Football fans spend hours watching elite athletes run, sprint and tackle for 90 minutes. Far fewer people think about how much movement they get in their own week. Yet the benefits of regular exercise are some of the best-researched facts in modern medicine, and they apply to everyone, not just professional players.
This guide explains what health experts mean by regular exercise, then looks at the main physical and mental benefits. It also shows why football itself is one of the most effective ways to stay active, using research from scientists who have studied the game as a form of medicine.
What Counts as Regular Exercise?
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that adults do 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity activity every week, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, or a mix of both. Adults should also do muscle-strengthening exercises on at least two days a week. Children and teenagers aged 5 to 17 need at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity every day.
Moderate activity makes you breathe faster but still lets you talk, such as a brisk walk to the stadium. Vigorous activity makes talking difficult. For most people, a fast five-a-side game falls into this second group. The WHO also stresses that some activity is better than none, so even small steps bring real benefits.
The Physical Benefits of Regular Exercise
According to the WHO, regular physical activity lowers the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes and several types of cancer. It also improves sleep, helps control body fat and reduces the risk of falls in older adults. In children, it builds fitness, stronger bones and healthier hearts.
The opposite is also true. The WHO says people who are not active enough have a 20% to 30% higher risk of death than people who meet the guidelines. In other words, exercise does not only make you fitter. It can also add years to your life.
The Mental Health Benefits
Exercise is good for the mind as well as the body. The WHO notes that it reduces symptoms of depression and anxiety and supports brain health. One of the largest studies on the subject, published in The Lancet Psychiatry in 2018, looked at 1.2 million people in the United States.
People who exercised reported about 1.5 fewer days of poor mental health per month than those who did not. Team sports such as football showed the strongest link, with 22.3% fewer bad mental health days. Lead researcher Adam Chekroud of Yale University suggested the social side of team sport may explain this, because playing with others reduces isolation.
The same study found that more is not always better. The best results came from sessions of around 45 minutes, three to five times a week.
Why Football Is Such Effective Exercise
Much of the research on football and health comes from Professor Peter Krustrup of the University of Southern Denmark. He describes recreational football as a hybrid form of training because it combines endurance work, strength training and high-intensity intervals in one activity. Sprints, turns, tackles and shots all push the body in different ways.
The results are impressive. A meta-analysis in the book Football as Medicine, which Krustrup co-edited, found that two 60-minute football sessions a week for 12 to 26 weeks lowered blood pressure by an average of 11/7 mmHg in people aged 30 to 75 with mild to moderate hypertension. Other studies have linked recreational football with lower body fat, lower cholesterol, better balance and stronger bones.
The benefits are not limited to young men. In a one-year trial of 31 women aged 35 to 50 with mildly high blood pressure, football training two to three times a week improved blood pressure, body fat, bone density and fitness. Research has also shown improved bone density in older men who play small-sided games.
The Bigger Picture
Despite all this evidence, inactivity is a global problem. The WHO estimates that 1.8 billion adults, nearly a third of the world’s adult population, do not meet the minimum recommendation of 150 minutes per week. It also warns that inactivity could cost public health systems around US$300 billion between 2020 and 2030 if nothing changes.
Getting Started
You do not need to train like a professional to enjoy the benefits of regular exercise. Joining a weekly five-a-side game, walking to matches or trying walking football, a slower version designed for older players, are all good starting points. Krustrup’s research suggests many health improvements can appear after just 12 to 16 weeks of regular play.
If you have a health condition or have been inactive for a long time, speak to a doctor before starting something intense. After that, the simplest advice is to find an activity you enjoy, because the exercise you keep doing is the one that brings the biggest rewards.
