Sports

How Sports Improve Your Mental Health

Date: 5/8/2022

Sports are commonly known to improve physical health, but their mental benefits are often overlooked. According to WebMD, about eighty percent of doctor visits can be traced back to stress-related illnesses. Sports can help one manage stress since physical activity releases endorphins, which are chemicals in your brain that are known to relieve pain. Additionally, exercise reduces the level of stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline. Studies have shown that moving around for only twenty minutes a day can make people feel significantly calmer. Additionally, sports force one to put aside their worries and concentrate on the task at hand. They can also lead to an increasing regularity in sleep patterns which is statistically proven to relieve stress.

Participation in sports can have long-term effects on your mental health as well. This is evidenced in an experiment in which researchers studied 9,688 children who faced poor childhood experiences or emotional neglect. They found that those children who took part in team sports had much better mental well-being when transitioning to adulthood. Lastly, studies have shown that exercise improves symptoms of depression and reduces the risk of relapse. In short, exercise was found to be as effective as standard antidepressant treatment. All of these experiments and data have come to show the irreplaceable positive effects of participating in exercise through mediums such as sports on a regular basis.

For additional information, purchase the book titled Mental Toughness for Young Athletes by Troy Horne linked below.