Sports
Physical activity is any bodily movement produced by the muscles of the body that requires energy consumption. Aerobic exercise includes many physical activities; such as walking, running, swimming, and dancing, which help maintain the health of the body and protect it from diseases. As for physical inactivity, i.e. a lack of physical activity; It was ranked fourth among the leading risk factors for death globally.
The importance of sports
Exercising positively affects the health of the body, regardless of age, gender, or physical ability.
Here are some health benefits of exercise:
Weight control:
Regular exercise helps to lose weight and prevent its gain; Since physical activity works on calories, the higher the intensity of the physical activity, the more calories are burned in the body.
Maintaining muscle mass while losing weight:
Regular exercise helps maintain muscle mass while following a weight loss diet. As reducing calories in the diet leads to a decrease in the body's metabolic rate; Which leads to a decrease in burning calories, and on the contrary, exercise increases the metabolic rate, and thus increases the burning of calories and the loss of fat mass in the body, while maintaining muscle mass.
Maintaining muscle and bone strength:
Exercising plays a vital role in building and maintaining muscles and bones. This is because it helps stimulate the production of hormones that enhance the ability of muscles to absorb amino acids, thus helping them to grow, limiting the loss of muscle mass during aging, and helping to build bone mass during growth, and contribute to preventing osteoporosis.
Maintaining healthy skin:
Moderate exercise helps increase the production of antioxidants in the body and improves blood flow to the skin. Which leads to maintaining the health of the skin, and delays the appearance of signs of aging.
Maintaining brain health and memory:
Exercise helps improve brain function, memory, and mental skills; As it increases the heart rate; This increases blood and oxygen flow to the brain, and exercise stimulates the production of hormones that promote brain cell growth.
Relieve pain:
Regular exercise helps relieve chronic pain; Exercising can help increase the body's ability to tolerate and control pain, including pain associated with various health conditions, including chronic low back pain and fibromyalgia.
Fighting various diseases:
Regular exercise, regardless of a person's current weight, helps reduce the level of unhealthy triglycerides and maintain smooth blood flow; This reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, and it also reduces the risk of stroke, type 2 diabetes, depression, some types of cancer, and arthritis.
Energy boost:
Regular exercise helps increase muscle strength and endurance. This is because it helps the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the tissues of the body, and helps the heart and blood vessels to function efficiently, and when the health of the heart and lungs improves, the person has more energy to carry out daily chores.
sleep improvement:
Regular exercise, regardless of its type, helps to relax, increase the depth of sleep, and increase activity during the day; It was found that 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per week can improve sleep quality by 65%. This is due to the high body temperature, and the increased energy depleted during exercise; Which stimulates compensatory processes during sleep,
Feeling of pleasure
Regular exercise provides an opportunity to relax, enjoy the outdoors and engage in various activities, and helps increase communication with family and friends in an enjoyable social environment.
Mood improvement:
Regular exercise helps to cause changes in the parts of the brain that regulate stress and anxiety, and increases the sensitivity of the brain to certain hormones, such as: serotonin, norepinephrine, and endorphin; These hormones relieve feelings of depression and promote positive feelings, and it is worth noting that mood improves regardless of the intensity of physical activity.
Types of physical activity
Physical activities, depending on the amount of energy consumed by the body per minute, are divided into two parts:
Moderate intensity physical activity:
- Walking at 3 miles per hour or faster.
- Water aerobics.
- Cycling at less than 10 mph.
- working in the garden.
High intensity physical activity:
- jogging
- Cycling 10 miles per hour or faster.
- Skipping rope.
- Heavy gardening (continuous digging, shoveling).
- Hiking uphill or with a heavy bag.
Global recommendations for physical activity
The global recommendations for physical activity pertain to all healthy adults of the age group (18-64 years) unless there are medical conditions that prevent it, and they apply to all adults, males and females, regardless of their origin or ethnicity. These recommendations are divided into three sections:
- At least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity spread over the week.
- At least 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity spread over the week.
- A combination of moderate and high intensity physical activity.
Moderate intensity activities can be practiced in several short periods, each of which lasts at least 10 minutes, so that the activities are combined (30 minutes a day), and five times a week.
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