Five Amazing Benefits of Football

Caught the World Cup fever? Let the centuries old communal game inspire you to get yourself and all your football-watching kakis off the couch and score good health in these five ways. Plus, playing two football matches is all you need to clock the minimum 150 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise per week.

Improves cardiovascular health

Aerobic and anaerobic functions are activated as you dribble the ball around the field and chase the ball or your opponents, respectively. Both functions have positive effects on chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood cholesterol and even stroke through the reduction of body fat, visceral fat and bad cholesterol and increase in good cholesterol.

Playing football regularly also boosts your exercise capacity and endurance. As it helps you to endure discomfort or stress, you should find it easier to do more or longer exercises over time.

Better overall muscle performance

There’s no doubt that football players require strong leg muscles. Hence, playing football would aid in growing a strong and powerful lower body. Besides building strength, repeatedly working your lower limb muscles for a period builds overall muscle endurance.
You would be surprised to find that playing football also trains your upper limb and core muscles. This happens as the body needs balance and form to defend and dribble the ball. These muscles create momentum and rhythm, which transfer energy to the lower limbs for necessary tasks such as running and jumping.

Furthermore, playing football requires sudden twisting and reaching motions that forces the entire body’s muscles to lengthen and adapt to motion ranges that muscles don’t extend to while doing daily activities. With consistent proper warm ups and cool downs, playing football in the long run maintains joint mobility and muscle flexibility.

Improves balance

Sudden stops and shifts may happen while kicking, passing, dribbling and receiving the ball. These movements cause sudden shifts in your centre of gravity and can lead you to lose balance. Football training allows you to practice both dynamic and functional balances that hones your balance skills after several times of training.

Hones agility and accuracy

Traditional strength exercises that build muscle strength are not as effective in training balance and coordination. Therefore, functional exercise and sports training are crucial. Football, in particular, is one of the best sports for enhancing lower limb coordination.

As keeping balance requires quick response from the body, your body stays alert and reacts quicker to meet developments on the football field. The combination of running, walking, sprinting and kicking stimulates the neuromuscular system, which improves the connectivity between muscles and brain. When your sensory system provides fast feedback to your central neurological system (brain), your motor system receives immediate information from the brain, stimulating muscles to act efficiently and quickly.

Football skills gather multiple leg muscle groups to work together to score a smooth, accurate and powerful shoot. By repeatedly practising the skills, your neuromuscular system calculates the distance, direction and strength it needs to score more precisely and accurately. These muscle memories that have been stored are beneficial for play in other sports too.

Increases cognitive function

A good football player aims to keep the game as neat as possible, minimising energy use while maximising results. While you may have the essential skills, techniques and balance and coordination abilities, it needs to be applied wisely and precisely. In essentially, game intelligence is needed to play smarter, not harder.

Football is a sport that moves rapidly, placing you under pressure to make decisions while opponents are out to steal the ball. Formulating tactics to handle different types of challenges will enhance your reasoning and planning skills, making you a better problem solver.

Time to get your game on!

Article contributed by Tan Zhong Shern, Senior Therapy Assistant at Singapore Heart Foundation’s Heart Wellness Centre.