We have probably all heard before that exercise is good for health, promotes muscle strength, and burns calories. Therefore, today we would like to introduce you to other positive effects that sport can have on your life. And no, this list is far from complete.
Sport makes you happy
A new study by KIT has shown that everyday activities such as climbing stairs or going for a walk increase well-being. It was also discovered that an area in the brain is essential for the interplay between everyday movement and wellbeing. This brain region plays a central role in the regulation of emotions and resistance to psychiatric diseases. Thus, even short sporting activities can make you happy.
Sport clears your mind
Experiments by the brain researcher indicate a change in brain activity when moving. This shuts down the prefrontal cortex. This is responsible for logical action planning. The researcher describes this as the so-called “clearing your head”. The prerequisites for this effect are the enjoyment of the movement and moderate exercise intensity. However, a study by the University of Ulm showed that the brain benefits from regular exercise in certain areas. The performance of spatial imagination and the ability to concentrate of the 17-47-year-old test subjects could be improved by endurance training three times a week.
Exercise lets you sleep better
A 2017 study in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews found that strength training like weight lifting is extremely beneficial for all aspects of sleep. The quality of sleep was demonstrably increased. A study can be found in the specialist magazine Mental Health and Physical Activity which shows that exercise accelerates falling asleep and that physically active subjects were less tired during the day. But endurance sports also have a proven positive effect on your sleep – because, according to the specialist magazine Sleep, it reduces signs of sleep disorders
Sport works against psychological stress
A study from Yale and Oxford Universities found that exercise can improve mental health. In the study, over 1.2 million Americans were asked about their sports behavior and mental mood. The result: people who exercise regularly only feel bad for 35 days a year – people who do not exercise regularly for 53 days. Caution is advised here because too much sport has a negative effect on psychological well-being because of the relationship between the duration of sport such as bowling, but before you can play bowling properly you need bowlingadvisor to assist you. The optimum is three to five training units of 30 to 60 minutes each per week. The individual sports with the greatest psychological effect are cycling, aerobics, and fitness training, according to the study.
Sport helps against chronic back pain
The emphasis here is on chronic because exercise does not have a clearly positive effect on the incidence of lower back pain. Too much exercise, more than three to four times or more than two to four hours a week, increases the frequency by 6%, while moderate exercise decreases it by 6%. Chronic back pain occurred 11% less often if they exercised at least once or twice a week or at least half an hour to a full hour per week. Chronic pain is defined as pain lasting at least three months or pain lasting more than 30 days within a year.
Sport protects your bones in the long term
Bones solidify when subjected to stress. A study in the USA examined the bone strength, density, and mass of the limb of 103 active and former professional baseball players. They found out that the humerus of their trained limb was almost twice as strong as that of the “untrained” other arm and also had greater mass. These effects persisted even in old age, although the effect of the increased bone mass was only measurable in former professionals who continued to use their arms for exercise. So, activities in adolescence have lifelong benefits for bone size and strength. But how exactly does exercise lead to stronger bones? Muscles are connected to the bone by tendons. If the muscle is now tense and shortened, this force is transferred via the tendons to the bone, which then moves. The area of the bone where the tendons are attached becomes irritated and the body responds by strengthening the bone, which increases bone density. So through movement, you build up a stable skeleton over the long term.
Sport strengthens your immune system
Researchers in Cologne were able to show that exercise leads to an increase in anti-inflammatory immune cells, the so-called regulatory T cells. For this purpose, blood samples from young elite athletes were compared with samples from untrained test subjects. The results showed a positive correlation between physical fitness and the frequency of T cells in the blood. This is just one of the many positive effects of physical activity on health.