In Defense of School Sports: A Runner's Manifesto

In Defense of  School Sports: A Runner’s Manifesto

           

            Scientists have discovered many things about your body and the effects that exercise has on it.  Exercise helps increase brain power, lessens the stress level in your body, and creates happy feelings and a good mood.  Being part of a sports team gives a sense of community and friendship in addition to the health benefits of exercise.  All of these things increase a person’s quality of life.

            Exercise boosts brainpower by stimulating new brain cells to grow.   When a person exercises, the heart pumps harder and blood flow to the brain increases.  This makes new brain cells grow.  The more a person exercises, the more brain cells that grow.  Studies have also shown that the brain cells in couch potatoes actually die.   Exercising regularly can cause a person to be able to focus more in school and while doing homework, which increases academic performance.  It also helps a student think better and more clearly and helps increase memory.  Exercise can also reduce stress in a person because it decreases a hormone that causes high stress in a person.  It also increases endorphins, which are chemicals that cause mood changes, especially feelings of extreme happiness.  This is why runners sometimes get a “runner’s high” when they push themselves really hard. 

            Being a part of a sports team after school is an important part of a student’s life.  It provides a sense of community by being around other people with similar interests.  Being part of a team allows a person to make friends with people of all different ages.  The hard workers on teams make good role models for the younger members.  A team can also give a person a feeling of belonging to a group.  At a big high school, it is important to be part of a group to have this sense of community.  Sometimes students get overwhelmed with academic work and think that it is more important to do well in school than to be a part of a team.  I think it is more important to be well rounded, healthy, have a good group of friends, AND do well in school, and I think that they all work together.

           

           

To help get you started on running, you could join a running group or exercise center.  The best way to start is to begin by doing shorter and slower workouts and then to work your way up to the harder ones.  If you start with the hard things, you will be the first one to quit, because you would have gotten a bad experience.  It takes a while to train your mind and your body for running, but once you do that, the rest is easy.