We all know that sport helps us stay in shape, but the advantages of this type of activity go beyond the physical.
If we incorporate it into our daily or weekly routines, we will experience an improvement in quality of life even in areas of life that have little to do with losing weight, defining our muscles or gaining strength or endurance. Specifically, Sport benefits our mental health ; Let’s see how it does it and how we can take advantage of this through strategies to take care of our well-being.
In many respects, the distinction between body and mind is an invention created by human beings for convenience; There is no clear boundary between physical health problems, on the one hand, and mental health problems, on the other; and in the same way, what works well for our cells and our organs also benefits our psychological processes, such as emotion management, self-control, or the detection of dysfunctional thoughts.
In sports, many of these advantages are presented in a combined way, so that while we do physical exercise we take care of our psychological balance. If you want to know how this happens, keep reading this list of the benefits of sport for mental health.
1. Improves self-esteem
Improved self-esteem is one of the main benefits that we can notice when we exercise regularly during the week.
Self-esteem is the way we perceive ourselves and by exercising or physical activity for a while we will be in better shape and feel better both physically and psychologically. In the case of playing sports, it acts as a provider of short and medium-term objectives, so that if we get used to, for example, playing soccer or training in archery, We will have constant samples of what we are capable of doing if we set our minds to it and the progress we can make in a matter of weeks or months.
That is why many psychologists recommend physical exercise (in moderation) to people with self-esteem problems or who feel bad about themselves for whatever reason.
2. Helps combat stress and anxiety
States of stress and anxiety can erode people’s mental health and accumulate progressively, contributing to generating discomfort and emotional fatigue in those who suffer from it.
In this sense, sport also helps us channel all the stress or anxiety that we may have at a given moment, whether due to personal or professional problems, and expel all the discomfort from our body. It does this by putting us in a situation in which we must focus our attention on the present moment thus weakening intrusive thoughts, which are based on catastrophic predictions about what will happen in the future or exaggerations of the problems we carry from the past.
3. Helps in cases of depression
As with people with low self-esteem, anxiety or stress, psychologists also recommend, most of the time, physical exercise for people who may have cases of depression. This helps to get involved in activities that, while being relatively simple, activate us mentally and motivate us to achieve very short-term goals, something key to getting out of passivity and emotional flattening.
As numerous scientific experiments have shown, regular exercise is also an excellent way to better cope with specific muscle pain and also various types of pain in the body , which positively influences mental health. Of course, assuming that there is no injury that prevents the most important parts of the body from performing the movements well.
The release of different endorphins during physical activity makes us feel good once we have finished the session, which is why people usually feel so relaxed and at ease after playing sports.
This hormonal release into the bloodstream also makes it possible to overcome certain types of muscle pain, back pain, joint pain, and also bone pain.
5. Improves cognitive deficits or problems
Sport also has a very notable influence on the functioning of the brain, and particularly on the cognitive problems or deficits that some people may have.
Sport stimulates the hippocampus brain region, related to essential functions such as memory and learning. In addition to that, sports also improve cognitive functions such as information retention, and the ability to concentrate
6. Prevents mental pathologies
For more than 10 years, it has been known that physical activity has a neuroprotective effect on the brain, which means that it helps us prevent the appearance of all types of pathologies or neurodegenerative diseases and slow their progression in cases in which there are already a diagnosis. This is believed to be because When faced with this type of illness, it is important to expose oneself to stimuli rich in nuances and in which the sensations are associated with coordinated movements, since this favors the creation of new neuronal connections.
Sport can be used as a reward ; That is, a way to reward ourselves for having done something well. This makes it serve as an anchor point between us and what we have committed to doing, or that benefits us but costs us effort and involvement.
People who engage in frequent physical activity tend to feel better about themselves, be happier and more optimistic about their lives, because this routine occurs within the framework of a lifestyle in which the person intends to complete pending tasks and keeps away from a passive and overly sedentary attitude.
8. It can serve to improve social skills
Unwanted loneliness is a factor that is associated with psychological problems; Being socially isolated makes us worse at dealing with our emotions and to take care of our mental health.
In this sense, physical exercise also has a decisive influence on improving social relationships, since it helps us learn new ways of cooperating and communicating beyond words, and acquire positive values ​​such as companionship or mutual support.. In this way, another of the benefits of sport for our mental health is that it makes it easy for us to connect with others and make friends even in situations where we have to compete.
Do you want to train in Sports Psychology?
If you are considering specializing professionally in the field of sports psychology, the Master in Sports Psychology offered by the Mediterranean School of Psychology is for you. This 800-hour online training program allows you to learn from expert psychologists in the field. If you are interested in knowing more, visit the Mediterranean School of Psychology website.
