“Go play outside and play with your siblings.”
“Can you play with me?”
“You can play after you’ve finished your homework.”
These are all sentiments are generally heard around a child’s landscape, but the term “play” often seems lost in the adult world. There is research to suggest that ‘play’ can help reduce ageing and improve creativity and productivity amongst adults.
So what is Play? This article will touch on the topics of Play, sport and exercise, how they differ, and how they can improve our wellbeing.
Play:
Ask a small child what they want to do for the afternoon and it quite often involve ‘play’ of some description. Playing dress-ups, playing racing cars, playing restaurants, playing teachers, playing in the sand pit. A true sense of Play involves no rules, there is no competition, the emphasis is on fun and being involved.
Play is role modelled constantly by young children and toddlers who will happily play racing cars without a certain winner for an extended period of time. Play is generally quite creative in nature, and there are no set ‘rules’. Anything goes as creativity is open to explore whatever is going on.
Play seems lost amidst the busyness of adulthood. The responsibilities that mount up, don’t seem to allow for time to ‘be’, for creativity to flow and for game to be undertaken simply for the fun of it. It seems at some point in our lives we are taught to ‘win’ and for many I’ve seen, it seems winning at all costs is the mentality for any game undertaken.
Sport:
Sport is something nearly everyone can relate to. You’ve either participated in it, or watched it on TV, with Cricket finals, Rugby World Cup, Football (Soccer) world cup all operating at the moment, for sports mad fans it seems there is a limitless supply of sports to be involved in.
The definition of sport is; a game that has pre-determined set rules, is generally adjudicated by a judge (Fun fact: except for Ultimate Frisbee. Even at the highest level the game is self-moderated, that is the players officiate their own game, with no need for an umpire), involves a certain set of skills, has competition or winning as its focus, generally requires vigorous physical activity, and undertaking training to gain improvement.
Benefits of sport are not just physical. The benefits of belonging to a team, working as a group, having accountability to the people you are playing with. Sport also involves being disciplined by abiding by a set number of rules. All are things that can help grow both children and adults.
Exercise:
For some the notion of exercise may feel ‘boring’, rows of treadmills, or hot sweaty gyms with weights. Exercise is simply planned and structured physical activity with the aim to improve physical fitness. Undertaken on a regular basis this can improve physical health and outcomes such as; improved cardiovascular health, increased sense of self, improved muscle tone and more. Exercise can range from; run, jog, walk, organised exercise classes at a gym, or moving along to an online video or gym class.
Physical Benefits
Physical benefits are generally cited as the main reason many people undertake sport and exercise, however the benefits are not limited to just physical. Research backed evidence shows that physically, periods of high-intensity exercise (that is, huff and puff activity) at least three times a week can improve; cardiovascular fitness, reduce the risk of obesity, type II diabetes, improved strength and muscular function, improved immune system and the ability to fight infection.
Social Benefits
Socially all of these types of physical activity can improve our social skills. From learning to play with others, children learn the necessary roles and practices acceptable in society to be able to share, have fun together and join in creativity with one another.
In team sports the accountability of belonging to a team can be enough to get people to training, even on the darkest, coldest, wettest night or when you don’t have any motivation. Connecting to other like-minded people around a common goal builds bonds that can carry through a lifetime.
Mental Benefits
Mentally the benefits of all these forms of physical activity vary, but are positive to our wellbeing. Play is researched to increase different neural pathways as creativity is free to reign with ‘no rules’ attached to play and no sense of competition. Whilst moving our bodies through play, sport or exercise, stress-relief can help ignite the changes in our bodies that influence the changes listed above, but also provide an outlet beneficial to our brains.
As children grow and become involved in team sports, they learn a range of different skills including, self awareness (of their body in space and in relation to others in the game), resilience as many team sports are both physically and mentally demanding, self-control as all players must conform to the game’s rules or risk being thrown out, and improved self efficacy as they learn new skills and become proficient in them through training and play.
I encourage you to put the screen down and engage in some play, sport and exercise this week. Maybe this is the push you need to pick up the old hockey stick you put down in your youth, or the prompt you need to remind you that playing with your child in a non-competitive, completely creative way for an extended period of time is beneficial for you both, or going for a purposeful walk may be the exercise you need if you can’t make it to the Gym tonight.
Whatever you do, movement of any kind is beneficial and necessary to our bodies.