24 BENEFITS OF ATHLETICS FOR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH - ARTE - 2025

The main benefits of athletics for physical and mental health are preventing obesity and diabetes, improving cholesterol levels, increasing muscle mass, improving breathing, increasing self-confidence, among others.

Athletics is a sport that encompasses many disciplines grouped into running, jumping, throwing, combined events and marches. All these activities are characterized by high aerobic exercise.

Aerobic activities are considered to be the physical activity practices that report the greatest health benefit. Many studies have focused on investigating what effects these exercises have on both the physical and mental health of people.

In this sense, athletics is the sport that provides the greatest benefits on the physical state of the body and on the psychological functioning of the person who performs it.

Physical benefits of athletics

The movement of the body provides direct benefits on the physical state of people. In fact, to keep the body in good condition it is necessary to carry out a minimum dose of physical exercise daily.

A sedentary lifestyle is the worst enemy of physical health, while athletics is one of the main allies.

In general, studies indicate that all physical activity is beneficial to increase the health of the body. However, aerobic exercises are those that have shown a greater correlation with physical benefits.

Thus, athletics is the sport that can have the greatest beneficial effects on fitness. The twelve that have shown the most scientific evidence are discussed below.

1- Prevents obesity

Practicing athletics enhances the use of fatty acids as an energy substrate to carry out a certain level of physical effort. In this way, it saves muscle glycogen.

It increases the general metabolic activity both during the activity and during the hours (or days) afterwards. Practicing athletics automatically translates into greater energy expenditure by the body, thus allowing you to lose weight and prevent obesity.

On the other hand, aerobic exercise also prevents excess fat reserve and favors a distribution of body fat with a healthier pattern, contributing to weight control.

2- Prevents diabetes mellitus

When doing athletics, the body increases its sensitivity to insulin. The levels of these hormones in the plasma are reduced and the survival of the endocrine pancreas is prolonged.

Thus, athletics is one of the best practices to prevent diabetes mellitus and combat the effects of this disease.

3- Improves cholesterol levels

Carrying out aerobic exercises accelerates the metabolism of plasma lipoproteins and reduces triglyceride levels.

On the other hand, it also improves cholesterol levels, reducing the level of cholesterol linked to low and very low density lipoproteins.

Athletics is one of the sports that brings the greatest benefits to regulating both cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood.

4- Provides cardiovascular benefits

The effects on the cardiovascular system cause the main benefit of athletics on health. This practice improves the performance of the heart by reducing energy needs for a given level of effort.

Heart rate and blood pressure increase more smoothly. Likewise, the value of maximum cardiac output is increased, without increasing the heart rate above normal values ​​in sedentary conditions.

For this reason, athletics improve cardiovascular function and prevent the development of this type of disease.

Likewise, it contributes to the control of blood pressure at rest and during exercise in individuals with different degrees of arterial hypertension.

In addition, it increases the number and density of blood capillaries in the vascular territory. And it causes an increase in their caliber during physical exertion.

5- Increases muscular endurance

Muscles are one of the most working organs during athletics. Its performance increases the aerobic capacity and the power of the oxidative systems of the muscle cells.

These factors motivate a better functioning of the body's muscles and increase the muscular resistance of the person.

6- Improves flexibility

Playing athletics regularly allows muscles to stretch and strengthen, increasing their flexibility and preventing muscle injury.

In fact, many studies postulate that this sports practice is one of the ones that works best to acquire optimal muscle flexibility.

7- Improves the respiratory system

During athletics, the respiratory rate increases and maximizes performance.

In this way, the lungs get used to a more intense functioning, a fact that allows them to enhance their health and prevent related diseases.

8- Increase resistance

Physical activity increases body resistance at all levels. In this sense, practicing athletics increases respiratory, cardiovascular and muscular resistance, and prevents fatigue.

9- Prevents physical deterioration

Consistent athletics encourages greater activation of multiple parts of the body. Most organs contribute to the performance of this physical exercise, so that all benefit from the activity practiced.

In this sense, there are many studies that have shown that athletics prevents, in general, the physical deterioration of the body.

10- Prevents cognitive impairment

When athletics are performed, not only does the functioning of the physical organs increase, but the brain also increases its activity.

Practicing athletics is also postulated as one of the important factors in the prevention of cognitive decline and the development of diseases such as Alzheimer's.

11- Provides a protective effect against colon and prostate cancer

The data about the effects of athletics on the development of cancer diseases are somewhat more controversial than the 8 discussed above.

However, some research suggests that aerobic exercise seems to have a protective effect against colon cancer due to the greater activity that it originates in the abdominal area, facilitating intestinal transit and reducing constipation.

Other studies suggest that the preventive effects could also extend to prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women.

12- Prevents osteoporosis

The results in the prevention of osteoporosis are clearer since athletics produces an increase in bone density, and causes a delay in the appearance of this common disorder in old age.

On the other hand, the practice of this sport increases the activity of the processes involved in the remodeling of the bone and reduces the rate of bone wear that occurs over the years.

Psychological benefits

Physical activity not only has positive effects for the body, it is also highly beneficial for psychological functioning. There are many investigations that show a clear association between physical exercise and psychological disorders such as anxiety or depression.

In fact, nowadays the practice of physical activity constitutes a psychotherapeutic tool in the treatment of different psychological problems. However, the benefits of physical exercise on the mental state are not limited to the treatment of psychopathologies.

All people who practice physical activity frequently experience benefits directly in their psychological functioning. The main ones are:

1- Increase activity

The first psychological benefit of athletics is obvious. Practicing this sport significantly increases activity.

The brain requires a certain level of physical activity to function properly. Otherwise, emotional and mood disturbances can easily be experienced.

In this way, practicing athletics allows to increase the physical and mental activity of the person, thus improving their general state.

2- Increase self-confidence

Sport is one of the main activities that builds self-confidence. Practicing athletics allows the person to be aware of their strengths and increase self-confidence.

3- Contributes to emotional stability

One of the hypotheses about the psychological effects of physical activity is that it modifies the functioning of certain neurotransmitters.

Specifically, it seems to have a direct influence on monoamines such as serotonin or dopamine, a fact that regulates brain function and contributes to the emotional stability of the person.

4- Promote independence

The practice of physical activities in childhood has a great educational and socializing utility.

Specifically, athletics has been shown to be an important factor in the moral development, the acquisition of values ​​and the promotion of the independence of children.

5- It benefits the mood

Mood is one of the psychological components that can benefit the most from athletics.

Performing this sport immediately causes a greater release of serotonin and endorphins. These two substances are directly related to mood. In other words, the more there are in the brain, the better mood you have.

Athletics can improve your mood and keep it stable. Factors that can lower people's mood can be effectively counteracted by doing this sport.

6- Increase positive body image

Athletics provides direct effects on the body silhouette, reducing fat levels and strengthening the body's muscles. However, its effects on body image are not limited to the acquisition of a leaner or more athletic body.

Athletics fosters positive body image by sending direct inputs on the proper functioning of the body and the personal ability to perform and improve.

7- Encourage self-control

Sport is also an important source of emotional release and behavioral regulation. Practicing athletics allows you to increase personal self-control and the focus of emotions.

8- Increase sexual satisfaction

The data relating athletics with sexual satisfaction are somewhat more contradictory than the rest.

A recent national survey found that people who were physically active had significantly higher sexual satisfaction rates.

9- Reduce emotional stress.

There is evidence of the effects of exercise in the symptomatic reduction of stress, at a physiological and psychological level. In this sense, its effects are comparable to those of relaxation, for example, in terms of reducing cardiovascular reactivity to stress.

In this sense, athletics is a good stress management technique and its practice allows the short-term reduction of psychological symptoms such as agitation, nervousness or repetitive thoughts.

10- Contributes to intellectual functioning

Physical-sports activities such as athletics contribute to the improvement of self-esteem and the integration of many people with mental or physical deficiencies.

The official organization of this type of activity is already common, where many times it is as important to win a competition as the feeling of utility and personal fulfillment for the participants.

11- Reduce anxiety

Although exercise is generally considered to decrease anxiety, there is little proven evidence of its therapeutic efficacy in treating anxiety disorders in clinical patients.

The greatest effectiveness of athletics has been described in cases of generalized anxiety and simple phobias.

Likewise, there is some evidence that the practice of exercise is accompanied by a decrease in states of anxiety and nervousness in the moments after the practice, especially if the people presented an abnormal altered state.

12- Improves quality of life

There is general agreement that physical exercise contributes to the improvement of people's well-being, allowing them to feel more energetic, more easily complete their daily tasks and helping them sleep well.

The description of benefits such as the improvement of self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image, self-concept, emotional stability or the feeling of self-control is also frequent.

All these factors contribute to the experimentation of feelings of well-being and the improvement of the quality of life of people.

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