How Basketball Can Help You Stay Fit

Introduction

Basketball, specifically NBA, is one of the most awaited sports competitions to watch every year around the world.

Aside from being fun and challenging to play, basketball brings tons of health benefits to help you stay fit.

Simply put, basket can change your lifestyle for optimum health as much as Kobe Bryant changed the game of basketball. And here’s why…

Seven Ways Basketball Can Help You Stay Fit

Burns Calories

Playing sports is important to attain a healthy body and mind. If you want to manage your weight, playing basketball helps you burn calories effectively.

It’s an excellent workout that helps burn 630 to 750 calories an hour from jumping, running, and making quick movements, providing a form of high-intensity aerobic exercise.

Builds Endurance

Basketball builds endurance by keeping an increased heart rate through intense movements.

Using a combination of these drills, here’s how playing basketball builds your stamina and endurance:

• Basketball Mile Drill: Start by jogging and then increase to a full-out run. Next, jump forward and finish the cycle by walking. Each activity for this drill is done for 20 seconds.
• Pyramid Drill: To do this drill, kickstart at the baseline, sprint to the opposite baseline. Next, do one push-up, a burpee, and sprint back to your starting baseline. After this, do two to five push-ups. Take a two-minute break. Repeat the sprints and do sit-ups this time rather than push-ups.
• Free Throws: Do five consecutive free throws and going under the board and tipping the ball ten times.

You can use CBD after a particularly big workout for faster muscle recovery. Which means you’re less sore after doing drills.

Improves Balance and Coordination

Basketball involves shooting, passing, and handling the ball which require proper hand and eye coordination. The combination of these skills helps improve your balance and coordination.

With improved balance and coordination, you’ll be able to carry, lift, and throw things properly. It reduces clumsiness and losing balance when performing other daily tasks, such as carpentry work, painting, and trimming your overgrown yard trees.

Improves Heart Health

Basketball promotes heart health because it helps develop cardiovascular endurance, reducing your risks of heart disease, atherosclerosis, and stroke.

With physical activity, your heart muscles grow stronger. The more you exercise the better it pumps oxygenated blood from your heart to your cells.

Boosts Immunity

Exercise helps suppress apoptosis and cytokine release, which is responsible for causing inflammatory responses. Also, it helps distribute immune cells and nutrients to tissues for damage repair caused by free radicals.

By strengthening your immune system, you reduce your risk of contracting communicable and infectious diseases.

Constant stress weakens the body’s immune system, making you more susceptible to infections and diseases.

Basketball also combats stress. It lowers cortisol levels by releasing happy hormones like serotonin and endorphins, which strengthens your immune system.

Improves Sleep

Basketball improves sleep quality, which is good for your mind and body. It also improves your mental outlook and mood. By getting quality sleep, you’ll feel more energized the next day.

Here are the benefits of getting adequate sleep:

• Boosts performance.
• Reduces stress.
• Improves memory.
• Creates new neural pathways in the brain.
• Maximize energy.
• Maintains weight.
• Strengthens immune system.
• Prevents cardiovascular diseases.
• Reduce risks of diabetes.

Reduces Stress and Boosts Positive Mood

Physical activities like basketball training triggers the chemicals in the brain that make a person more relaxed and happier.

Chemical hormones like serotonin and endorphins reduce stress, for better mood management. Recreational activities that promote physical activity makes your body and mind stronger and more resilient.

Team sports like basketball aren’t  just good to unwind and improve fitness, it also has social benefits.You can foster camaraderie with your teammates, meet new people, and make new friends.

Playing basketball with your friends helps you to live a happy and healthy lifestyle.

Conclusion

Basketball provides a person with tons of amazing health benefits.

This sport improves concentration and balance by using drills in training. You can burn calories to lose weight playing basketball and strengthen stamina and endurance.

The active movements involved in playing basketball also boosts your immunity and safeguard your cardiovascular health against infections and diseases.

Aside from these, it also helps improve your quality of sleep. Which not only helps you in managing stress, but regulating your mood as well.

Basketball is also good for mental health. It activates the chemicals in the brain called happy hormones which keeps you in a good mood.

Playing with other people, making friends, and building connections also lowers your risk of anxiety and depression.

About Shannon Clark

Shannon holds a degree in Exercise Science and is a certified personal trainer and fitness writer with over 10 years of industry experience.