Are Sports The Best Form Of Exercise?

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Definitions (according to Dictionary.com):

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• Sport:  an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling,boxing, hunting, fishing, etc.

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• Exercise:  bodily or mental exertion, especially for the sake of training or improvement of health

Take-aways:

1) Exercise is about health; sport is about competition.

2) Sport has prerequisites of skill and/or physical prowess; exercise requires some level of exertion, anywhere from nearly non-existent to maximal.

Questions:

1) Can participation in sports lead to reaching your exercise-related goals?

2) Can participation in exercise lead to reaching your sport-related goals?

3) Can sports be manipulated in order to ensure that the demands of the activity do not surpass your structural and neuromuscular abilities?  Can exercise?

4) If fat loss is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

5) If long-term health is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

6) If life-long participation in physical activity is your goal, is sports participation the most effective way for you to achieve that?

Answers (my opinions):

1) Perhaps, but it is usually done in a higher-risk manner that may or may not exceed your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Rarely are people moving at a slow and controlled speed during sports, and this absence of control lends itself to a greater likelihood of certain consequences, particularly acute and chronic injury.

2) Perhaps, depending on what you do and how you do it.  I would argue that there is a greater likelihood of reaching your sport-related goals through exercise than the other way around, but I don't have any data to back this claim.  Even finding injury rates in sports vs. exercise proves difficult for me in part because I'm below average at finding relevant information through search engines and also in part because most articles do not differentiate between sports, whether recreational or competitive, and exercise.

3) Manipulating sports to your needs and abilities is fairly difficult due to the inherent rules of sports, however, exercise is easily manipulable as long as you or someone you are consulting regarding exercise knows what you/they are doing.

4) Really, this answer will cover questions 4-6.  There are a ton of factors involved in determining the outcomes to these questions, so a truly accurate answer is not feasible in a blog post format.  However, one thing to consider is that participation in sports is an enjoyable experience for some people and if that experience keeps them coming back and wanting to participate, then these goals may be reached.

At the same time, understand that sports have an inherently higher risk associated with them due to their competitive nature as well as the established rules that go with them, so if taking that risk leads to acute or chronic injury, achieving the aforementioned goals becomes exponentially more difficult.

Final Thoughts:

I thoroughly enjoy participating in sports, but if that were my only form of exercise, my body would be a wreck at the age of 24.  If you like participating in sports, awesome, but I would strongly encourage you to at least consider the idea of having part, if not most, of your exercise be in the form activities that are well within your structural and neuromuscular capabilities.  Constantly pushing these limits through participation in sports is putting yourself in high-risk situations time and again.  If you are going to do that, you have to make sure your body is prepared for it.

So, are sports the best form of exercise?  I cannot say for certain, and quite frankly I think it is an irrelevant question.  I think a better question would be, "Are sports an appropriate form of exercise?".  Once again, I cannot answer this with complete certainty, but for most people I would lean towards no.  And yet, for a lot of people, it seems sports are their exercise of choice.

Just some food for thought.  And now it's time for me to make some food for stomach.

Questions:  Do you participate in sports, competitively or recreationally?  If yes, how often do you train to prepare your body for those sports?  If no, why not?

Your body.  Your training.

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