Playing baseball is an excellent way of getting both moderate and vigorous exercises.
The sport of baseball works an array of muscle groups, especially the lower legs, thighs, and arms. Baseball also helps players to develop reaction skills, quick thinking, and hand-eye coordination.
By joining a baseball team, you’ll be able to make friends while also enjoying a healthy dose of exercise.
Throwing, catching, running, and swinging the best BBCOR bats offer tremendous benefits to the entire body, in addition to helping you burn calories.
The following are the major health benefits of playing baseball:
Helps to Burn Calorie
Mayoclinic.com opines that a normal person who weighs 160 pounds burns roughly 365 calories while playing baseball for one hour.
Clearly, the more you weigh, the higher the number of calories you burn since the body must work harder to function optimally. For instance, an individual that weighs roughly 200 pounds can burn 455 calories.
Physical activity also goes miles in boosting metabolism to assist the body in burning calories and reducing body fat. The truth is that baseball players burn huge amounts of calories, particularly during training sessions.
Walking from/to the dugout, catching the ball, running the bases, and swinging the bat are all physical exercises, which keep the metabolism of players revved up.
Helps to Strengthen Legs
As a sport, baseball recruits all major muscles in your legs. How does this happen?
Squatting/throwing down to recover a ball, and moving laterally engages the calf muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes.
Running is not only a great cardiovascular exercise, but it’s also incredible when it comes to building up and toning your leg muscles.
Often, baseball entails short bursts of running followed by some minutes of rest. Baseball catchers work the muscles of their legs by repeatedly squatting and standing behind the plate.
Strong Arms
Catching the ball, throwing the ball, and swinging a baseball bat are some of the amazing ways of improving joint flexibility and building arm strength.
Swinging the bat and throwing the ball involves all arm muscles, including the shoulders, chest muscles, triceps, and biceps.
A player’s shoulder rotator cuffs get some good workouts through the twisting motions needed for throwing a ball and swinging the bat.
Cardiovascular Training
All exercises that get your heart to pump and body to sweat are cardiovascular workouts. These exercises are great for strengthening the heart muscles as well as improving lung capacity.
According to the CDC, adults usually get roughly 2hrs 30 minutes worth of cardio exercise weekly.
Catchers chasing a foul baseball, outfielders running to get a fly ball and batters running the bases are some short bursts of cardiovascular exercise.
Overall Fitness
The Major League Baseball demands that all professional baseball players be fit athletes. Baseball players have lean bodies that boast a body fat percentage of 8-9%.
Such players are also able to run over 60 yards in less than 7 seconds. If you’re an average non-athlete, you can still enjoy the amazing benefits of the sport as a recreational activity.
The sport constitutes long-standing periods and waiting that are punctuated by the occasional activity bursts.
Sunlight
Even though excess exposure to sunlight without sunscreen raises the risks of skin cancer, there’s no doubt that sunlight provides numerous benefits too.
Since baseball players play the game outside and rarely during rain, it means that players spend most of their time outside being exposed to sunlight for the entire game.
Based on a research article, sunlight is the major source of the body’s vitamin D. That’s highly crucial to make sure that the body absorbs and metabolizes phosphorus and calcium.
Stress Relief
By getting involved in baseball, a player is able to develop his or her mental focus, and concentration. The sport also refreshes the mind from daily distractions.
Benefit for the Youth
Youth Baseball game
According to research conducted by Jordan D. Metzl who is the Hospital for Special Surgery, medical director of Sports Medicine Institute for Young Athletes, sports like baseball offer a variety of health and physical benefits for teenagers and children.
The medical director also notes that the sports develop overall fitness in such a fun manner thus laying the groundwork for extended physical fitness, releasing muscle tension, and relieving stress.
The sport is also an incredible way of preventing alcohol and drug abuse by offering young players a healthy respect for their physical abilities and bodies.
Conclusion
Over 150 years have passed since baseball was invented. Over the years, the game continues to be highly popular for both participants and spectators.
Whether you’re a middle-aged armchair athlete, a preadolescent Little League player, or a professional baseball player, there’s no doubt that you can benefit immensely in terms of health from playing baseball.
The above are just some of the many health benefits you can derive from baseball.
Disclaimer: All images are provided by the author.
About The Author:
Ryan maintains his best interest in providing the public with useful information about baseball. He is an enthusiastic blogger having many years of valuing baseball and other related sports products. His determination and talent in baseball products show off in his baseballthing.com.
