a beginner is as unwise as possible. It often happens that you fall back into your old routine and prefer something from the past rather than exercise.
That's why it's especially important to plan your workouts and set realistic goals. You are the one who understands you best, so you know that you prefer morning workouts to other activities or you find it easier to sweat more at the gym or on the treadmill after all the activities at the end of the day. Plan your workouts the same way we plan, for example, meetings with friends.
And most importantly, you should not immediately expect the maximum from yourself and do not overdo it at the beginning. Set realistic goals , train to the best of your ability at regular intervals, and track your progress!
Make exercise a habit
This is another important point that builds on the previous point. If at first you can perceive exercise as something new, later it will become a natural part of your life. You will definitely find it easier to maintain a regular exercise routine once it becomes a routine for you. Eventually, exercising regularly and replacing it with any other activity that doesn't benefit you as much may even become a positive addiction . [2]
From time to time you may need a little motivation because your sports plans will be ruined due to bad weather. In that case, we recommend that you read our article 5 tips to stay active, motivated and never stop exercising even at home.
You will unleash your inner energizer
I began to notice the paradox of bodybuilding from the very beginning, 9 years ago, when I started going to the gym in my dorm on the first floor.
I suffered for a couple of months.
I really dragged myself to the gym in the morning, however, I must say, I didn’t miss a single workout.
Miracles began later when I began to notice that I began to sleep better, that I had a lot of energy on the days off from training, and somehow I began to crave active recreation, instead of just lying on the couch.
The fact is that due to the constant expenditure of energy on recovery after physical activity, the body adapts with the help of supercompensation.
The release of endorphins becomes more frequent, as well as other hormones involved in our brain's reward system (dopamine, oxytocin, etc.).
A study was conducted in which scientists observed three groups of women for a year.
- One group exercised three times a week for an entire year.
- The second group did physical activity, but irregularly, 1-2 times a week.
- The third group is the control group, they did not change their lifestyle (they do not exercise).
So, it was found that women from the group of regularly involved in sports began to feel better, activity improved by an average of 30%, plus the fact that in total (a group of 50 people) they lost about a ton of fat!
The second group (irregularly exercising) also felt an improvement in their condition and a release of energy. All participants noted that they had become more resilient and happier. The group lost about 380 kg of fat.
The third group, naturally, continued to complain of lethargy and chronic fatigue. Accordingly, it was concluded that physical activity in the gym helps to become a much more energetic person.
Your bones won't break down for longer.
The fact is that all people, starting from the age of 35, begin to lose bone mass.
Bones become brittle and thinner.
All these are negative consequences of a sedentary lifestyle, bad habits and, of course, aging.
Physical activity in the gym can make your bones stronger by stimulating the production of the main anabolic hormone - testosterone, as well as by accelerating metabolism.
And, of course, through proper nutrition we will create a positive nitrogen balance in the body, i.e. a situation where the supply of proteins prevails over the breakdown.
