8 Benefits of Watching Soccer

Watching soccer could be a real boon to the health of every fan scattered around the world, from any continent. Watching soccer matches, according to a study conducted by the University of Leeds, can improve cardiovascular health, just as if you were walking briskly, taking a walk as a form of daily exercise. Below we list 8 benefits that can come from watching a soccer game:

1. Increased Heart Rate

Scholars at the University of Leeds looked at 25 soccer fans, all between the ages of 20 and 62. They analyzed the effects of watching the soccer championship over three games. Specifically, they measured the heart rate of the fans before the game. Then they measured the same parameters again at halftime and the end of the match. They discovered in this way an increase of about 64 percent, reaching a peak of 130 beats per minute. This increase in heart rate was found precisely as a result of watching the match. A marked difference from what is inferred about the heart rate found at rest, which is between 60 and 100 bpm. It is like the fans had been exercising by taking a brisk walk for an hour and a half.

2. Psychological Boost

Researchers have found that watching a soccer game in which one’s favorite team reports a victory can be crucial in other health-related aspects as well. By watching a soccer game, fans have a real psychological boost that leads them to be happy throughout the day, the next day, and sometimes even the entire week if their team wins, which can lead to increased performance in any other aspect of life, such as work or studies. On the contrary, when one’s favorite team loses, that person experiences a kind of psychological breakdown, however, less overall than when the same person’s favorite team wins.

3. Release of Testosterone and Cortisol

The University of Leeds study is certainly not the first study to analyze the more or less beneficial psychophysical effects of soccer on its fans. Another research carried out by the Laboratory of Social Neuroscience at the University of Valencia and the Department of Social and Organizational Psychology at VU University Amsterdam has judged that, from a hormonal point of view, attending the match of your favorite team is equivalent to engaging in intense and prolonged sexual activity. For most men, it would be the same hormones, testosterone, and cortisol (the stress hormone) that would be released by entering into circulation in the body with an intensity that increases together with the match, just as in the case of prolonged sexual activity.

4. Reduction in Blood Pressure

Fans also have the opportunity to reduce blood pressure through the excitement due to a goal or final victory, possibly achieved through suffering, maybe at the last minute, by their favorite team.

5. Social Interactions

 Watching games together can unite people, friends but also those from different backgrounds and groups who otherwise would not interact with each other, it can also be an excuse to celebrate together or, again, a valuable topic of conversation among several people, which can push people to open their minds by listening to different opinions and taking part in productive dialogues between each other.

6. Physical Activity

People who watch games, or game highlights, may be convinced to play sports before, during, or after the game. Watching the performance and physical and athletic power of your favorite players can motivate and push you to engage in sports activities to resemble them or simply to feel better physically and psychologically.

7. Life Lessons

Although negative myths are also created, soccer can also give positive examples, such as the sense of cooperation among soccer players, teamwork, and stories of boys who, starting from poverty, managed to reach their dream, sometimes even emigrating to another continent only to play soccer, triumphs of underdog teams or teams with a very low budget against others with much higher budgets, etc…

8. Pleasure, Distraction, and Relaxation

The soccer schedule today can change your day for the better in case it presents an important match. Matches provide a fun diversion from daily life and create an adrenaline rush because they do not have a predetermined plot, like a movie. Depending on how the match goes, you may find yourself sharing joys or disappointments with friends, or making fun of a friend who cheers another team because of a victory of your team, and he may do the same thing to you in case his favorite team triumphs.

Fortunately, the habit to watch soccer online which has existed for some years has become easy thanks to the various official soccer live streams that allow it, so by doing so you can be able to follow and cheer your favorite team in any situation.