Tag Archives: Sport

SPORT AGAINST WIDESPREAD DISEASE NO. 1 (NO, NOT CORONA)

SPORT AGAINST WIDESPREAD DISEASE NO. 1 (NO, NOT CORONA) 

Like every day, I moved a lot today and even trained a little harder. I feel every muscle fiber much more and in greater detail than a lump of mass. Without a fitness center, without equipment and devices, just with my own body. Thank god gravity is still free. Exercise makes you feel good, and exercise feels good when you feel good. The opposite of a vicious circle; a circle of joy. I wish that to everyone. All it takes is a little overcoming and maybe an hour less overtime at work, TV, social media, or Netflix. Nothing new? I actually think so too. And especially nowadays, a lot of people call themselves very health-conscious. I often hear how people love nature, but I meet surprisingly few there outside of the tourist routes catered for astronomically. 

Today four out of ten Swiss people are overweight. Obesity leads to cardiovascular disease (the number 1 cause of death), diabetes, and certain types of cancer (cancer is the second leading cause of death). The associated medical costs tripled between 2002 and 2012 and now amount to CHF 8 billion a year. The deeply anchored habit of the majority of the actually physically capable population seems to take the car even for short distances in fine weather and the elevator or escalator even for non-urgent situations. This is only one example, but it shows a fundamentally depraved attitude. Taxpayers’ money is used to further promote and maintain this unhealthy attitude. Corresponding infrastructure is being further expanded, and the number one “widespread disease” (still today in the Corona era) is being marketed as a business. So, the temptation is omnipresent and great to take the path of least resistance. 

The most natural thing in the world is, e.g., walking even in the rain, or if you want to go faster, by bike (not to be confused with the battery-powered scooters with bike frames); to experience the freshness, beauty, and inspiration of direct contact with nature. We have fantastic bike and hiking trails in beautiful Switzerland at our disposal (I am happy to pay taxes for them). Nobody becomes overweight if more calories are burned than consumed. Healthy exercise also regulates a healthy level of appetite. Everybody enjoys movement. But humans also get used to inactivity. It is not easy to get used to exercising built into everyday life again, but it is worth it. All the best on a hopefully moving path! 

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The Association between Physical Activity (PA) and Cognitive Ability

mathias-sager-physical-activity-cognitive-ability

The benefits

It is part of natural aging that our cognitive capabilities may diminish. Cognitive functioning is essential for quality of life, why preserving our mental abilities is in the interest of our well-being (Edwards & Loprinzi, 2017). Physical activity (PA) plays a crucial role in developing and protecting mental abilities.

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Use of Placebo Effects in Performance Enhancement

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Thanks to argentum (pixabay.com)

Bérdi, Köteles, Hevesi, Szabo, and Bárdos (2011) have found in their meta-analysis that placebo was stimulating psycho-motor performance, the influence of heart rate, and diastolic blood pressure. The psychological processes involved are classic conditioning, expectations, and anxiety, which can be interrelated mechanisms activating neurochemical components of the body (Babel, 2009). All, McClung and Collings (2007), Beedie and Foad (2009), and Bérdi et al. (2011) report significant performance benefits from the use of placebo drugs that may be the result of the psychological expectancy effect and not that of the pills at all. The study of Saunders et al. (2016) tested the effect of caffeine in the case of the training of cycling athletes not knowing that they ingested the performance increasing substance with the result, that only when caffeine was identified its effects were realized. On the other side, athletes who found out that their supplements did not contain caffeine were facing damage to their performance development (Saunders et al., 2016).

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Walking: A Wonderful Source of Energy

mathias-sager-walking meditation

My father used to say that if we were supposed to drive or fly we would have wheels or wings. That’s how he argued walking being the most natural way of moving.

That may sound like a little wisdom. However, moderate exercise is scientifically proven to be an excellent recipe to reach longevity in physical and mental youth. Many successful people consciously walk a lot. When did you go for a long walk the last time? Do you remember the refreshing effect of walking outside in the fresh air, meeting nature and the neighborhood? What else do we need for activating our body and inspiring our mind.

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Sport to increase self-control and reduce aggression

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It’s intriguing to look at self-control as a capacity to reduce aggression. In fact Galić and Ružojčić (2017) state that dispositional self-control, as measured with an according test, moderated negative behavior at work. Similarly, implicit self-control can be related to a reduction of anger and different types of aggression (Keatly, Allom, & Mullan, 2017).

Maybe like from the after-school anti-aggression sports program studied by Shachar, Ronen-Rosenbaum, Rosenbaum, Orkibi, and Hamama (2016), the impressive results including evidence for better self-control skills, reduced anger and less urge for physical aggression, could be replicated for adults. The program required the experiment group to sport five times a week, though. Would be interesting to know down to what intensity and frequency such a program would still yield similar benefits (Shachar et al., 2016).

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