Monthly Archive for September, 2007

are u ready for the Beau­ti­ful Game? by muha…

Fall is the time of year when count­less teams of boys and girls show up on the field behind my house and play their hearts out in the rain and wind. Tired legs and frozen fin­gers. I’ve been there.

Now a new study led by Peter Klus­trup offers us a new rea­son to play: Appar­ently if we don’t kill our­selves dur­ing the game, we actu­ally get more exer­cise than spend­ing an equiv­a­lent amount of time jogging:

Each period of exer­cise lasted about one hour and took place three times a week. After 12 weeks, researchers found that the body fat per­cent­age in the soc­cer play­ers dropped by 3.7 per­cent, com­pared to about 2 per­cent for the joggers.The soc­cer play­ers also increased their mus­cle mass by almost 4.5 pounds, whereas the jog­gers didn’t have any sig­nif­i­cant change. Those who did no exer­cise reg­is­tered lit­tle change in body fat and mus­cle mass.

The soc­cer play­ers and the jog­gers had the same aver­age heart rate, but the soc­cer play­ers got a bet­ter work­out because of intense bursts of activ­ity. Krus­trup and his col­leagues found there were peri­ods dur­ing soc­cer matches when the play­ers’ hearts were pump­ing at 90 per­cent their full capac­ity. But the jog­gers’ hearts were never pushed as hard.

Unlike the soc­cer play­ers, the jog­gers con­sis­tently thought their runs were exhausting.

“The soc­cer play­ers were hav­ing more fun, so they were more focused on scor­ing goals and help­ing the team, rather than the feel­ing of strain and mus­cle pain,” Krus­trup said.

Cog­ni­tive Daily: Soc­cer is bet­ter exer­cise than jogging