You check your weekend calendar and immediately feel a sense of excitement for what’s ahead: your favorite team, the Magic, is playing a big rival and it’s sure to be a great game.
You’ve made your game-day menu, picked out your fan gear and gathered all of your fellow Magic fans together for the big event. Knowing that you have that event ahead makes you smile your whole week through. No doubt, watching your favorite team— like the Magic— dominate the court brings joy, but there’s another surprising benefit: it’s good for your heart health, too.
Here are some ways that cheering on your favorite team can help you boost your whole (and heart) health.
Stay Connected
Rooting on your favorite team warms your heart. It connects you with peers that share a similar bond, and encourages you to come together to support one another in addition to your sports team. Attending an arena of fans like you or hosting a get together at your house to watch the game brings a sense of connectedness that ties you to each other as you celebrate wins and mourn losses all in the name of good health and fun. Forming these close relationships over sports can boost your outlook and also serve as a great way to reduce stress, which can all impact heart health over time.
Be Inspired
When we watch our star athletes perform on the court, we can’t help but feel inspired to be better ourselves. Being an avid fan is a great source of motivation to get fit and healthy, too. You might not set goals to make it pro, but even small fitness achievements like signing up and training for that community 5k or working on firming up your abs like your favorite player can make a big improvement in your heart health by increasing your activity level and fitness over your lifetime.
Be Active
Attending a sporting event doesn’t seem like a work out, but many do burn quite a bit of calories by getting out to cheer on their favorite team in person. Walking through parking lots, taking sets of stairs, standing up to cheer for that slam dunk and feeling the healthy thrill of a faster heartbeat when the game is a nail biter can all boost your level of activity for the day. Even if you’re watching the game at home, you’re likely to get up and cheer and move around more if you’re watching others play the game. Even standing up and socializing while watching the game opposed to sitting down will burn more calories. So jump up and feel good about your next social gathering to watch your favorite team: you could improve your heart health with a little extra fan pride.
AdventHealth cares about your whole health in body, mind and spirit. We want you to live your best life as a Magic fan and beyond. Learn more about how we can support your whole health by calling
Call855-303-DOCS or finding one of our whole-health experts nearest you.
