Should overweight and obese people play soccer?

Exercising brings good health to everyone, especially for overweight and obese people. However, can this group of people play high-intensity sports?

Overweight and obese people need to consider when playing high-intensity sports - Photo: AI

When overweight people prefer to choose high intensity sports

In recent years, mini soccer and futsal fields have become familiar meeting places for office workers, including many overweight and obese people. They come to the field with the desire to lose weight and improve their health, but accidentally put their bodies into a state of overload.

The large weight makes every step, turn or collision a challenge for the musculoskeletal system. When the body exceeds the ideal weight threshold, the pressure on the knee joints and spine can increase 3-4 times compared to a normal person.

Vigorous movements, especially in competitive environments such as futsal, can lead to ligament damage, joint degeneration or bone fractures. In many cases, obese people can even face cardiovascular disorders or circulatory collapse due to excessive energy consumption.

The worrying thing is that many people often skip the adaptation phase, choosing to "go straight to the field" after a long period of inactivity. Sudden training makes the body unable to adjust, easily causing dehydration, electrolyte imbalance or prolonged muscle pain.

Some subjective cases also ignore regular health check-ups, potentially endangering life if they have underlying cardiovascular disease or high blood pressure.

It is undeniable that sports bring many benefits both physically and mentally, but sports are only truly meaningful when practiced properly. Because without a clear plan, the journey to improve health can easily turn into a risky race with your own body.

Football is a sport loved by many people - Photo: NAM TRAN

How should overweight people exercise?

According to Dr. Do Huu Luong - Head of Sports Medicine Department ( 175 Military Hospital ), the most important thing before starting is health screening. People with a BMI of 35-40 need to be carefully examined for underlying diseases such as cardiovascular, respiratory, blood pressure or diabetes.

Understanding your health condition helps you choose the right sport and avoid risks during exercise. Instead of jumping into competitive sports, doctors encourage overweight people to start with light exercises such as walking, aerobics, cycling or swimming.

These are activities that help the body gradually get used to movement, reduce pressure on joints but still effectively improve weight. In the first 8 weeks, maintaining a regular 4-6 sessions per week, each session 15-30 minutes will help the body adapt safely.

Once you get used to the intensity of the workout, you can alternate between short soccer sessions, about 10-15 minutes, then take a reasonable rest. From week 5-8, you can increase the duration to 20-25 minutes per session, but you need to pay attention to changing players regularly to avoid overload.

Any increase in exercise should be based on body perception, do not push yourself beyond your limit.

Along with exercise, nutrition also plays a decisive role. Many people think that just exercising more and eating less can lose weight, but that is a misconception. The body of an obese person consumes a lot of energy to maintain fat tissue, so if there is a lack of nutrition, it will easily become exhausted, hypoglycemic or have electrolyte imbalance.

A reasonable diet must ensure enough energy, especially water and minerals. Adding protein, reducing saturated fat and limiting refined starch helps maintain endurance without causing weight gain again. More importantly, the practitioner must know how to listen to the body, stop when seeing abnormal signs such as shortness of breath, chest pain or dizziness.

Dr. Luong also emphasized that sports is a suitable way to lose weight, but this method must be used most effectively, avoiding abuse. On the other hand, perseverance and a scientific roadmap are the keys to help overweight people achieve their goal of losing weight safely, avoiding unfortunate accidents.

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TUAN LONG - ANH HAO

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-thua-can-beo-phi-co-nen-choi-da-bong-20251007152624257.htm