What sport gets you in the best shape? 15 sports you should practice

Medically reviewed and approved by Nataniel Josue M.D.

If you want to have a good body, it is essential to practice a complete sport. There are many sports activities, but maybe the best is swimming because it works all the muscles. To achieve an aesthetically attractive body, you must practice it with constancy and dedication.

We all want to lose weight or maintain excellent body shape. We know that sport helps keep us healthy, keep the heart in good condition, improve metabolism, and maintain a beautiful body. But, we do not know which is the best sport that will allow us to have a good body.

For that reason, we will give you the best sports to get and keep a beautiful body. We will also give you some advice that you should follow before practicing any sport.

Advice before practicing a sport.

• Warm-up. You should warm up your body before starting to do exercises that require more effort. Move also all the joints.
• Stretch. You must stretch because you can easily damage your muscles and tendons if you do not do it correctly.
• Do some cardio. Practice for at least 5 minutes of cardio or aerobic exercises such as jumping rope and dancing to music to move your body.

Which sport burns the most calories?

Some of the sports you should practice having a good body are

Swimming 

Swimming is a complete sports practice because you exercise almost the entire body, achieving more toned, elongated, and aesthetic muscles. To accomplish this, you must know the right way to swim and apply the correct technique.

Swimming brings cardiovascular benefits as if you were running, and at the same time, it brings muscular benefits as if you were using weights. Freestyle swimming uses most of the body's muscles, focusing mostly on the buttocks, abdominals, shoulders, and back.

In a one-hour swimming session, you can burn between 413 and 704 calories depending on how fast you swim and your physical condition.

Zumba

Zumba is a fitness discipline that combines different rhythms, mostly Latin, such as merengue, bachata, salsa, samba, flamenco.

This variant of fitness also includes some aerobic routines with dance.

Practicing Zumba brings several benefits to your physical and mental health. Continuous practice helps you lose weight faster. With a good session, you can eliminate 700 calories, depending on the intensity of the session you are doing. To achieve a better effect, increase the level of effort in each session.

The different dances will help you tone your muscles, strengthening and shaping your buttocks, abdomen, arms, and legs.

HITT

High-Intensity Training (HIIT): is a type of training characterized by short sessions with high intensity. This method consists of alternating short and intense periods with other recovery periods or medium and low intensity. It does not usually exceed 20 minutes in duration.

It is handy for losing weight and burning calories, as well as improving physical condition. During and after the practice, it accelerates metabolism, increases the body's caloric expenditure, and burns body fat.

ou can increase up to 15% of the caloric intake during the 48 hours after training. In a 20 minute session, you can burn up to 320 calories.

Pole Dance

Pole Dance is a sport considered the sexiest, which involves discipline and perseverance. It is excellent for toning muscles and maintaining flexibility. In one hour of class, you can burn up to 500 calories.

With this sport, you tone your muscles because every exercise requires paying attention to every area of your body. Practicing this modality against gravity makes your body sustain itself, toning the muscles.

By practicing pole dance, you will avoid retaining liquids, your metabolism will accelerate, and that fat will disappear.

LISS

The LISS (low-intensity cardio ) is a low-intensity workout, which combines a constant effort of at least 60 minutes. With this, you will lose more fat than 20 minutes of running.

With this training, you will effectively lose weight because the body needs oxygen to decompose the fat without exercise.

Therefore, this variant, being less intense, will make your body have more oxygen available for this fat burning function.

This type of cardio offers gentle exercises that anyone can perform and helps avoid pain in the joints and muscles after this sport. The caloric expenditure of this modality will depend on your age and physical condition. I recommend that you follow up with an activity bracelet or watch.

Some examples are:

• Jogging slowly or walking fast.
• Moderate swimming.
• Rowing machine.
• Climbing stairs.
• Cycling.
• Stationary bicycle.
• Elliptical machine.
• Badminton.
• Pilates.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a sport that develops an excellent physical condition in those who practice it. With this martial art, you will gain more flexibility in your legs, strength, and speed.

It is ideal for children because they will have little risk of child obesity, besides avoiding sedentarism. In an intense one hour session practicing Taekwondo, you can burn more than 700 calories.

Golf

Golf is a sport of low physical intensity, has low injury rates, and we recommend this sport for all ages. A day of golf helps you control your weight, generating an energy expenditure of 1200 calories because you will travel approximately 7 to 10 kilometers, walking about 4 to 5 hours.

On the other hand, each stroke that we perform in this practice is an exercise for the muscles that helps tone t the trunk muscles (arms, back, chest, and abdomen) and improves these members' flexibility.

Surfing

Surfing is a sport that keeps you in shape by constant training times and strengthening the necessary muscles for surfing.

With this sport's practice, we work the upper body harder: back, chest, shoulders, abdomen, and arms; since they are indispensable for rowing.

With surfing, you work your shoulders and arms' muscles simultaneously because you move to push the board.

When you get up on the board, you exercise your legs and buttocks. Also, to keep your balance on the board, you work your legs along with your abs.

Thanks to all the movements you have to do with surfing, you work all your body muscles. That also helps you lose weight and tone your figure. In one hour of non-stop surfing, you can burn between 500 and 800 calories.

Volleyball

Volleyball is a sport that requires agility, power, reflexes, and endurance. It is an aerobic exercise that brings many health benefits. When you practice it, you exercise your legs and buttocks in particular.

An almost always maintained position is the half-squat, making all the work fall on the lower extremities. Also, you exercise your arms muscles. You define and strengthen them due to the blows that you give to the ball.

It is also ideal for losing fat and slimming since your body does not stop working due to the runs and stops in a training day or game.

In a volleyball game of about an hour, you usually burn an average of 500 to 600 calories.

Tennis

With the practice of this sport, you improve your aerobic and anaerobic capacity. When you practice this exercise, you burn fat thanks to the racket hitting the races that help the cardiovascular system improve it.

This sport allows us to improve the strength of our legs by starting and stopping. It also gives you more muscle because you have to react quickly and strongly to receive the ball.

Ice Skating

Ice skating is an aerobic and anaerobic sport. It improves the muscle tone of the legs to make them stronger. With skating, you burn a lot of calories. Practicing it for 30 minutes, you burn about 300 calories.

You will also improve your resistance and balance, and it also helps to strengthen your buttocks, abdomen, and waist.

Basketball

This sport strengthens the trunk, arms, and legs, is recommended to gain muscle strength.

Practicing this sport helps you recover your figure and eliminate the fat accumulated more quickly in the abdomen. It is an aerobic activity that helps you burn more calories, thus increasing weight loss.

Doctors highly recommend basketball, especially for people who suffer from obesity. In one hour of practicing this sport, you can burn between 500 and 700 calories.

Running

Running is an intense sport where you run continuously; your feet touch the ground faster than when you walk. When you practice this sport, you help your body to increase the caloric expenditure of the day. In this way, you lose weight or keep fit and lose weight. We recommend you to combine this sport with a good diet.

It also reduces body fat, including the accumulated fat generating cellulite and strengthening and toning the legs. The arms, the back, and the abdomen also benefit. In half an hour of running practice, you will burn an average of 300 to 510 calories.

Boxing

Boxing: is a sport that has many health benefits. It is an aerobic workout that burns fat, and therefore, more calories. The practice of boxing causes a significant energy drain. You will burn about 750 calories per hour, depending on the intensity you perform this sport.

The exercises that burn the most calories in this training are: skipping rope, hitting the bag, Sprint, running, and bouts. With this sport, your arms and legs will be more toned and firm. It also improves muscle flexibility because there are continuous and fast movements.

Athletics 

Athletics is a sport that encompasses different disciplines grouped into races, jumps, throws, and marches, which are characterized by a high level of aerobic exercise.

When you practice athletics, you have a more significant energy expenditure in your body, which allows you to lose weight and prevent obesity. It also helps burn the fatty reserves and favors the fat burning and thus controls our body weight.

There is a big difference in caloric expenditure between some modalities or others in athletics. The average number of calories an athlete burn varies between 500 and 1000, depending on their specialty.

Tips to lose weight when practicing a sport

• Find a schedule to start your routine. If you don't have time to practice the sport, then combine the exercise routine with other activities you do, such as: if you are watching TV, you can go and practice some activity.
• Be consistent. If you are consistent and continue to practice a sport for two weeks in a row (with your head), it will not take you so much effort to do it afterward.
• Have fun. When you practice the sport, try to make it as enjoyable as possible. Try, for example, to listen to your favorite music.
• Set goals: Look for targets that will help you achieve your objective with the routines. For this, you can record daily the activities and achievements you make.
• Stretch before you start. In sports, it is essential to stretch before and after practicing any exercise. That prepares you to help your muscles recover, thus avoiding injuries and pain that will make you quit.
• Do not train for more than one hour when you start practicing a sport. If you start with your routine, do not exaggerate it by extending it more than 1 hour. The ideal is to start little by little and then increase the intensity as you feel good.
• Don't work out more than five times a week. You must train with perseverance and work. Do not practice sports that require more time or force than you can handle. 3 or 5 times a week, exercise is ideal.

What type of physical activity should I do according to my age?

Between the ages of 20 and 30, you can practice any activity because the body adapts and gains more muscle and resistance. When 40 years old, you can practice an intense workout but take care of the articulations. From 50 years old, you should practice mobility and elasticity exercises.

Sports according to age:

Between 20 and 30 years old

Between the ages of 20 and 30, the body is in the best condition to practice any exercise type. The capacity of elasticity and natural resistance is almost intact. Your goal should be to improve and shape your silhouette.

Running for 30 to 40 minutes is the best sport. Practicing 3 to 5 times a week will help your muscles grow and visibly increase your body's aerobic capacity.

Between 30 and 40 years old

Although we have almost intact our physical capacity in these ages, when we are between 30 and 40 years, the body already begins to suffer some changes, such as the progressive loss of the fast fibers in charge of allowing you to workout with more speed.

You can continue practicing the sports you like the most, but I recommend that you incorporate yoga into your life. It is one of the most recommended sports because it allows you to relax your muscles and improve your breathing ability.

Between 40 and 50 years old

Between the ages of 40 and 50, women focus on maintaining muscle and muscle tone to slow down the aging process. One of the most recommended sports is swimming. It works in all areas of the body and avoids impact on the joints, thus achieving aerobic resistance.

More than 50

For people over 50, their focus will be on maintaining and preserving mobility. It is necessary to avoid or delay the loss of muscle mass and mobility without putting too much strain on the body. In addition to walking and swimming, we recommend Taichi to improve body mobility and coordination.

Sports according to your goal or objective

Losing weight

If you want to lose weight, the main thing is that you take the diet seriously, since more than half of it depends on it, and keep a schedule to practice the sport. We recommend you to do cardio exercises like:

• Use machines in the gym like ellipticals, treadmills, body combat classes, spinning.
• Go for a run.
• Ride your bike with a certain intensity, also depending on your overweight.
• You may be interested in "How many calories should you eat per day?."

Tone up 

If your goal is to harden your body, you should practice movement exercises such as Pilates that improve your overall fitness. On the other hand, gym classes focus on improving your body tone without being too demanding.

The TRX is a suspension training with your weight, as well as swimming. That said, for your body to look toned, you must lower your body fat percentage.

You may be interested in "How to tone up the female body fast."

Gaining muscle mass

If your goal is to achieve an increase in our muscle mass, diet is fundamental. You must know how many calories you need and how many you spend to achieve muscular hypertrophy because otherwise, you will only lose weight.

Some weight training routines are better sports like the Old School (free weight with basic exercises). The fundamental thing is to perform the exercise correctly, achieve hypertrophy, and control the pauses. The muscle grows when you rest. The body pump combines calorie burning with muscle gain.

You may be interested in "What should a woman eat to gain muscle (with diet plan)."

To gain strength 

If your goal is to gain strength, you must perform basic exercises with few repetitions to increase strength and ability to move the weight.

This exercise's basics are the progression, where you increase the lifts little by little, fulfilling objectives and reaching goals. Other sports are martial arts, boxing, which improve coordination and strength. There is also climbing or skiing that works specific areas of the body with a lot of power.

Sports that can be practiced at home to have a good body shape

• Table tennis: this sport has the benefit of strengthening eye-hand coordination, reflexes, and concentration.
• Hula hoop: make these hoops rotate around the waist, exercise different parts of the body, stimulate reflexes, and tone the abdomen.
• Static jogging: it consists of simulating a jogging race but in a stagnant way. For this, you must also lift your legs and arms.
• Calisthenics: this practice is considered a sport. It is a physical exercise system in which you must use your bodyweight to work for different muscle groups to obtain strength in the exercise.

Conclusion 

Practicing some sport will help you lose weight and keep a nice body, instead of on so many diets. If your goal is to maintain a good body, healthily lose weight.

You will achieve this by practicing sports every day and by maintaining a balanced diet. Practicing a sport is very beneficial for your health, as it protects your heart, increases your self-esteem, and eliminates stress.

To have a good body, you need to practice sports that are complete. There are many that you can practice like Taekwondo, surfing, basketball. But possibly the best of all is swimming, which is a sport where you work all your muscles. Practice it with perseverance and dedication, but keep in mind that you should choose a physical activity according to your ability and age.

[author] [author_image timthumb='on']https://buildyourbody.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Nataniel-Josue-Alvarez.jpg[/author_image] [author_info]The article was reviewed and approved by Nataniel Josué Alvarez. Medical Doctor graduated from Medical School Universidad Nacional Experimental Francisco de Miranda. Área Ciencias de la Salud. •Awarded winner IV Science Fair of Research Methodology - April 2012 •Recipient of Asesor Estudiantil Institucional Scholarship •Thesis: Relationship Between Parasitosis, Anemia and Hygiene Habits in patients aged 20 yo 70 years old in Amuay, municipality of Los Taques, Falcón State, Venezuela •Thesis: Intervention Plan in Rural Healthcare in Monte Verde and La Puntica sectors, of the Amuay Community, Los Taques parish, Los Taques municipality, of the Falcón State, Venezuela. During the period March 2018 - July 2018[/author_info] [/author]