What is the difference between sport and physical activity? | Handles

2024-04-16 08:35:34

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Without historicizing sport here, the definition and criteria of which are still debated, we can pinpoint the advent of modern sport at the end of the 18th century in England, starting from the transformation of traditional public school games. Sport is a subset of physical activity in which participants adhere to a common set of rules (or expectations) and for which a goal is defined. Thus, in its modern sense, sport implies a practice of the body different from daily practice, it is a codified practice.

Physical activity is defined as “any bodily movement produced by contraction of skeletal muscles resulting in an increase in energy expenditure compared to resting energy expenditure”. Physical activity includes sports practice, but cannot be described as “sporting” if it does not meet certain criteria, in particular coding. Thus, the most inclusive expression of human movement is that of “physical activity”, and has reached consensus among scientists for around ten years.

Confusion between “physical activity” and “sport” is common. In public health, reference is made to physical activity, of which so-called sporting practice can be an excellent driver in terms of the motivation it can generate through competition: we want to progress, we practice more and better . Ultimately, through the prism of public health, the important thing is to “move”. In two respects: on the one hand, to limit long periods of sedentary lifestyle which have deleterious effects on health such as increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes, but also to mobilize muscle mass, the demand for which we can call local or peripheral in physiology will have central and systemic effects, that is to say on the whole body, including the brain.

These effects appear in the short term, during physical activity, to cope with what is called exercise stress, this is the acute response. This is the increase in heart rate, or ventilation for example (we breathe faster). Then, in the medium term, in the time following this activity, in recovery, and finally in the long term if the activity is sufficiently frequent and regular, this is a so-called overcompensation effect, these are the physiological adaptations that make us more efficient: we are trained and healthier.

These adaptations take place at the peripheral level (the muscles, the musculoskeletal system in general), and the central level (our muscles, our lungs, our brain). These effects manifest themselves down to the most intimate level of our cells with new messages from molecules and do us good… All this is also done by modifying the production of certain hormones thanks to cellular messages whose physical activity is at the origin as soon as we start moving, and all the more so if the movement is intense, or long, commensurate with our physical capacities at the moment.

So, in general, when we move, we progress, we gain performance or at least we maintain ourselves and we feel better in everyday life. We can find this motivation alone, through physical activity, which can be an otherwise codified activity, therefore a sport, but which remains for us a physical activity without competitive issues. We can also speak of a “sporting activity” here.

Thus, physical activity is not necessarily sporty. You just need to move for it to be a physical activity in the sense that scientists understand it: climbing stairs, gardening, walking in the street, or in nature. It is the duration, the rhythm, the intensity which will make it have more or less effects on health.

The ideal is to gradually start doing more than you are used to doing, walking more often, longer, at a faster pace, running, swimming, cycling or engaging in a sporting activity. in a club for example. To each according to their feelings and desires.

Shortness of breath, sweating, difficulty speaking with a teammate, for example, characterize physical activity whose intensity is moderate to high and will have even more effects on our physical and mental health. But moving, like speaking, reading, counting, can be learned. And physical education at school is a great time to learn through movement, through sport, and therefore play. The better we know how to move, the more pleasant it is and the more we will want to continue. And if we really like it, we can practice a sport in a club that we choose because we like it, because moving, above all, is having fun. So, everyone on our sneakers, on our jerseys, on our bikes!

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