Sports and physical
activities can have an impact on people’s lives in more ways than one. Not only
can it help one live a healthy life style and be a hobby or a pass time for
some, but sports and physical activities can also influence the life styles and
decisions one makes later on in life. The article “Adolescent participation in
sports and adult physical activity” by Tuija Tammelin talks about the
relationship between participating in sports as an adolescent and how that
would influence and affect the likelihood that one would continue being
involved with physical activities as an adult. The article is about a study
that was done where 7794 people responded to a survey about physical activity
status at the age of 14 and then again at the age of 31 (Tammelin). The study
showed that those who participated in sports and physical activities in their
adolescence were more likely to continue to participate in physical activities
as an adult.
There are a few articles that help to support the ideas
from the article by Tammelin. One of those articles is “Transfer of Strength
and Power Training to Sports Performance” by Warren B. Young and it explains how
strength and power training should be used to improve sports performance in
things such as sprinting, how the training physically transfers to performance
in sports, and how people could use the different types of exercises to train. The
second article is “Statement on Exercise: Benefits and Recommendations for
Physical Activity Programs for All Americans” by the Committee on Exercise and
Cardiac Rehabilitation of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart
Association and it explains some of the health benefits of continuing to
exercise throughout your life, gives some examples of physical activities to
participate in and how they can be good for you, and explains how there needs
to be even more research done on physical activities to fully understand all of
the health benefits that exercise can give us. People need to be a where that
sports and physical activities can influence their lives and that certain
aspects of their lives can also have an impact on their participation in those
activities.
The life style one has and the activities that one is involved
with in their adolescence can have an impact on the life style and the
activities that they will be a part of as an adult. In the study from the
article by Tammelin, it showed that “the percentages of those who participated
in sports daily, every other day, twice a day, once a day, and less often than
once a day were 23%, 25%, 22%, 12%, and 18% for males, and 13%, 15%, 23%, 20%,
and 29% for females” (Tammelin). For the participants at age 31, the results
showed that “of very active, active, moderately active, and inactive persons
were 13%, 28%, 29%, and 30% for males, and 12%, 29%, 25%, and 24% for females”
(Tammelin). From the data collected by the study, one can see that males that
participated in sports twice a week and females that participated once a week
would be likely to be active or very active with sports and physical activities
as adults. This helps to show that the life styles and the activities people do
in their youth can influence what they end up doing later on in life.
Another topic the article talked about was how the type
of sport or physical activity that one participated in had an influence on what
they participated in later on in life. The study showed that individual sports
as well as team sports “showed a strong carry-over value from adolescence into
adulthood” (Tammelin). For example, the data collected from the study showed
that 27% of the males questioned participated in ball games and even more
participated in endurance sports like running as adults
(Tammelin). This shows that the
activities that one chooses to participate in early on in their life may
influences the activities later on in their life as well.
Tammelin also writes about how other factors such as
where people live and their skills for a sport may influence their involvement
in the sport and might ultimately influence their participation in the sport
later on in life as an adult. The article explains how people’s participation
in certain activities might be influenced by the area they grew up in or by the
social status of their family. Tammelin writes that people who live in urban
areas might participate in activities that would need certain facilities and
organization, such as combat sports or dance; however, people who live in rural
areas might be more involved with activities such as running (Tammelin).
Another factor that might affect one’s participation in a sport is their skills
for certain sports. For some sports, motor and coordination skills are needed.
People who have those skills might be more drawn to play those sports and
further develop those skills by participating in that sport throughout their
life.
The article written by Young explains how strength and
power training can help to improve one’s performance in sports. One example
that was used was for someone “to achieve a 2.2% gain in sprint performance a
21% improvement in squat strength was required” (Young). This shows that one
must work to increase their strength in order to improve their sprint
performance. Some of the exercises stated in the article that were used in the
training to increase strength were various squats and pulling exercises. The
article also stated that some findings “reported that 8 weeks of plyometric
training including some unilateral/horizontal exercises induced significant
improvements in sprint time to 10 m” (Young). This shows that multiple training
exercises can be used to help one improve their performance in sports. This goes along with the study from the first
article because if people improve their skills at a sport they would be more
likely to continue participating in the sport throughout their lives.
The article by the
Committee on Exercise and Cardiac Rehabilitation of the Council on Clinical
Cardiology, American Heart Association explains some of the health
benefits of continuing to exercise throughout your life. One of the benefits
described in the article was that “exercise training increases maximum ventilator
oxygen uptake by increasing both maximum cardiac output and the ability of the
muscles to extract and use oxygen from blood” (Committee
on Exercise and Cardiac Rehabilitation of the Council on Clinical Cardiology,
American Heart Association). The article also states that “maximum ventilatory
oxygen uptake drops 5% to 15% per decade between the ages of 20 and 80, and a
lifetime of dynamic exercise maintains an individual’s ventilatory oxygen
uptake at a level higher than that expected for any given age” (Committee on
Exercise and Cardiac Rehabilitation of the Council on Clinical Cardiology,
American Heart Association). The statements from this article show that
exercising throughout one’s life can help to improve their health. The improved
oxygen uptake described in the article helps to support what was written in the
articles by Young and Tammelin because better oxygen uptake can help a person
perform better in a sport which would make that person want to continue to be
involved with that sport, and continuation with the sport will also continue to
provide more health benefits for that person.
Sports, physical activities, and the life styles people
choose to lead all have an impact on their lives. Whether it is how much a
person chooses to be active, the activity being involved with, or other factors
that influences people’s decisions on what to participate in, it is all
important and can affect one’s life in one way or another. The ways sports and
physical activities can have an influence on people’s lives is another reason
why it is important to participate in them and lead healthy life styles.
Bibliography
Tammelin, Tuija. "Adolescent Participation in
Sports and Adult Physical Activity." American Journal of Preventive
Medicine (2003): 22-28.
the Committee on Exercise and Cardiac Rehabilitation
of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, American Heart Association.
"Statement on Exercise: Benefits and Recommendations for Physical
Activity Programs for All Americans." (1996).
Young, Warren B. "Transfer of Strength and
Power Training to Sports Performance." International Journal of
Sports Physiology and Performance (2006): 74-83.
