What Sport is the Best for Your Body?

Playing any sport competitively isn’t easy on one’s body. Repeated motions and the exertion of practices and games cause havoc on one’s body. I know many former collegiate athletes that have been thoroughly ‘beaten up’ by the sport they used to play so intensely. Most have decreased activity levels and quality of life because they wore out their bodies when they were young and they are paying for it now. However, are there some sports that one can play that are less detrimental to your body in the long run? A 2015 PubMed study may provide the answer. This study finds that soccer players have the greatest increase of cytokines and C- reactive protein in the blood after competition comparatively to volleyball, basketball, and handball. Cytokines are a good measure of the stress of a sport on the body because cytokines are an inflammatory response to threat and stress on the body. Muscle damage and metabolic stress was also highest in soccer players. These measured increased to astoundingly high levels right after a match was played. Volleyball had the lowest stress on the body after a match. So, if you want to protect your body from degradation so it can last you your whole lifetime, you should choose your sport carefully. If you want a body that will withstand the wears and tears of a sport, I would suggest staying away from soccer and instead, embrace a less physically stressful sport such as volleyball!  

Souglis A, Bogdanis GC, Giannopoulou I, Papadopoulos Ch, Apostolidis N. Comparison of inflammatory responses and muscle damage indices following a soccer, basketball, volleyball and handball game at an elite competitive level. Res Sports Med. 2015;23(1):59-72.