As a sports enthusiast, I often play basketball, running, hiking, and occasionally table tennis and badminton. Whether it is for middle-aged and elderly people, young people, or teenagers, physical exercise is very necessary. In fact, my own experience, as well as the communication with other sports enthusiasts around me, have found that people who are interested in one sport are also easily interested when they are exposed to other sports. Regarding the importance of sports, I have summarized the following points, which I would like to share with you as follows, and welcome criticism and correction.
First, physical activity is a great way to exercise the body, especially to prevent chronic diseases. I believe that most people can agree with this, but there are also prejudiced people, such as some elders who live in the countryside like my parents, who think that they are engaged in manual labor every day, and the amount of exercise is already exceeded, and there is no need to do other sports, in fact, this is a cognitive misunderstanding, long-term physical labor, brought about an injury, and scientific physical exercise can prevent or improve this injury. Regular physical exercise can help prevent many diseases, such as cervical and lumbar spine diseases, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, etc., "freezing three feet is not a day's cold", many chronic diseases are long-term living habits (especially eating habits and exercise habits) gradually superimposed consequences, when there are obvious problems in the body, doctors tell us to change eating habits and exercise habits, to quit smoking and drinking, we have to act passively, think about the number of such examples around us? Physical exercise plays a very important role in the prevention of chronic diseases, and I hope that everyone will start from their own experience and think deeply about this issue, from passive health to active health.
Second, sports are good for the mind and contribute to mental health. I put it in the category of mental health because exercise produces dopamine. Here is another review of dopamine knowledge, dopamine is a neurotransmitter, when we play sports, the body releases dopamine, because exercise stimulates dopamine neuronal activity in the brain. Exercise leads to an acceleration of the body's metabolism and increased energy expenditure, while also triggering muscle contractions and coordinated operation of the locomotor system, and these motor signals are transmitted to the areas of the brain responsible for feeling reward, such as the ventral striatum and medial prefrontal cortex, where dopamine neurons are stimulated to release dopamine, and when dopamine is released, it can bind to dopamine receptors in the brain, triggering feelings of pleasure and satisfaction. This rewarding feedback can lead to a positive emotional experience and motivate us to continue with exercise or other rewarding behaviors. In addition, dopamine is also involved in regulating attention, reaction speed, and motor coordination, helping us to better adapt to the demands of movement. To sum up, exercise leads to the release of dopamine by stimulating the activity of dopamine neurons, which produces feelings of pleasure, satisfaction, and positive emotional experiences. Everyone inevitably has negative emotions, and this emotion must have a channel for release, rather than arguing, anxious, and sulking with others, it is better to exercise. When I'm in a bad mood, I usually choose to go for a run, which has proven to be an effective way to release bad emotions.
Third, the social nature of sports. People are social, and they must communicate with other people in order to have a collision of ideas and information. We might as well say according to the age group, for children, not to mention participating in official sports competitions, just say that every day after school and friends seem to be chaotic chasing and fighting, is also an effective sports socialization, is conducive to enhancing the friendship between friends, compared to staying at home all the time, children will eat more fragrant, sleep will be better. This experience was gained from my son's performance; For office workers, taking time to play ball and run with friends is also an efficient social activity, and it is more economical and healthier than drinking and playing mahjong; For older people, why they like to go to the park to do activities with other elderly people, why they want to find someone to play chess, and enjoy it, is actually a way to socialize with people through sports activities.
The above three points are common to people of all ages. The following points may not necessarily apply to adults, because adults' cognition and thinking are relatively fixed, but for minors, they are of great significance.
Fourth, sport can temper the will. Sports are about moving, making you uncomfortable, sweating, going through the cold and heat, and possibly going through injuries, so it's a great help to temper a child's will. Little ones should have at least one physical activity a week to reach their physical limits, but how many children can do it today?
Fifth, cultivate a sense of teamwork. People are selfish, especially today's children, many of them are only children, several people in the family are used to him, and the phenomenon of self-centeredness is more common, but in team sports, such as basketball and football, even if his individual ability is outstanding, it is impossible to win alone, even if he wins by luck, who would like a teammate with such a self? Jordan, the god of basketball, must have Pippen, Rodman and other teammates to win the championship.
Sixth, learn to look at winning and losing gracefully. This is very important, no one is a winning general, most of the children's living conditions are better now, family and school education is generally based on encouragement, encouragement is necessary, but excessive encouragement also has its negative side, which may lead to children's unclear understanding of themselves, and the expectations of the results are too high, resulting in many children cannot afford to lose; Sports competitions, especially one-on-one and short-handed sports such as fighting, table tennis & badminton, and fencing, can be a good way for children to lose under the constraints of the rules. After losing the game, whether you are angry and depressed, or you still gracefully shake hands or hug your opponent, and still respect your opponent, this can very well see a person's bearing. In sports, winning and losing is an inevitable part, including how to correctly face the "unfairness" of misjudgment, because misjudgment is also part of the sports game. Losing or losing does not mean that the child's value or ability is reduced, but rather an opportunity to learn and grow. Teaching children to learn to accept failure and learn from it will help them build a positive mindset and the ability to cope with setbacks.
Seventh, cultivate the habit of lifelong exercise. In recent years, the education and sports departments have intensively issued a series of documents in view of the current situation of young people in China with little time and poor physical fitness, including the "double reduction" policy, which encourages students to exercise for one hour each day in and out of school, and open full physical education classes, so that children can master one or two sports skills from an early age, "teach", "practice" and "regular competition", so that children can develop sports habits from an early age, and can benefit for life, and can insist on sports after work and retirement. This is an extremely wise policy, but it will be discounted when it is really implemented, for many reasons, mainly because the burden of schoolwork is too heavy, and the landing of "double reduction" is more difficult, junior high school students are facing the diversion of the high school entrance examination, and parents want their children to go to high school and famous schools, and they are not willing to go to vocational schools, so under the influence of the general trend, most of the children's sleep is seriously insufficient, not to mention sports. Whenever I have the opportunity to meet elementary and middle school students, I basically get to know how they sleep and exercise, and the results are regrettable. Regarding the issue of physical exercise for students in school, I will not expand too much here, and I will write a special article to communicate with you in the near future.
Overall, our sports are seriously insufficient, the economic base determines the superstructure, although our GDP has already ranked second in the world, but the atmosphere of sports is still relatively poor, compared with developed countries such as Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, there is still a large gap. Older people have not cultivated an interest in sports since childhood, and have not planted that seed, so it is difficult to awaken their enthusiasm for sports, coupled with the lack of sports venues and other reasons. Therefore, there is still a long way to go for the people to go from passive health to active health.