An Ode to Football (ish).

I am not particularly fond of UK football fans, especially en masse. They are kind of, well, scary. Those shirts, those scarves, the screaming, beer-drinking lot of them. Anne and I used to live very close to the stadium where Chelsea played in Fulham, London. When I happened to pass by as the revelers were leaving a game, I would walk many, many blocks out of my way to avoid the mob. I just felt as if they would turn on me at any second and pummel me to death with their over-flowing bellies and suffocate me with their terrible blue polyester jerseys. Annnnnways.

Watching football and soccer might be terrifying, but it seems that playing it really is great for you.  Danish researchers concluded after studying 37 men (very impressive sample size; I wonder it if was just their mates?) that soccer was better exercise than jogging. Men who played soccer for one hour, three times a week dropped more body fat and gain more muscle compared to men who jogged the same amount over the three week study period. The authors chalk up the results to the greater intensity (and enjoyment) of a soccer game, with its spurts of extremely vigorous running.

Wonderful stuff. Makes me want to take up soccer again; I played for a whole year, aged 8. Our team was named the She-Ra Kickers. I am not joking.