When we talk about how to be healthy, we immediately think about the big three: sport, lifestyle, and nutrition. Very few conversations go further than saying those are important. This doesn’t leave you knowing what to focus on.
Like with every endeavor there are areas that outweigh others as far as importance and effectiveness. In this article, I will focus on sport as far as it pertains to health (although, this is not because lifestyle or nutrition are less important).
I will say anecdotally (from coaching at QualityFit for 8 years) when people have sports in their routine, their lifestyle & nutrition are always better compared to the times they aren’t active. Sport seems to be the gatekeeper before people can focus on lifestyle/nutrition with some meaningful consistency.
Now how does sport help your health? To answer this we need to figure out what health is and then cross-reference it with the proven benefits we get from sport, from there we can see which sport does best!
Before a doctor can form a valid opinion on whether or not someone is healthy they will look at certain things, here are a few:
- Blood Pressure
- Resting Heart Rate
- Body Weight
- Cholesterol Values
- Fat Percentage
- Kidney Values
The reason doctors look at these indicators is that they are strongly linked to people who live long lives with fewer illnesses. (ex. if you have high blood pressure, studies show us that you are most likely shaving years o your life and life quality. Other things, such as fat percentage, might not mean your blood pressure or other key markers are bad right now. Although they probably will be. Either way, it will lead to poorer health markers much faster compared to people with leaner bodies. This is all well established in the medical field.
Through the literature, we can find a list of the most important aspects of good health. Here are some good indicators that you’re in good health:
- Blood Pressure - Lower Or Equal To 120/80
- Body Fat Percentage - For Most People, Less Is Better
- Insulin Sensitivity - Moderate Sensitivity Is Good
- Heart Rate - Lower Is Better!
- Cholesterol Values - Low Ldl And High Hdl Levels
Sport, in general, will help all of these, however, 2 hours of tennis won't give you the same as even 30-60minutes of weight training. This is because of the way lifting directly plays into most of these values or body systems. In ways, traditional sports do not. Through weightlifting, we see drastically improved insulin sensitivity vs other sports, greater muscle mass gain, and thus less body fat, at the same bodyweight. Compared to people who only do cardio-based sports.
When we look at the studies of weight training we always find the following:
- Highly Improved Insulin Sensitivity
- Prevention Of Insulin Resistance
- Greater Muscle Mass
- Reduced Body Fat
- Improved Cholesterol Levels
- Improved Blood Pressure
From here it’s easy to see why weight training gives very meaningful health benefits. If you really want to maximize health. As far as sport goes I would recommend doing these two things:
- Focus On Weight Lifting Up To Three Hours Per Week.
- If You Have Extra Time, Try Adding In Cardio!
From the literature, lifting seems to have overall more benefits with less time. However, Cardio has extra health benefits which are important if you really want to optimize everything.