The Health Benefits of Basketball: A Quick Guide

Did you know that there are more than 450 million people across the globe who love to play basketball? This shouldn’t be too surprising since basketball is not only a very fun sport, but it is also full of health benefits. However, what are the health benefits of playing basketball exactly?

Luckily, you’ve clicked on the right article to find out. While basketball may not seem like much more than running and throwing a ball around, the health benefits of basketball can include strengthening your bones, muscles, improving flexibility, and much more. Since basketball requires several people to play, it can offer social and mental benefits in addition to its physical advantages.

To start off our conversation, let’s take a closer look at one of the more obvious basketball benefits: building muscle.

The Health Benefits of Basketball for Your Muscles

As soon as you slip on your shoes for basketball and walk out onto the court, you will be in for a full-body workout. While basketball may not give you huge muscles, it can help you build lean muscle and improve your strength as well. This is because while playing basketball, you need to move fast and have a quick reaction time.

For most of the game, you are either running or in a squatting position which is great for building muscle in your legs and glutes. But beyond building muscle, playing basketball can also increase your muscle endurance. What is muscle endurance exactly?

If you’ve ever been out of shape or are currently not in great shape, you might notice that if you try running or exercising for a long period of time, you will quickly get out of breath. You might even end up with muscle cramps. This is because your muscles are not accustomed to being put through so much activity and they wear out quickly.

Muscles tire out because they don’t get enough oxygen and lactic acid starts to build up, causing muscle exhaustion or cramps. When you exercise, you are actually breaking down your muscles on a microscopic scale. However, once they are broken down, they can build themselves up stronger than before.

This is the case if you end up with sore muscles after exercising. However, as you keep on working out or playing basketball, you will notice that you can play for longer periods of time and end up with fewer sore muscles. If you keep at it, you might even be able to play hours of basketball without barely breaking a sweat.

Improve Heart Health

Heart disease is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Heart disease and other heart problems are often associated with obesity and lack of exercise as well as poor diet. When you don’t exercise, plaque and fat can build up in your blood vessels and around your heart, leading to heart complications.

However, by staying active, you can make sure that you have great blood flow. Improved blood flow can lessen the chances of plaque and fat building up in your blood vessels. Ultimately, your heart will be much healthier too.

This is probably one of the best reasons to play basketball. By staying active, you can also reduce the chances of becoming sluggish and tired in your older age.

Improve Your Communication Skills

Many people don’t like to exercise because they view it as a chore. Running on a treadmill or lifting weights for an hour or so can also be very boring to many people. However, most people are motivated if there is a game to play.

Basketball is a great game to play because not only is it very competitive and motivating, but you can exercise while having fun. One of the biggest benefits of basketball is that you get to play it with your friends. Or, on the other hand, you can play it with strangers with who you might have the chance to build new relationships.

As you play basketball with other people, you will need to work together and work towards a particular goal. Of course, the goal of basketball is to shoot the ball into the opposing team’s basket. When playing, you’ll need to support your team members while opposing the members on the other team in order to reach your goal.

You’ll be able to talk before and after the game as well. This is great not only for improving your basketball strategies, but these conversations can help you feel like your team is more of a community.

You’ll be able to learn basketball tips from your friends as well such as how to shoot the ball better or what the best basketball shoes might be. After all, basketball shoes can make a surprising difference when it comes to running around on the court. You can visit this website to learn more.

Lower Stress

Stress can be a hard thing to deal with and it can make you feel very out of control. Basketball is a great way to lower your stress because of how it connects exercise with teamwork.

You will be able to burn off steam by draining your energy into the game. You’ll also have your teammates to support you all the while. More than that, as you exercise, your body will release endorphins.

Endorphins are feel-good hormones that can help you relax and reduce any physical discomfort. If you need to get something off your mind, basketball is a great option since you’ll be too focused on winning for your team to focus on anything else.