Physical activity as a booster for creativity – These sports also help with weight loss

If jogging, cycling or brisk walks are an essential part of your daily routine, you may be better able to think outside the box than your couch-loving friends or neighbors.

The link between physical exercise and improved health – both physical and mental – has long been known, but scientists have found that an active lifestyle also makes you more creative .

Boosting creativity through sport and exercise

Researchers at the Austrian University of Graz analyzed the effects of regular exercise on human imagination and found a clear link between a healthy lifestyle, positive mood, and innovative thinking. In general, being more active means more creativity – but why?

A group of 79 adults aged between 18 and 33 were studied over a period of five days, their “everyday body movements” were recorded, and the participants completed a series of invention tests to assess their level of creativity, while also self-reporting their moods.

While the physical response of exercise to physical health can be directly measured, the connection between an active lifestyle and creativity is more abstract.

One theory suggests that the endorphins , increased blood flow, and other physical attributes of regular exercise create a surge of happiness that helps fuel original or abstract thoughts. To test this idea, researchers in Graz applied their findings to statistical data from other studies to expand the sample size and isolate which factors might have influenced performance.

Study participants with active lifestyles proved to be more creative than those with more sedentary habits, researchers found in Nature: Scientific Reports , but extremely vigorous exercise was no better than moderate exercise at boosting creativity levels. While active participants were more creative, they were not always happier than their inactive counterparts, suggesting that exercise, rather than happiness, was the catalyst for increased creativity .

Because the study “associative” , the New York Times , it cannot tell us “whether more activity directly makes us more creative” – but it does at least prove that “activity and creativity are linked” .

Exercise also leads to weight loss

To combat body fat, it's necessary to expend more energy than you consume. The most effective way to achieve healthy weight loss is through exercise. But which sports are not only strenuous but also help you lose excess weight? This article provides several answers to that question.

Physical activity does not require a gym membership

Starting your weight loss journey with exercise doesn't necessarily mean buying expensive equipment or joining a gym. If it's been a while since your last workout, it's advisable to improve your fitness by incorporating more movement into your daily routine. One of the first steps, for example, is to take the stairs outside your apartment door. Climbing stairs is an effective workout that not only helps reduce fat deposits on your thighs.

A second option for free outdoor exercise is found in the form of fitness trails. Many cities and towns have invested in modernizing individual sections of these trails in recent years. These walks, with short exercise breaks, are also ideal for families with children or dog walkers. This makes it easy to combine increased physical activity with existing leisure activities.

Endurance sports not only improve fitness during training

Those who have already lost a few pounds on the fitness trails can move on to other endurance sports. Jogging and Nordic walking remain classics on this list of options. The poles used in Nordic walking not only help maintain balance on uneven forest floors, but also engage the arms in the endurance workout.

If your training can include longer distances, cycling offers a great new leisure activity. Exploring the city or the surrounding countryside by bike has become even more appealing thanks to the new range of bicycles available. Of course, we're talking about the currently popular e-bikes. E-bikes can help with weight loss by making it easier to leave the car at home and, for example, use a bicycle for errands. With the help of the motor, excess weight is no longer a burden, and the bicycle is now suitable for much more than just short distances.

Strength training replaces body fat with muscle mass

Sometimes, stubborn fat deposits can prove very persistent and won't disappear even with a strict diet. One option to no longer be bothered by these problem areas is strength training. Start with simple exercises like weight training or pull-ups. The more the amateur athlete enjoys this type of training, the easier it becomes to incorporate other exercises and eventually arrive at a full-body workout.

When purchasing exercise equipment, it's sometimes advisable to also replace your scale. Scales with built-in body fat measurement provide a clearer indication of whether or not fat deposits are gradually decreasing. Measuring weight alone is not a sufficient indicator, as increasing muscle mass doesn't necessarily lead to a reduction in body weight through strength training.

Team sports help to maintain motivation

If weight loss isn't immediately visible even after a strenuous workout, motivation can noticeably decline over time. As a countermeasure, it's advisable to better prepare for this point and, as a preventative measure, to choose a team sport.

A team often needs a certain number of players for training to start or for two teams to play against each other. To overcome that inner resistance, it's therefore a good idea to appeal to their sense of responsibility and not let the other team members down.

Joachim Rodriguez y Romero

Owner and Managing Director of Kunstplaza . Publicist, editor, and passionate blogger in the fields of art, design, and creativity since 2011. Graduated with a degree in web design from university (2008). Further developed creative techniques through courses in freehand drawing, expressive painting, and theatre/acting. Profound knowledge of the art market gained through years of journalistic research and numerous collaborations with key players and institutions in the arts and culture sector.

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