As well as being an extremely sociable sport, 5-a-side football comes with a magnitude of health benefits, from improving your cardiovascular health to reducing stress and anxiety, let’s take a closer look at how the fast-paced sport can benefit you.
Improving Cardiovascular Health
The first, and one of the most commonly discussed, health benefits of 5-a-side football is the improvement of your cardiovascular health. Usually spanning over an hour, the game involves a high-intensity interval style of play, where short bursts of energy, followed by constant movement helps boost your heart rate. This contributes to a healthier heart, lower blood pressure and reduced risk of heart disease and strokes.
Burn Calories and Lose Weight
Another benefit of 5-a-side is that it is an efficient way for people to lose weight. Indeed, the game is quite the calorie burner. In just 60 minutes, most people can burn up to 800 calories, almost double what might be burnt in a typical gym session. Thanks to this high-calorie expenditure, when combined with a balanced diet, the sport can be an effective way to maintain or reduce body weight.
Playing 5-a-side football involves both aerobic and anaerobic exercise, working not just your cardiovascular system but your muscular system too. The explosive sprints, combined with slower-paced jogging during the game, ensures that different energy systems of the body are being utilised, burning more fat in the process.
Improve your Endurance with 5 a side
It is mainly through running that you improve your endurance. Football is obviously a team sport based on running, and un 5 a side, you have a much more high intensity running than you would in a normal football match or most other sports.
In adult 5 a side football, you run almost 10 kilometres during a match. As part of regular football practice, matches and training sessions allow you to improve your heart and breathing capacity.
5 a side Football Match Fitness Data
During a typical 5 a side football match, players cover between 9 and 12 km, in the form of slow running (45% of the time, 5.1 km), walking (25%, 2.8 km), fast running (13%, 1.5 km) and sprinting (11%, 1.26 km). A player burns about 5 to 20 kilocalories per kilo of weight.
Reduce Stress and Boost Mood
Just like most forms of exercise, 5-a-side can be a great way to improve your mental health. Playing football helps the body to release endorphins, which naturally lift your mood (even if you don’t win!). This can help reduce stress levels and generally improve your mental wellbeing.
In addition to this, 5-a-side is an extremely sociable sport where you’re constantly interacting with others, leading to a strong sense of belonging and team camaraderie. This sociable aspect of the sport is another contributing factor in reducing feelings of stress and anxiety, as well as developing your confidence and communication skills.
Key Takeaways
If you’re looking to improve your fitness, socialise with like-minded people, and have some fun along the way, then 5-a-side football could be the perfect sport for you. Whether you’re already a keen football fan or have other interests like golf or playing slots online, 5-a-side can be a great way to improve your health. What are you waiting for? Join our ultimate 5-a-side leagues in London and experience this for yourself!
Appendix
Mason, O., & Holt, R. (2012). A role for football in mental health: The Coping Through Football project. The Psychiatrist, 36(8), 290-293. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.111.036269, https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-psychiatrist/article/role-for-football-in-mental-health-the-coping-through-football-project/855F2FAD0512C486FAB0F07FFD9FA998
Executive summary: The health and fitness benefits of regular participation in small-sided football games P. Krustrup, J. Dvorak, A. Junge, J. Bangsbo, First published: 06 April 2010, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1755296616300886
Qualitative investigation of the role of collaborative football and walking football groups in mental health recovery, Mental Health and Physical Activity, Volume 12, 2017, Pages 116-123, ISSN 1755-2966, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1755296616300886
