When it comes to sports, you typically get people who are really into that one single type of sports or you get those who try a bit of everything. Whatever you do, try and think about the benefits you get from the sports you pick and decide for yourself, whether your sports routine might just be too one-sided. Here are four aspects, that we feel should be covered by anyone who strives for a healthy body.

Cardiovascular Endurance

The cardiovascular system distributes oxygen and nutrients in your body. Without those two essentials, your body cannot function properly. To this end, we rely mostly on our heart and lungs. Exercises that use and strengthen these two parts of your body are called “cardio exercises”. Typically they will get your heart rate above your normal level and make you breath harder over an extended period of time.

Although most sports will get you a cardiovascular benefit, moderately intense exercises over an extended period of time will work best. Good examples are running, cycling and playing soccer.

Muscular Strength and Endurance

This is about how much weight can your muscles move and how many times can you contract a group of muscles repetitively. Improving these aspects will boost your overall strength, stability and balance. In turn, you will become less prone to injury.

To get these benefits, lifting weights is the obvious answer. However, other sports such as bouldering and rowing are also good candidates as they make your muscles work a lot harder than usual.

Function

If you only isolate body parts in the gym and if you only focus on typical cardiovascular sports such as running, you will lack this aspect. It’s about coordinating your movements and teaching your body to engage all the right muscles to perform a certain task or movement.

Climbing, swimming and calisthenics are fantastic examples of sports that require your muscles to work in accord with one another.

Flexibility

This is about joint mobility and range of motion: At which point will your ligaments, tendons and muscles restrict motion? In many sports, greater flexibility leads to better technique. Without the right degree of flexibility, correct and healthy execution of certain movements is impossible.

Yoga, stretching and dancing are great ways to become more flexible.

Conclusion

For almost every sport you need all of the above aspects to a certain degree. For a healthy body, don’t try and overdo it in any of these areas. Instead try and get a healthy mix of them by trying out different sports!