In addition to working your muscles and heart, soccer is a great sport for losing weight. Through the recruitment of both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers, soccer helps players build more muscle mass and burn more fat.
The aerobic energy pathways and anaerobic energy pathways work simultaneously to burn more calories during soccer playing than during other kinds of workouts. In contrast to some cardio exercises, soccer builds and preserves muscle mass, boosting your metabolism and preventing muscle loss.
Soccer is one of the most loved and played sports right around the world, you don’t need much equipment and it’s easy for anyone to pick up. Soccer is also one of the most watched sports in the world, many people search high and low for free soccer picks before a match starts, so they can have some insight on how the match is going to go. As the main objective of this article is to discuss how soccer can help weight loss, so let’s discuss a few main points immediately.
Table of Contents
1• Soccer burns calories and helps you lose weight
For a person weighing 155 pounds, playing soccer will burn about 260 calories in just half an hour. When you are trying to lose weight, you will need to burn more calories than you consume. In order to lose 1 pound of fat, you have to burn 3,500 calories.
As a result, if you play soccer for an hour three times a week, you will burn an additional 1,500 calories each week, and lose 2 pounds each month. You get a complete aerobic and anaerobic workout when you play soccer, because you keep exerting effort at various intensities all at once. You burn more calories by switching between these energy systems constantly.
2• Playing soccer helps to burn fat
Studies have shown that regular soccer play reduces body fat as well, according to the University of Copenhagen. The rapid movements in soccer, such as sprinting, jumping, reversing directions, and other explosive movements, require strong fast-twitch muscles.
Since the fast-twitch fibers use stored glucose for energy, they release fat-burning hormones that continue to burn fat even after you stop working out. Working your slow-twitch fibers by doing steady-paced aerobic exercise burns more fat than working your fast-twitch fibers.
3• Soccer helps to build muscle
As soccer players move more explosively and work more aerobically, they work more fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers, providing more opportunities for muscle growth. The lower body is particularly challenged because soccer uses each major muscle group, including glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and calves. When you have more muscle mass, your metabolism is higher, so you will burn more fat off the field when you build up your large muscle groups efficiently.
4• The muscles in the body are tightened when playing soccer
By recruiting both slow-twitch and fast-twitch muscle fibers in soccer, more muscle mass can be gained and more fat can be burned. Soccer provides a more intense cardio workout than other exercises because it requires you to switch between aerobic and anaerobic energy pathways.
Final Thoughts
The most effective way to lose weight is to play soccer at least three times a week if you don’t do any additional exercise. It is recommended that you perform two strength training workouts per week in order to engage all major muscle groups. Your body will have more muscle mass if you do this, and you’ll perform better during soccer.
Additionally, you’ll boost your metabolism by building more muscle mass. Make sure you warm up and cool down before and after your workout or game. It is important to stretch your muscles after working out in order to avoid injury and tightness.
Although there are many other reasons to discuss how soccer helps to lose weight, in this short article it is quite difficult to include them all, but the above points show exactly why. We would appreciate hearing from you if we missed any other important points.
