Physical activity is essential for good health accompanied by good nutrition following a healthy and balanced diet on a regular basis. However, for many, practicing a sport can become a headache. There are some factors that must be fulfilled so that you practice it regularly and do not abandon it at the first change. For this reason, before starting any type of sports practice, a series of recommendations should be followed that will help you even combat the dreaded stiffness.
What is practicing a sport?
Practicing a sport means energy expenditure due to the body movement that takes place during the time it is carried out. Physical exercise and its sports practice usually consist of the repetition of the same activity with the simple objective of maintaining or improving the physical condition of the person. However, when an activity has a regulation and a competition format, it is when it receives the name of sport. Some can be collective like soccer or basketball, while others can be individual like judo or taekwondo. There are even mixed-type sports, since they can be both individual and collective, such as tennis, cycling or sailing, among others.
If a person is in good physical shape, they will be able to practice sport without too much fatigue, enjoy doing it during free time and, furthermore, be able to react to new bodily reactions. Before practicing a sport, therefore, a correct planning of the activity is necessary. Many people abandon any type of sports practice due to lack of motivation. If goals are set that are too high, that’s when injuries appear, the difficulty to improve and, consequently, demotivation. Exercise is important for health since it reduces many risk factors at the cardiovascular level and also for cancer.
The practice of a sport can also become a study or work opportunity. In the United States, sport is of great importance when it comes to awarding scholarships to study at the most reputable universities, which, in turn, are the most expensive in the country, although they provide numerous job opportunities. In addition, the sport itself can also open many doors. If you stand out as a youngster, in addition to building a good career, you can become an elite athlete in many ways, either as a professional or as part of a technical team. However, sports centers, helping to train the little ones or, simply, from the position of coach are some of the opportunities that you can find.
Benefits of practicing a sport
Practicing a sport, if done correctly, brings numerous health benefits to everyone who practices it. Obviously, there must be correct control and supervision on an ongoing basis to prevent it from becoming a problem. The most prominent are the following:
- Prevents health problems. Playing sports allows you to maintain proper cardiovascular health and helps prevent diseases that can be fatal such as heart attacks, cancers and lung cancer. At the health level, it also reduces the risk of depression, anxiety or psychosis.
- Helps to stay in good physical shape. Being in shape provides greater motivation and optimism, in addition to adopting correct postural habits that will help you in your day-to-day life, such as when carrying shopping bags from the shopping center to your home. Over the years, your body will thank you for sure.
- Facilitates healthy lifestyle habits. Playing sports also allows you to correct back problems, obtain greater flexibility and mobility, obtain more energy and can even improve the health of your sexual life in your relationships.
- It brings some really useful values in life. Playing a sport also carries some really important intrinsic values. Teamwork, responsibility, rigor, willpower or leadership is just some of the inputs that sports practice can also provide.
However, practicing sports can be as beneficial as it is harmful. Physical exercise should not be taken lightly as it can have significant negative consequences, even causing death. Therefore, and especially if you are a beginner, it is highly recommended to go to a specialist to analyze your body and advise you as a specialist. There are even many people who choose to hire a personal trainer. It helps to maintain motivation, it will monitor each and every one of your exercises and, in the end, it will allow you to control that the technique and execution of the sport is correct and thus avoid injuries, especially in complex type exercises.
Recommendations before starting a sport practice
Before starting a sports practice, the person must evaluate their personal skills before the sport they are going to start. He must be able to define his strengths and weaknesses, as well as the opportunities and threats that he may encounter. It is especially important to be realistic, and not be too humble or too optimistic. The correct progress and advancement in this sport will depend largely on this initial analysis. Therefore, it is recommended that a professional or someone you trust do it. It is very subjective to perform this same analysis on your own, so a personal trainer, friend or family member can achieve better results.
The next step is to set a goal that must be realistic, and have a clear strategy to follow. Wanting to lose weight is not the same as improving your quality by playing football or gaining muscle mass. Each objective is different, and has a path to follow that has little to do with the others. Likewise, everyone must have a personality and be aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and not get carried away by any kind of fashion. If nobody practices something but you like it, go ahead. It can also be useful to find out about the process that our body goes through during sports practice, to know first-hand what is happening in our body. The diet should also be in accordance with the sport we practice. After practicing sport, a correct recovery must occur to achieve the objectives that we have previously set.
Once we start practicing sports, we must also take into account the environmental and meteorological factors that can affect us, especially in those sports that take place abroad. It is of little use to plan a continuous race if it is pouring rain and we will not have the necessary terrain to train correctly. On the other hand, if it is going to be very hot, we should drink more water to avoid possible dehydration and protect ourselves from sunstroke. All in all, following these tips before starting a sport practice will help you maximize your performance and progress, prevent injuries and, above all, keep your motivation high, your desire to improve and never think about quitting. This attitude of lasting a short time doing the same sport is one of the great causes that lead to not maintaining healthy lifestyle habits, entering obesity processes and falling into demotivation and depression. So, follow these recommendations step by step and maximize your motivation and optimism.
