Running head: WHAT CAN SPORTS DO FOR ME?

What Can Sports Do for Me? Alan Ortiz Pimentel Pontificia Universidad Catlica Madre y Maestra Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic

WHAT CAN SPORTS DO FOR ME?

What Can Sports Do for Me? Do you really want to be in shape and experience a healthy life with all your dear friends and family? But wait, just a minute right there! When I am referring to a healthy life, I am not just talking about your physical health; I am also referring to your psychological being. After all, when both your body and mind are in good terms, you can conquer whatever obstacle comes up in your life. I might be wrong, but now you must be asking yourself: How do I accomplish this? How can I be more excited for whatever the future holds for me? Well, let me tell you about the benefits of practicing sports and your daily life, because physical improvement, psychological effects, and creation of relationships with others, are a few of the things that you will accomplish with practicing sports. A happy heart is one that is not lazy! Nowadays, physical inactivity is considered one of the major risk factor for heart disease and has even established a direct relationship between a sedentary lifestyle and cardiovascular mortality. This is because a sedentary person has a higher risk of being obese, diabetic, have high cholesterol, and have a heart attack (Albarrn & Martn, n.d.). When you go and start to practice any kind of sports, your organism starts to become more resistant, and less vulnerable to all the risks we previously have mentioned. But the physical improvement does not stop right there, when you practice any kind of sports, you also will gain a lot of new skills such as: agility, reflexes, and stamina. Although this set of new skills is a great improve for our muscle anatomy because it is not easy to get. Sometimes, the pain and muscle fatigue that we will experience through

WHAT CAN SPORTS DO FOR ME?

all sport practice it may induce us to just resign and just give up. But if all those physical improvements were easy to get, where will be the fun then? As the American rapper Jones said in one of his song: Go hard or go home (2004). There are people that consider sports, as the best way to lose weight and get in shape quickly, but it goes beyond that. What most of the people do not realize when they practice sports, is that you also can get mental benefits, but those benefits seems to be so simple and ordinary that you cannot realize it right away. These mental benefits express themselves in characteristics of optimism, and enthusiasm, which can give you a rise of self-esteem, a reduced your levels of tension and stress, and also reduce the level of depression. These allow us to adapt later to difficult situations in our live, such as: anger, aggressiveness, among others. Teenagers are the ones that can obtain more mental benefits from sports. After all, adolescence is the age of complex changes to a human being, and everything around them can be a significant influence on their behavior for the future. Hopefully, sports can provide them with discipline, which they can use to get more character building. And these make them more suitable to be molded into the right path. Sports are in fact a great thing for our life, as we already see. It can grant us great physical and mental conditions, but what we should give thanks for, is that the sports are not totally practiced alone. This is the best part of sports, because it can improve your chances to create relationships with others. But more than improve it; it forces you to do it. Social isolation is not an option with sports. You will want to learn how to play, and you will need to ask, to see, to understand, and to make it.

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However, we know that is known that not all the sports are made for teams to play. And relationships can be created faster with teammates than in solo sports. When you play with teammates or alone, against rivals or a rival, you develop your sociability and understand the importance of respecting others (Toro, n.d.). As you can see, you need to put all your heart and effort to do your best in any kind of sport you want to try. I can only tell you some of the benefits that practicing sports in your daily life can provide for you. The physical improvement, the psychological effects, and the creation of relationships with others, are just a small part of an immense universe of possibilities. And who knows, maybe the next time you read this paper again, you would be the three times Most Value Player in a NBA season, holding the FIFA World Cup, or just finishing your regular jogging of 15 kilometers to the bay. The possibilities are infinite; dont let them disappear.

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References
Albarrn, C., & Martn, A. (n.d.). Ejercicio y Corazn. Retrieved from Fucalec: http://www.fucalec.com/PACIENTES/documentos/Ejercicio_y_corazon.pdf Jones, R. J. (Composer). (2004). Body Head Bangerz. [C. Fassett, D. Turner, D. Davis, R. J. Jones, Performers, & R. J. Jones, Conductor] United States. Toro, V. (n.d.). Los beneficios del deporte para los adolescentes. Retrieved from About.com: http://adolescentes.about.com/od/Deportes/a/Los-Beneficios-Del-Deporte-Para-LosAdolescentes.htm