Sports to Stay Healthy

Some sports that can help you stay healthy are low cost and highly effective at getting you into shape. Many participate in sports because it is fun but there are also a number of health benefits associated with staying active. If your goal is to lose some weight, tone your muscles or improve your fitness, basic sports will help you achieve your objectives.

Swimming

There are a number of benefits associated with swimming. Your cardiovascular fitness gets a real boost when in the pool because swimming works the entire body. Major muscle groups also go through an exhaustive workout, depending on how much you swim. Your posture and flexibility improve over time since swimming utilizes the whole body through movements that can only be done in the water. Another benefit is perhaps what swimming does not do to your body. Namely punish your joints, bones and ligaments. The natural resistance from the water protects areas such as the knees and elbows from any jarring.

Running

Running burns a lot of calories, which is the simplest way to lose weight. Your cardiovascular endurance benefits from a running program. Running can lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart attack. In addition to improving your fitness level, running also helps tone your muscles, particularly your leg muscles, and decreases bone and muscle loss, thereby slowing the aging process. Trail running improves your coordination and balance because of the unevenness of trails and various obstacles you must get around. Over time, you learn to control your body while running, improving your reflexes.

Biking

Just 40 minutes of bike riding can burn up to 500 calories, according to the Adult Bicycling website. Indoor cycling classes at fitness studios are specifically designed to burn a high amount of calories to help people achieve their weight loss goals. Biking helps tone leg and back muscles, while shaving off those love handles. Regular bike riding also greatly improves cardiovascular fitness and cuts down the chance for heart disease. Like swimming, biking is easy on joints and bones, since it is a low-impact sport. This makes biking ideal if you have limited range of motion or have knee problems.