5 Health Benefits of Playing Basketball
If you are really concerned about your health in terms of both physical and mental aspects and want to develop them by playing any sport, then I would like to suggest you playing basketball.
Why?
Is this just another ordinary suggestion that you get from other people day in and day out?
No, not really. There are a number of health benefits to playing basketball. This game does not only give you the joy but also it helps you in a number of ways to keep yourself fit.
Let’s see how!
5 Health Benefits of Playing Basketball
- Helps Burning Fat and Calories
Like any other sports, basketball helps to burn your body fat and calories.
Wrong!
Surprised?
Yes, it is wrong because basketball helps to burn your body fat and calories but not like any other sports but more than so many other sports.
How?
Look, when you are playing basketball you are moving back and forth continuously, jumping, throwing, dribbling, and sweating like crazy, meaning you are losing calories and the burning process continues until you finish the match. When you lose calories your body starts taking energy from the stored fat, so altogether you are actually losing fats.
You don’t have to be a professional player to gain this benefit. Even if you play on your backyard with a basketball and maybe a good portable basketball hoop (see some pros and cons of some of the market leading hoops here). I prefer you to see the basketball reviews that I just gave the link to pick the one suited most for you.
How good is that?
Ok, so let’s move to the next point.
- Helpful to Improve Hand-Eye Coordination
So, did you know what hand-eye coordination is? If not, then here is a simple answer. Eye-hand coordination is like you see something and then react with your hand immediately. The better your eye-hand coordination is the faster you can react after seeing something.
Let me first briefly tell you the importance of hand-eye coordination. According to some studies, the worst case scenario of bad hand-eye coordination can be like one won’t be able to perform a simple task smoothly like taking one book from one place and putting it to another place.
Not only that. Good hand-eye coordination is required in your daily life activities as well. For example, when you are driving a car, you need to see and observe the traffic, roads, etc and react with your hand to move the car accordingly with a quick response. The response needs to be a quick response as well.
So, by now you know why it is so important to have good eye-hand coordination.
Now let’s get to the main point.
How a basketball game can be helpful to improve your eye-hand coordination?
Look, when you are dribbling, performing free throw shooting, jump shooting then the main helpers of your mind are your eyes and hand. So when your drilling these shots you are basically improving your hand-eye coordination as well.
Once you master those skills you will no longer need to see the ball too often if not at all. This proves that you have already developed a good hand-eye coordination during the process.
- Helps to Make Your Bones Stronger
Weight-bearing games are always good for your bones.
How?
It helps to grow the bone tissues; as a result, your bones get stronger.
Basketball is such a game that serves the purpose of weight bearing. Not only bones. Both the muscles and bones get benefited; meaning they become stronger if you play this game.
Why so?
Because any physical activity that makes the muscle push and tag against your bones helps to make muscles and bones stronger. And again playing basketball does exactly that.
- Acting Catalyst to Boost Your Immune System
It is always better to prevent than cure, no? You know any physical activity is good to reduce stress. As a consequence, your immune system will be boosted. That means less stress is equal to a boosted immune system.
Basketball is such a game where you are on the move always no matter what position you are playing. That gives your body to be active each moment while you are playing. You also need to be focused during the gameplay. So this is helpful for your mood too.
Altogether this is a kind of game that will help in boosting your mood and immune system. Hence preventing from bacteria and virus attacks. By the way, don’t only depend on basketball, eat a proper amount of fruits and other healthy foods as well. 🙂
- Mental Development
As I told in the beginning, basketball is not only beneficial for your physical health but also for your mental health.
Why?
Very simple. Basketball is not only a physical game but also a mental game. It is not that you just run side by side with the ball and a blank brain. You got to take calculative decisions while running with proper skills.
You have to be in a fully attentive mode to process in your mind the happenings on the court and react quickly. So it’s always a brain work as well. You need to evaluate your opponent’s strategy and show a better presence of mind with skills.
So all in all, this is a great game to develop your brain, calculative power, evaluation skills, that eventually will be helpful for your day to day life activities as well.
Final Words
So, convinced? Still in doubt of the health benefits of playing basketball? I think, No. By the way, these are only a few major benefits that this wonderful game serves you. There are many other benefits like boosting confidence, improving spatial awareness, stabilizing hormones and many more. Probably we will discuss those some other day with fresh new content. Till then happy playing!
