Playing sports offers a fantastic way to switch up your fitness routine and improve overall well-being. Although the gym is the standard place for a workout routine, gym workouts can become mundane. Moreover, the gym is not everyone’s cup of tea as some individuals prefer more thrilling and spontaneous activities.
However, sports are competitive, riveting, and unpredictable; the thrill of fighting to win is unmatched. Moreover, one expert review posits that working out in a peer group, like a sports team, is more beneficial than lone gym workouts. Therefore, keep reading to identify the top fitness-centric sports.
Swimming
Swimming is the go-to sport if your fitness goal is packing lean muscle. The water resistance (drag) in a swimming pool and other water bodies functions like weights in resistance training.
Essentially, the repetitive arm strokes and kicking movements employed in swimming improve endurance and strengthen your muscles and joints. Second, Swimming works the key muscle groups, including the shoulders, arms, core, and thighs, helping you grow lean muscle tissue and enhance your muscle function efficiency.
Third, swimming is a low-impact sport because the water’s buoyancy protects your knees and ankles from impact pressure. You can see more about swimming’s benefits in the best online sportsbooks.
Besides the physical fitness benefits of the sport, one expert review states that swimming also has mental health benefits, including relaxation and mood elevation. Lastly, swimming is tons of fun for people of all ages and fitness levels; therefore, you can convert your swimming classes into a fun social activity, like family time.
Racquet Sports
Racquet sports like racquetball, tennis, and badminton improve physical health, brain function, and mental health. According to one study, racquet sports improve your resting heart rate and reduce your risk of developing hypertension.
Moreover, such sports also help you keep fit by burning serious calories. You can burn approximately 500calories while playing racquet sports leisurely for an hour and up to 900 for an hour of competitive racquet sports action. Racquet sports also involve all body muscles, including shoulders, arms, legs, abs, back, and pectoral region muscles, and strengthen your musculoskeletal system.
Second, focusing on the ball helps you develop quick reaction times, which grows your brain while strengthening signaling pathways. Third, the rush from competitive racquetball sessions triggers the body to release endorphins and serotonin (a feel-good hormone) to alleviate mental stress and improve mood. Lastly, racquet sports are team activities and create ample opportunities to expand your social circle.
Rowing
Rowing may seem mundane at first glance, but the sport is such an effective fitness technique that fitness equipment brands create a piece of fitness equipment mimicking the rowing motion. Sport is an efficient way to keep fit because it facilitates a full-body workout by working all muscle groups. Therefore, you do not have to worry about whether you are overexerting some muscle groups while neglecting others.
Besides working the muscles, rowing is also an aerobic sport, meaning it improves your lungs’ and heart’s capacity to take in and transport oxygen, respectively. Therefore, it also improves stamina and endurance.
Rowing is also suitable for weight loss because you can burn approximately 480 calories to 850 calories after an hour of rowing on a water body. Moreover, the endorphins the body releases during physical activity kick in after 20minutes of rowing, leaving you feeling suitable for longer. Lastly, rowing is a team sport that allows you to connect with nature, and nature is good for the soul.
Martial Arts
Martial arts is a fantastic choice of sport if you desire well-toned muscles. The limb movement involved in the sport requires plenty of effort and works your arm, leg, and core muscle, increasing lean muscle growth. Moreover, martial art is a full-body workout that helps build muscle strength and stamina from repetitive movement.
Also, martial arts movements 65improve flexibility and body coordination. Flexibility helps improve body posture and reduces muscle tension, lowering the risk of injury.
Although diverse martial art types exist, experts estimate you can burn approximately 720 calories after an hour of most martial arts practices. However, the sport’s most remarkable quality is its effect on cognitive function.
According to one study, martial arts improve the endogenous alert network’s function. The endogenous alert network is a voluntary, goal-driven approach to processing sensory information. Also called the top-down attention channel, the network prioritizes task-relevant cues for further processing in the brain.
The sport’s effect on the endogenous alert network explains why individuals turn to martial arts to cultivate discipline, patience and focus. Moreover, the sport also incorporates mindfulness practices to help ease mental stress and anxiety.
Cycling
Cycling has multiple benefits to your physical health, including lowering the resting heart rate, improving lung function, and reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. The sport is an effective targeted fitness regimen that works lower-body muscles like glutes, hamstrings, and quads.
However, the energy expended while working the lower-body muscles helps burn upper-body calories, explaining cycling’s impact on lung and heart health. Second, cycling also promotes endurance, especially when practiced along rugged terrain.
Lastly, cycling is versatile because you can engage in the sport as an individual, for the lone rangers, or join a cycling group. Experts recommend cycling 30-45minutes daily to keep fit.
Conclusion:
The sporting activities highlighted above do not come close to exhausting the list of fun sporting activities that promote fitness. Therefore, start here, but keep exploring to find the sport that matches your fitness needs and spirit.
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