5 Benefits of Playing Sports

Importance of Physical Health

By Brooklyn Glasgow

This Monday we will be discussing about why physical health is important in children’s, teenagers, and adults lives. On the 27th of September we will be talking about one of my favourite topics, Maintaining a Healthy Weight. Be sure to to check in on the website at 10:00 am to read about it!

Physical health is the state of your physical body and the proper functions of your organisms. To have good physical health you need to participate in physical activity and stay active. I consider myself an athlete, I play rep soccer 4 days a week and I also exercise on my own time. I feel that playing a sport has helped me have good physical health and has taught me the effect it can have on one's self.  Regular activity can improve one’s quality of life and brain performance. Taking a 20 minute break from homework and going for a walk or run can truly have an impact on your life. Personally, I have always found that when stressed or anxious, going outside for a run, playing a sport, or doing a quick cardio workout  can help me calm my nerves. Playing sports also has great benefits for your body. The more you are involved in physical activity the less of a chance you have of being diagnosed with diseases and sicknesses when older. According to an article called 15 Fun Facts about Exercise by Elizabeth Timms, people who don’t regularly exercise may lose up to 80% of their muscle strength by age 65. Having good physical health can have short term and long term effects on one’s body and health. 

“Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.” -Jim Rohn

I find that having good physical health has always had a big impact on my life. When I take the time to eat healthy and exercise, I feel a lot better about my physical well-being.  I also find that helping my physical health further benefits my mental health. Better Health Channel has an article called Physical Health- it’s important. In this article they state that exercise “may block out negative thoughts or distract you from daily worries”. 

I'm always trying to improve myself whether it's trying to better manage my stress, working on my soccer kicks, or even eating healthier. Setting these goals and achieving them has always been a great way for me to stay positive and motivated. This week I set three goals to hopefully improve my physical health. Throughout the week I applied these three different ways to help me in my lifestyle. The first thing I did was stay active all week. I had soccer 4 days that week but everyday I had off I still went on a run or did a quick and simple workout in my basement. This helped me feel healthier and more in shape by the end of the week. Along with exercise, I believe eating healthy makes a big difference with your physical health. Eating enough protein, fruits, and veggies helped me stay alert throughout the day and brought up my energy when exercising. I made sure to eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner at least an hour to two hours before working out. This benefited me so that when I worked out I was in my burn zone. You can read more about that in the blog “Maintaining a Healthy Weights”. The last thing I did to help improve my physical health was to drink 6-8 glasses of water per day. I wanted to make sure I stayed hydrated throughout the week to hopefully reduce my headaches and stress. By the end of the week I noticed that my overall physical health was amazing but also my mental health was different. I felt more confident in my skin and didn’t worry as much about work and other stresses in my life. I’m someone who tends to get overwhelmed with different things and it causes me to fall apart. I found that throughout this week, doing these simple tasks and setting them as goals helped me stay on track to achieve them. 

Everyone has different ways to stay healthy, for me it's exercising, however for others it may be playing board games or drawing. My suggestion was one of many, but if you’re someone who enjoys playing sports and stays physically active I suggest trying one of these ideas for a week and seeing the impact it has on your life. Afterwards you can judge whether or not to add things or change something. At the end of the day, it's your body, you know what is good for it and what isn’t. Listen to your body, and figure out what it needs to stay healthy.