Sports were created for a purpose of letting people live not just for fun, but can also be a goal-oriented individual. Sports are for healthy living, in a sense that it helps the mind think fast, strengthen the bones and muscles of the body, and carries out chronic diseases. Misuse of sports may sometimes create disadvantages for a person.
Playing sports helps you stay in shape, teaches you how to organize your time, boosts friendships, and builds relationships with your peers and adults. Through athletics, you gain skills that can best be acquired on a court, track, or field.
Research interest on the effects of physical activity on health dates back to the 1950’s with a breakthrough in the scientific evidence on the health benefits of physical activity. It largely took place during the 1980s and 1990s. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The positive, direct effects of engaging in regular physical activity are particularly apparent in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis.
Below are the facts about sports:
- Friendship
Playing sports enable a person to build friendship with his playmate. Sports bring teens together from different schools, backgrounds, and communities. Many times, the friendships you create on the field remain intact even when you are not playing sports.
- Family
Family’s with tight bonds are usually found in sports. The constant support of your parents helps you to feel good about yourself and strengthens your connection to them. As a teen, it is not always easy to find time to spend time with your parents. Sports give you and your parents’ time to appreciate one another.
- Coaches
The one who puts you in the game is the one who can make you win your game. Your coach pushes you to become a stronger player. The relationship that you develop with your coach is very important to the success of the team. Positive coaching helps to bring the team together, and gives players the right tools to push themselves academically and physically.
- Health
To be a good athlete, you must take care of yourself. This gets you thinking about what to eat and how to treat your body to achieve peak performance levels. Improving at a sport requires memorization, repetition and learning, and honing these skill sets can carry over into other activities, including your job. Playing a sport also boosts self-esteem. Watching hard work rewarded with improved abilities and better results in competitions proves that you can set goals and achieve them.
Sports Nutrition
When engaging in sports for the first time, you may feel hungrier than usual. This is normal, because your body is expending much more energy than it is used to. Here are some nutrition tips to help keep you healthy while you participate in sports.
- Eat fat. About 20 to 25 percent of energy comes from fats, so to keep energy levels high. Your body needs you to consume fat.
- Make sure to eat before, during, and after your sport. The helps maintain blood glucose levels, which in turn will help enhance your sports performance.
- Keep hydrated! When playing a sport, your body loses a lot of fluid, which can cause dehydration. This is dangerous and potentially fatal, so drink plenty of water.
- Eat a balanced diet. An athlete’s diet should include plenty of complex carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and fats.
- Limit salt and simple sugar.
- Don’t fast!
School
It’s a common misconception that being both a student and an athlete is hard, if not impossible. Participating in sports can actually have a positive impact on school. There are many athletes do better academically. Sports force you to organize your time so that you can both go to practice and finish your homework. The key is finding a balance. If you can learn to organize your time then you can succeed in both.
Leadership Skills
Being in a team makes you a good leader and also a good follower. Sports teams give you an opportunity to surround yourself with competitive people and role models, and learn from them both. You can demonstrate your own leadership through team captainships and individual actions to improve your team’s success.
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