by ek ellis

Created on: November 04, 2009   Last Updated: November 16, 2009

Health Benefits of Basketball

Basketball involves a lot of starting and stopping. While not renowned as an aerobic sport, it is still a great workout that can help you burn calories (an hour of basketball can burn 630-750 calories). Build endurance. Improve coordination. Develop concentration and self-discipline. Build up muscle.

The health benefits of basketball include improving your aerobic capacity and building strength, particularly in your legs. Like other running sports, basketball requires superb conditioning. You must be able to exert a burst of speed to get by the person guarding you and also have the endurance to run the court for an entire game. Basketball also helps develop quickness and agility. It also helps you get better with movement and running.

Basketball is a great cardiovascular workout. You are running and jumping and that really works the heart and lungs. You are getting your blood pumping and your breathing is accelerated. It is an amazing workout for your body.

You also get the benefits of strengthen your muscles, increasing your flexibility and burning fat. Additionally, you are increasing your speed and agility. You are learning to move in new ways and that is a great benefit to your body.

Basketball is a good cardiovascular exercise and is great for building muscular endurance. Since the game requires a lot of starting, stopping and sprinting, it helps strengthen the lower body, especially the quadriceps, hamstrings, gluteus muscles and calves. Dribbling and shooting develop muscles in the arms and shoulders. Obviously, the fitness benefits increase with the pace of the game.

Shooting hoops increases your energy, stamina and coordination and thus can make other aerobic activities, such as walking, running and in-line skating, easier. Also, the goal of scoring motivates players, because they forget they're exercising.

Basketball gives the body a full workout. "The biggest issue about basketball is that it's a little more strenuous than walking or straight-ahead running because you change directions," says Dr. Joel Boyd, a Minneapolis orthopedic surgeon and team physician for the Minnesota Lynx of the Women's National Basketball Association and the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League. "It's a multi-directional sport, and that's a good thing, because you're exercising your joints and the muscles as you change directions. You get a complete workout from sports like basketball, soccer and volleyball."

Basketball leaves no muscle unused. But, Boyd says, the body parts aided most by the sport are the lower extremities such as quadriceps and the calves, and the biceps, triceps and heart and lung capacities above the waist.

To sum up, basketball is a great health benefit to your cardiovascular health as well as the health of building strong muscles. It is a good weight reducer and an enjoyable sport to play.

Information for this article was obtained from the following websites:

http://yourhealthandfitnesssuperstore.com/blogs/?p=2 386

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1077/is_12_56 /ai_78919292/

http://www.goforyourlife.vic.gov.au/hav/articles.nsf /pages/Basketball_health_benefits?

http://www.sportsinjuryhandbook.com/features_archive /health_basketball.html

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