The benefits and harms of sports are an eternal topic of discussion and debate. The line between the two concepts is thin, although in fact everything is quite simple: food, sports, recreation and other human activities do not cause harm if you approach them wisely and dose them correctly. If necessary, you can involve a doctor or coach in choosing a direction in sports. Without exceeding one's capabilities, a person avoids harm from playing sports.
The benefits of playing sports
It is worth immediately noting that morning exercises and a five-minute warm-up are not included in the concept of sports, but are types of physical activity. The correct definition of the word sport is grueling exercise with maximum impact, load on a specific muscle group for each specific type of training.
What are the benefits of sports in a person’s life? It’s worth thinking about and, if necessary, making some adjustments to your usual way of life. It is important to identify all the pros and cons of the chosen sports section, so as not to experience disappointment or provoke harm.
Physical activity of varying intensity should be present in everyone’s usual routine. Sport is important in the lives of children and benefits adults. Systematic exercise helps achieve goals.
Character modeling
Sports sections and clubs provide discipline and make a person self-confident. People who play sports make decisions faster and gain leadership skills. Particularly effective and beneficial in developing the qualities of a socially active person are sections with group sports.
Increased endurance and strengthened muscles
In the course of overcoming loads, endurance is developed step by step. Visually, you can notice a transformation when beautiful reliefs appear in the body, muscle plasticity develops, and excess fat disappears.
Improved mood and well-being
Sport energizes, accelerates sleep, and increases productivity. By following the regime, a person gets the opportunity to live a rich, full life.
Losing excess weight
The benefits of sport are obvious, as it helps to get rid of obesity. Excessive obesity is a source of disease, leading to dysfunction of body systems. By performing intense physical activity, a person controls his gastronomic preferences and does not consume foods that can be harmful to health.
Strengthening the Heart
A vital organ ensures proper blood circulation and delivery of nutrients to the organs. Dysfunction can cause various pathologies, including hypoxia. Sports exercises provide the heart with a feasible load and gradually strengthen it. Systematic training eliminates the likelihood of developing atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, and heart attack. The impact of sport on the cardiovascular system is predominantly positive if you approach the issue wisely.
Memory improvement
Sport, regardless of direction, brings benefits by improving brain nutrition, which leads to clarity of thinking, improved coordination, and full perception of information. School-age children especially need this.
Respiratory development
Proper breathing is the main thing in sports. Violation of its conditions can nullify all efforts. An increase in the volume of the inhaled area of the lungs ensures the absence of hypoxia in the cells.
Boosting immunity
People who have sports in their lives are always in excellent shape. They are extremely rarely affected by infections. The benefits of sports for children's health are obvious, since stable immunity is the key to well-being.
Improved sleep
Due to fatigue, after physical exercise, concepts such as depression, anxiety, and sleep disturbances disappear in the life of a person who is passionate about sports. A person gets quality rest at night, which leads to harmony and tranquility.
Acceleration of metabolism
Sport benefits the digestive system by promoting proper bowel function. During training, metabolic products are released through the skin from the body through sweat. Well-established metabolic processes do not allow toxins, free radicals and waste to linger.
A historical example of replacing professional sports with mass ones
Back in the 1920s and 1930s, people were distinguished by common sense and pragmatism. This is what the French socialist magazine “People” wrote in 1936, praising mass (rather than professional) sports:
“Imagine a countless army of boys and girls: strong, healthy, seasoned by sports, tanned in the sun. And they all march in the correct regimental formations. They are all mobilizing around the red banners. And all these countless battalions march for several hours in a row..."
(I quote from “Nordic Olympians” by A. Vasilchenko).
Let's fast forward to Germany at the same time. Red flags were also flying there, albeit with swastikas. In 1933, Physical Exercise magazine wrote:
“All of our physical education should have a military-sports character. It must form cohesive teams, unconditional obedience, punctuality - in short, everything that befits a soldier’s spirit.”
In 1893, the Social Democratic “Workers' Gymnastics Union” fundamentally abandoned the pursuit of records - as something harmful to health. The main thing is the physical strength and health of people.
Therefore, in Germany in the 1930s, primarily applied, pragmatic - folk - sport developed. As, indeed, in the USSR. In the Union, sport was made mass and military-applied. It was called "physical culture".
"And we are in danger in an instant
Let's change sports equipment
For a saber, a grenade and a bayonet..."
This is how it was sung in the “March of Soviet Athletes”.
Before the 1936 Olympics, the head of the German Small Arms Laboratory, retired General Knuth, demanded that the state create many public shooting ranges. Precisely for the military hardening of the German people.
The Berlin sports club "Kometa", as A. Vasilchenko writes, organized a competition - a march in full combat gear.
The head of the German Olympic Committee, Karl Diehm, proclaimed: “The German can no longer afford to be despised. The German must demand that Germany conquer the world. This should become a slogan for all our aspirations in the field of culture, science, art, economics..."
Dim is our enemy, but I like his philosophy. It must be applied to the Russians.
The Germans then even used technical sports for the development and motorization of the country. On February 11, 1933, Hitler announced a national motorization program. With the abolition of taxes on motor vehicles (naturally, only German-made ones), with a reduction in taxes on automobile industry enterprises, with the construction of highways, and with government assistance in racing.
Yes, our enemy acted very intelligently - cannot be compared with the practice of the current authorities of the Russian Federation. Unlike them, he did not buy racing cars abroad and did not entice people with the opportunity to buy imported cars on credit - he encouraged the construction of domestic cars.
Moreover, they were made as experimental models for powerful engines, which would then go into mass production. What was built was not the Formula 1 tracks in Sochi (where only imported cars are raced), but a network of 4-lane highways throughout the country.
The German auto industry was turning into not hangars for large-scale assembly of imported cars, like the current “car factories” of the Russian Federation, but into full-cycle enterprises producing excellent automotive equipment.
I must say, this is a very instructive example for us. An example of a very businesslike approach...
I would also make auto racing in the Russian Federation a competition between domestic production cars and home-made cars. It's much more useful.
What are the benefits of sports for children and teenagers?
Sports are important in children's lives. Besides keeping your child busy and having a good time, there are plenty of other benefits to consider. The benefits of sport are:
- in strengthening barrier functions,
- building endurance, strength,
- positive effect on bone structure,
- strengthening the vascular walls and heart muscles - eliminating hypertension in the future,
- development of stress resistance,
- formation of correct self-esteem, adequate response to criticism,
- obtaining the makings of a leader,
- influence on physical development,
- acquiring social skills, the ability to work in a team.
The influence of sport on the development of adolescents is great, since strong immunity protects against colds that interfere with development. All systems work fully, the muscle corset is strengthened, and the development of scoliosis and osteochondrosis is excluded. Important! The habit of exercising is beneficial because it is incompatible with smoking and alcohol abuse. In addition, teenagers channel all their energy in healthy ways and do not deliberately harm themselves.
Track your progress
Your own assessment of success is far from objective. After the first lesson, you may feel like a real athlete, although there is no visible success, and during periods of bad mood you may underestimate your results.
Even if you have a regular scale, it will only show you your weight, which is not enough to evaluate your achievements. The fact is that during training, weight can remain the same, but the percentage of fat and muscle can change.
By tracking not only your weight, but also your fat percentage and body mass index, you'll see your progress, be able to choose the best diet, and stay motivated.
Moreover, to track your fat percentage, you don’t have to make an appointment at a clinic; there are already compact and inexpensive scales with this function. For example, smart diagnostic scales from the Chinese company Picooc.
Picooc
When you step on the scale, it sends a small, invisible current through your body and determines your body mass index, percentage of fat and muscle mass, and even your metabolic age. In addition, you don't need to remember or write down anything to track your results: Picooc S3 connects to your phone via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, depending on the model, and you see all your statistics in the Russian-language PICOOC application.
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Which sport to choose
Interest in sports should be instilled from childhood. During adolescence, changes occur in the heart muscle and blood vessels, preparing the fragile body for more difficult periods.
Attending school and sitting at a desk for a long time forces you to be in a sedentary position for a long period of time. Inaction of parents can cause harm to the growing body due to improper formation of the skeleton.
A teenager should be active for at least an hour a day; the task of adults is to select dosed exercises that are beneficial and make sports a part of life.
Important! Children and teenagers are not as resilient as adults and it must be taken into account that they expend more energy for each action.
Whatever sport is chosen, the benefits will outweigh the harm rates.
Preference should be given to general strengthening types of exercise that have a positive effect on the musculoskeletal system and the full functioning of the heart. The benefits of sports for human health in adolescence come from the following types:
- swimming,
- run,
- Biking.
When choosing a direction, you should pay attention to the teenager’s physique.
Important! A child with short stature will not be able to excel in basketball, but if he has strong legs, he could very well perform well in running. You should also pay attention to temperament. An active child will not be interested in playing chess, but in a team game he will have no equal.
When choosing a section for girls, parents always try to develop plasticity, femininity, and slimness. Most often, preference is given to gymnastics and dancing.
Swimming is considered a universal sport and it is suitable for everyone, regardless of age and gender type. It is prescribed to healthy children, as well as for many pathologies: exercise in water minimizes harm.
Rules for playing sports
Passion for sports is one of the important points of a healthy lifestyle, from which people mainly derive benefits. Accordingly, the approach to it should be conscious and serious. First of all, it’s worth understanding what not to do.
Exercises without shoes
Sneakers are selected for the sport, as the wrong shoes can cause harm to the spine. Important! Exercising barefoot or wearing socks increases pressure on your back. If you are prone to vascular diseases, the harm from exercise increases significantly.
Quench your thirst “at will”
Don't wait until the desire to drink becomes unbearable. Passion for training is not a reason to lead the body to dehydration. You should make it a rule to take a few sips of water every 20 minutes.
Training in worn, old things
The training suit must be of good quality. The fabric composition, in addition to cotton, preferably contains lycra. Cotton clothes become saturated with sweat, blocking air access to the pores. Things that are many years old, but it would be a shame to throw them away, should not be used in training.
Using anti-sweat deodorants
Excessive sweating during intense exercise is a natural condition. With sweat, harmful substances are removed from the body. Antiperspirants close pores and stop sweat from escaping. In order to easily eliminate products that cause harm to the body during sports, you should stop using skin care products during exercise.
Listen to music on headphones
It has been scientifically proven that intense workouts should not be performed while listening to loud music. If it is impossible without musical accompaniment, it must be made quieter. If you ignore the recommendation, one day you may lose the ability to hear.
Asphalt is not a place for jogging
Asphalt roads are harmful to the ankles, knees, and hip joints, since they do not absorb shocks when the runner pushes away. The best place for running is a track in a hall, stadium, park - along flat paths.
Basic rules for playing sports for the benefit of the body:
- Sports training can be carried out at home, in the park, forest, sports clubs with professional support from a trainer.
- Beginners should not be overzealous, as they can cause harm to tendons, muscle fibers, ligaments, myocardium, and blood vessels. Before the first lesson, you should consult a doctor and get recommendations from a trainer. The increase in loads should be gradual. Sets of exercises should be selected taking into account the real capabilities of the body. The section leader can advise you on how to get the maximum benefit from your training.
- If the goal of your passion is to correct your figure, you need to understand that exercise alone cannot influence your weight globally. Additionally, nutritional adjustments are required.
To play sports with health benefits, you need to develop a system. Sports will become a habit more easily when a person gets the first stable results. The researchers concluded that to obtain them when running, continuous exercise for 21 days is necessary.
High performance sports and country development
Officials have long replaced the real work of uplifting the country with an imitation of vigorous activity. They themselves went into a purely symbolic and image space. When some kind of Olympics is much more important to them than the quality of life and development of our people. Well, on this field they were dealt a crushing blow to their image. Let them grieve themselves. What do we need?
Professional sport has long turned into a burdensome, but useless toy for the country. In the Russian Federation, many times more money is spent on it than on science.
Gone are the days when sport replaced war and served as evidence of the high achievements of a particular country. Well, what do we get from victories at all sorts of Olympiads and championships of professional people-functions, from their medals?
As a result, Russians do not get quality jobs; as a result, we do not become educated and prosperous people with our own houses and three children in each family.
As a result, we do not have modern industries; the country does not move away from its status as a raw materials appendage to the whole world. As a result, no more housing or highways are being built in the Russian Federation.
Today, the country’s primacy and its development are proven primarily by its scientific and industrial development, its bold breakthroughs in innovation, the prosperity of its citizens and their civil liberties. And not because someone is jumping and running on behalf of the country.
The so-called “high performance sport” has nothing to do with our health. The fact that specially trained individuals compete in stadiums, while tens of millions of ordinary people watch this at the screens of “zombie boxes” (with smoke and beer), the health of the nation does not improve.
At the same time, professional athletes themselves become disabled, acquiring a bunch of injuries and illnesses. And since all they did was train, they also become mentally disabled.
Professional sports have been using doping for a long time, because their records have long gone beyond the physical capabilities of the body.
An attempt to increase the running speed of a hundred meters for a few seconds already threatens to destroy the spine. Why then support a horde of hired athletes, spending crazy amounts of money on them - if at the same time science, education, and medicine in the Russian Federation are underfunded?
If the maintenance of one football player costs the same as 11 new traction tractors of the Kirovets type? Why feed this whole horde of sports officials and managers with OUR money?
I would prefer a country without professional sports at all, but with modern artificial intelligence, with flights to Mars, with prefabricated houses for every family.
And most importantly, a country with many healthy children, who are provided with an excellent education, excellent health, and prospects in life. I would prefer a country where, for the first time in the world, a race of superpowered people is being created (the next stage in the evolution of sapiens). The race that has conquered physical aging.
To hell with professional sports and the billions of dollars spent on it! It is better to invest this money in fundamental and applied science, which actually creates new knowledge. This means fundamentally new technologies. What is more important to us is not the legs of football players, but the brains of the nation.
Let professional sports exist on the money of advertisers, fans and donors. The budget should not spend a penny on it. We don't need any Mutkos. At the same time, sport itself is not going anywhere for Russians. It will just be useful and widespread.
Disadvantages of playing sports
The influence of sport on the human body is ambiguous. The wrong approach to stress and the pursuit of quick results can cause irreparable harm. What to pay attention to:
- When practicing, you need to be able to stop in time. The first workouts should not be intense. Excessive hobbies quickly wear out systems and organs, leading to premature old age, which negates all ideas about benefits. Important! Sports have their own rules that must be followed - training cannot be approached only intuitively.
- Energy drinks, stimulants and what bodybuilders call sports nutrition actually pose a risk of causing stress: the products give athletes endurance, but consume untouchable energy reserves.
- Requirements for yourself must be objective. If you are underweight, for example, excess exercise can be harmful.
In a professional sense, there is practically no talk about the positive impact of sport on human health. For most people, their careers end with pathological disorders of the joints, skeleton, and digestive system.
Professional sports from the point of view of the common man
Explain to me why we need big, and professional sports in general?
A lot of money, nerves, and strength are wasted, and from large-scale Olympics and the like (which also gives additional freedom to corruption), in general, the economies of countries suffer. And for what? Competing to see who can lift the heavier piece of iron, jump higher, or roll the most balls?
And someone else is rooting for these athletes. What kind of pseudo-pride? Hurray, our ball was kicked at the goal! So what if they kicked that damn ball? Did they create something significant with this? Have you made any contribution to the development of humanity?
Don't think that I completely hate any sport. Sometimes kicking a T-shirt in the yard is a good emotional release and tone for the body. Simple and useful. Doing a little exercise is good for your health. But why extol and overestimate it so much?
But there are also rednecks BALELSHCHEKI, who start fights for almost a sideways glance at their favorite teams.
What do people who dedicate their lives to sports think about? Dull and useless accumulation of meat on the body and honing reflex muscle contractions.
What do you give to society? A worker puts effort into something useful and creative in a material sense, a scientist comes up with something new, an artist, musician or writer creates something beautiful and of cultural value, something that helps others grow aesthetically and intellectually, leaders (conscientious) structure and direct the material side of creation and development.
But what have you achieved, having bench-pressed 200 kg from your chest, learned to break boards with your hands, or made cool feints with a ball, boasted about it, or even made money? Can you create something? Or have you mastered something and can teach others? Useless piece of meat! All you provide is stupid entertainment for other rednecks.
Someone will talk about self-defense and the ability to stand up for a girl?
First of all: you shouldn’t hang around anywhere and anytime. Smart people get into fights very rarely.
Secondly: bullies almost always arrive in droves. You will have to take it out by talking (mooing in their primitive language), friends, etc. (It’s better not to grab a self-defense weapon if you don’t know how to use it)
Is anyone else telling me about the importance of physical strength? Yes, almost all processes that require great strength have been replaced by mechanisms, or even automated. We are not in a wild world. We live by intellect (almost), there is no need to be very strong.
Developing willpower? Yes, any energy-consuming and complex task that requires planning and endurance trains you this willpower. Open a business, I don’t know, but it’s better to start regularly and diligently learning something practically useful. Yes, even raking over the urgent problems that have fallen down accompanies this.
