Re-stack: Sports is NOT Inherently Healthy
Revisiting one of the more popular earlier posts from my Substack
As I travel abroad for the next few weeks I’m going to be keeping the writing a bit simple. Just about every year I travel abroad with my family. This year the only difference is that I’ve committed to writing for all of you.
I started writing these pieces weekly to give people who want to dive deeper into a longer form conversation about Fitness, Health and the Business surrounding it. As many of you know, a big part of health is taking breaks to decompress and regroup.
My annual vacation is exactly what my body requires to get back on track. I’m currently in Singapore and the combination of greenery plus delicious food is everything I need as I move into the final stretch of each year.
In December I wrote a piece about Sports and how they aren’t inherently healthy. People think that because sports carry some health benefits, that this makes them healthy. However, the demands placed on the body are not created with health in mind.
As a matter of fact, most sports (particularly NFL Football) simply see athletes as pieces of equipment. Longevity is not the objective. Getting guys on the field playing and exploiting them to maximize return on financial investment is all any owner cares about.
Human bodies are exploited and the average joe like us says “well they make all that money”. But how much does an average guy actually make? And what are the risk rewards to putting their body through all of these brutal collisions in their prime years. Most people walk away from professional sports in their 20’s and often times it’s because their body is a wreck.
So we should really take a step back and consider what we’re willing to do to our body for money. How much is a lifetime of physical ailments worth to you?
We should also consider our own training and remember that we aren’t professional athletes. Our objective is different from that of a full time athlete. Most of us want to play with our kids, move well and play sports here and there without issue.
Anyhow, have a look at this article from late last year.
Move Better | Feel Better | Do More
Rich Thurman is a Strength & Conditioning Coach, with an emphasis on Mobility Training, based in San Francisco, CA. With over 20 years of coaching and education experience, Rich works to improve the lives of both his In Person and Virtual Clients.