9 Sports that Burns Serious Calories

4. Swimming

On a hot summer evening with the sun shining bright right above your head, what can be a better sport than swimming to burn your calories? You can burn up to 500 calories if you just love to swim around. Swimming is one sport that will require your entire body from head to toe.

Swimming can be a great way to tone all the muscles in the body simultaneously because it requires the movement of all the body parts. Another great advantage of swimming is that it can help you increase your lung capacity and prove as a great activity for asthma patients. Breathing exercises can help you gain a lot of control over your breathing.

Swimming also greatly helps in improving your sleep. A study showed improvement in sleep as well as life quality of insomnia patients after starting the activity.

5. Running

Running is one of the most effective, easy, and impactful sports to reduce your calories. One can burn up to 800 calories by just running. And if you have too many excuses about not having the right place or some company for other sports, sorry my friend but running will remove the curtain of lies from your life and shed some light that you might need to lose weight.

While most of you might feel this is difficult to digest, running can help you improve your knees and back. Yes, it might be true that some runners have hurt their knees and back in the process but that’s half the truth because they do running in a competitive scenario. For someone who is doing running just to lose some calories, this doesn’t hold true and they can actually strengthen their knees and back if everything is done properly.

6. Cycling

On a pleasant morning with beautiful birds around and watching a sunset, no one would mind going cycling. Well I know cycling slowly along the footpath with not much speed will do no good but that’s not too bad for a start. About burning calories, a 150 pounds person cycling at 12mph can burn up to 540 calories in an hour which is surely not a great number.

Cycling comes with lots of physical benefits which include strengthening your immune system as it helps to develop your respiratory system. Outdoor cycling, especially in places that are closer to greener areas can make sure you inhale a good amount of oxygen. Cycling can also help you to develop muscles around the quads, hamstrings, and calves. People with more muscle mass can burn more calories even when they are sedentary.

Talking about mental health, cycling can be very helpful in increasing your brainpower. A 2013 study showed that during cycling, blood flow in the brain increased by 28% and it went up to 70% in some areas which is surely a phenomenal number. And if you love adventures and exploration, you can go to unknown small roads in the sub-urban regions and land somewhere worthwhile.

7. Basketball

Who hasn’t fantasized about dunking in the basket-like Michael Jordan at least once? Well, at least I did. Talking about calories, you can burn up to 500 calories playing basketball. Playing basketball increases your bone density, improves flexibility, improves endurance and motor coordination.

Playing a team sport you also learn how to coordinate with your team members and work as a team to achieve one goal. Playing in a team teaches you how to be patient and have faith in the group.

I would also like to break a myth here. Many people think that playing basketball can be a contributing factor in increasing someone’s height and if you’re of them I would like to apologize but that’s not the case. There are no such studies to show that basketball or any other physical activity for that matter, can help you to increase your height.