Participating in sports offers numerous benefits, such as maintaining a healthy weight, elevating your physical fitness and improving your overall sense of well-being. Even if you are active and participate in sports activities, poor health can diminish your performance, and potentially limit normal daily activity. Because of this, physically active people must make an extra effort to stay healthy while leading an active lifestyle.
Step 1
Sleep a minimum of seven hours of per night. According to the WebMD website, active adults require seven to nine hours of sleep per night to maintain the ability to perform well in sports. Sleep is essential to pursuing an active lifestyle, because fatigue affects motor function, coordination, judgment and the ability to react quickly.
Step 2
Eat a diet that includes carbohydrates and proteins, while limiting fat and sugar intake. Foods containing carbohydrates include pasta, breads, whole grains and rice. Carbohydrates act as fuel for the body and are stored as glycogen in the muscles. The National Institute of Health recommends athletes consume a diet that derives 50 to 60 percent of calories from carbohydrate sources. Protein helps develop strength and promote muscle recovery, and comes from meats, cheeses and legumes.
Step 3
Drink water before, during and after any sports activity. Maintaining good hydration counters fluids lost during physical activity through sweat and breathing. While water is the best choice, many athletes use sports drinks, and count juices as part of their fluid intake. Hydration also helps an active person regulate body temperature. Measure fluid intake by checking the color of your urine — clear urine indicates good hydration.
Step 4
Stretch before and after physical activity. Stretching boosts flexibility and increases range of motion around joints, such as knees, hips and shoulders. Flexibility and mobility reduce risk of injury.
Step 5
Incorporate a rest day into your weekly schedule. Because exercise and physical exertion causes stress to muscle tissue, adequate rest gives muscles the opportunity to repair themselves, and the body time to recover. Without proper rest, active people risk injury to areas of the body that are weak from over- or continued use.
Tips and Warnings
- Active people should avoid caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic and increases the loss of fluid. Additionally, children do not recognize or feel thirst the same as adults do, and should be reminded to drink fluids before, during and after participating in sports.
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