February 6, 2026, 8:12 pm | Read time: 15 minutes

FITBOOK: Can there be a healthy life without sports?
Prof. Dr. Stefan Schneider: “I know many people who are overweight and lead happy lives. A dogmatism in the direction of ‘exercise and then you will be happy and your brain will develop and you will be smart’ does not work. Sports, exercise, and physical activity—I consciously use this triad because for many people, sports have negative connotations—can help find a way to become happy and smart.”

“The Brain Develops and Sustains Itself Through Experiences”

What do you mean by that?
“Let’s go back to childhood for this. The development of a child’s brain is tied to experiences. Children first make physical experiences. That means they have to move and conquer their worlds. The same happens when we travel. We move in this world and get to know new people, new environments, new languages, and new smells. This has a great impact on our brains. New synaptic connections are formed; we learn. Later in the middle half of our lives, sports and exercise are relevant for stress regulation, and in old age, it’s not about development like with children, but about maintaining the brain. For this, too, input is needed. The best input comes from an active life. But for that, we need to be physically fit.”

So it’s also important in old age to have new experiences?
“Our brain is like a muscle. If we don’t use it, it’s like a muscle in a cast that we don’t use. It withers. That’s what happens with loneliness—especially in old age. The brain gets no stimuli and no new input, and will sooner or later shut down. Sports, exercise, and physical activity lay the foundation for participating in society and moving within it, and that’s the crucial point. It’s less about sports per se, and more about it being a vehicle through which we interact with the environment.”

“The Problem Is the Lack of Stress Compensation”

You mentioned the factor of stress. Stress is evolutionarily necessary and has put us in a state to move quickly and flee or fight. So, are sports or exercise really all we need against stress?
“I actually believe that stress is not the problem of today’s society, but the lack of compensation through movement. People have become what they are today over many generations. Movement is the rudimentary response of our body to stress. The flight or fight hormones, adrenaline and noradrenaline, guarantee survival: flee or fight. We flee, or we fight. In a society where that is no longer possible, where you can’t escape a meeting, for example, targeted movement in everyday life is a good way to reduce stress. This is also demonstrable on a neurophysiological level.”

Can exercise also have a preventive effect, such as protecting against chronic stress?
“We only see the positive effect of exercise on mental performance when the exercise is fun. It’s not beneficial to run for an hour every day out of obligation, especially if it doesn’t suit you and causes additional stress on a busy day. You have to find a form of exercise that feels good, that you can enjoy as a kind of ‘me-time.’ There is the classic triad of stress, depression, and burnout. We see that this is a building curve. I believe the earlier we intervene in this development, the greater the effect. Some people are less at risk because they have learned not to internalize stress but to channel it through sports and exercise. The reward is then a liberating feeling that many know after exercising.”

How Exercise Can Make You Smart

In your book, you write, somewhat simplified by me here, that sports can make you smart. What do you mean by that?
“Basically, it’s again about the stress-regulating effect of sports. A good example of this is childhood. Children have a high urge to move, even in school age. This is related, as mentioned before, to the fact that they explore the world through movement. But then school comes, and it’s about math, language, etc., often for several hours in a row. The children sit for three or four hours, and something less cognitive—this can be school sports, but also art or music—can relax. This can also be mapped neurophysiologically. We have done many studies in schools and seen that physical activity literally shuts down the cognitively overloaded areas of the brain from lessons, much like a computer that you shut down when nothing works anymore, and then everything runs smoothly again. Arne Dietrich called this transient hypofrontality in the early 2000s. We all know this. After a movement session, it’s much easier to sit down consciously again, concentrate, and learn. And that’s what I mean when I say that exercise can make you smart.”

“Learning to Listen to Your Own Body”

Can exercise also be used as a strategy before meetings or exams to perform better?
“I believe you have to learn to listen to your own body. Because here, too, sports must not add additional stress. What helps is stress regulation, and here everyone has to try to understand what helps them. For some, it might be a prayer or meditation, while others need a short conversation with friends. And for some, it’s sports. Sports can be a means to regulate stress. But a dogmatic approach, saying you absolutely have to do this one thing, is not effective. You should try it and honestly ask yourself: ‘What did that do to me?’ It can also be situation-dependent. Sports can be helpful in one situation, but not in another. However, sports can help you feel, understand, and control your own body better. And that can then have positive effects on stress regulation again.”

Psychological Tipping Point – Sports as Help or Stress Factor?

There are scientifically proven connections between exercise or lack of exercise and mental health issues. But can the motto “sports help” become too dogmatic and cause additional stress or feelings of guilt if one cannot live up to it?
“I think a therapist must look at each individual case individually to see what is good for the affected person and what is not. This also has a lot to do with a person’s history. A musical person is likely helped by listening to or making music. If someone is socially conditioned to sports, then sports are probably a good means. What is difficult is to demand a change from people who are at a tipping point. If someone recognizes early on that they are moving towards a tipping point and manages to change something gradually on their own initiative to escape the tipping point, that can work well. What is difficult is to impose a change from the outside on people who are already at this point. It is often no longer possible for them and causes additional stress. A ‘You must do this now’ doesn’t help at all, but finding out: ‘This is what I want, and this is what feels good to me now.’”

Is sports overestimated for mental health?
“No, it can play a role in the prevention of mental illnesses. I find it important, among other things, that parents convey the importance of sports to their children and enable them to have a broad sports education. Schools can no longer necessarily provide this. But a broad sports education is also an investment in a happy, content, and above all, self-determined life in old age.”

“Sports Make You Happy – When It Hurts”

In your book, you also associate sports with happiness, but in this context, you also describe—perhaps somewhat paradoxically at first glance—that sports should also hurt. What do you mean by that?
“A colleague once said: ‘Jogging is like hitting your head against a wall. It feels so nice when the pain subsides.’ We live in a time that is becoming increasingly disembodied. We hardly experience pain or suffering anymore. When we have pain, we immediately take medication. We always have an immediate remedy. Pain and suffering are still relevant in society, but are frowned upon. And in sports, we still reach our physical limits and can classify that. We learn to feel our bodies again, even in an unpleasant way, to endure pain. This has a lot to do with resilience, which everyone talks about today. Enduring discomfort and sticking with it, even when it hurts. Also in a figurative sense.”

And are happiness hormones released in the process?
“That happens very late, for example, in extreme athletes. In them, happiness hormones, endorphins, and endocannabinoids are released. Evolutionarily, this made sense. If I can’t run anymore while fleeing from the saber-toothed tiger, that would be lethal. The two hormones mentioned have a pain-relieving effect. This allows me to keep running and not get eaten. Many people today talk about happiness hormones being released during sports. That is true, but only to a significant extent when we are under extreme stress. For hobby athletes, the ‘happiness’ is more about having overcome oneself, being proud of having pushed boundaries, and having overcome the inner sloth. Or very concretely, that the pain subsides.”

“The Holy Trinity of Sports is Strength, Endurance, and Coordination”

Is there a type of training that offers the greatest benefits for health and especially brain health, such as strength training or endurance training? Or should it be a combination?
“The holy trinity of sports is strength, endurance, and coordination. This is one of the foundations of training science. Every training session should include strength, endurance, and coordination, whether in high-performance or health areas. These are the elements our body needs. For many years, endurance sports were promoted—to strengthen the cardiovascular system. But that was because cardiovascular diseases were a big issue. We have now reached the point where we know that the combination of strength and endurance, and ideally also coordination, is best. Neither one nor the other has an explicitly positive effect on mental health. Again, the point comes into play that sports must be fun for me. An endurance athlete probably won’t like strength training, and vice versa. But if they feel comfortable in their respective sport, it will have a positive effect—at least mentally. Of course, everyone has to ask themselves what the individual goals of exercising are. If it’s about becoming more muscular, strength training makes more sense. But if it’s about health prevention, I would recommend the above-mentioned triad of strength, endurance, and coordination.”

For Old Age, It’s About Sports Diversity

How does it work if you want to work towards a happy and as fit as possible old age?
“If you want to prepare for a healthy and happy life in old age, then I would say: By no means focus on one sport or discipline. Then diversity is better. Take an elderly person who stumbles and falls. To prevent this, the person needs their arm extensor muscles to catch themselves. Here, a good cardiovascular system doesn’t help much—although this is, of course, the basis of general fitness. You always have to ask yourself: What do I need for everyday life? What do I want to achieve? Do I want to build my body? Do I want to get fit, or do I want to do something for my mental health? Or both?”

Sports Socialization More Important Than Predisposition

You previously spoke about sports preference and fun. How do you think such a preference develops? Is it the talent attributable to predisposition? Can parents guide their children in certain directions?
“I believe it’s sports socialization. We know today that early specialization does not necessarily lead to becoming a really good athlete. There are many studies on this. The research group of Achim von Conzelmann from Bern, for example, was able to show that the likelihood of winning Olympic gold or being successful as a professional is not related to specializing early in a sport. An exception might be a sport like gymnastics, where you can only be successful at a very young age. A broad sports socialization plays a big role in a successful career in competitive sports as well as for a healthy and happy life in old age.”

What should sports socialization ideally look like?
“I told my children: We’ll try everything. In soccer, for example, my son said he found it stupid, while my daughter liked it. And that was okay. Both liked swimming but not running. We tried boxing, gymnastics, and skating. And we rode our bikes to school together every morning. It seems important to me that parents get involved. I always like to say: If you get a dog, you have to take it out three times a day. You can roughly apply that to your children as well.”

Sports in Childhood and Old Age – Should Society Take More Responsibility?

Whether in childhood or old age: exercise is so important. Shouldn’t there be more societal promotion?
“You truly address a very central issue that we are currently dealing with in science. That sports and exercise are healthy is now understood. It is repeatedly demanded that people change their behavior, move more, and eat differently. But what no one has on their radar—and you address here: The conditions must also change. That means movement spaces must be created. A sports infrastructure must be created and maintained. A good example is Asia: There, sports facilities are always accessible to everyone. There are no fences around them and—surprise—they are used. Whether children, middle-aged people, or seniors, people go there in the evenings and exercise. We need more playgrounds and sports fields where even an 83-year-old trying pull-ups is not looked at strangely. Movement must be accepted everywhere and by everyone. This is an important task for politics.”

“Children Do Sports When Their Parents Do Sports”

What do you find particularly important regarding children? And how should parents and families be supported who cannot themselves introduce children to exercise?
“With children, it is often the case that the topic of exercise is gladly shifted to the school. But there are many studies that show that children do sports when their parents do sports. The parents have a role model function here. But you are right with the question: What about the socially disadvantaged? What about parents who have no time because they have two jobs, and families who live in a place where the sports infrastructure is lacking? I believe we can strengthen the clubs and the club-school association. For almost ten years, there has been an open all-day school, and many clubs have used this to bring their offerings into the schools. Of course, also because the children no longer come to the clubs as much due to the all-day school. But I think this mixing is generally advantageous. It is important that the solutions that already exist are better communicated and reach the people who need them.”

Why Is the “Inner Sloth” So Big Despite All the Benefits of Exercise?

Exercise and sports basically only have advantages for us humans, so why do we often find it so hard to move enough? Isn’t that paradoxical?
“Avoiding physical activity—what we call sports today—is deeply rooted in our behavioral biology. The Neanderthal would have been crazy to chase a ball in free play. Food and thus energy were limited, and the little energy they had had to be used for daily life, namely for hunting, gathering, or fighting. Energy was extremely limited, and that’s why we would reject moving voluntarily and unnecessarily from an evolutionary biological perspective. The ability to convert sugar and carbohydrates into fat is an evolutionary biological advantage that allows us to store energy reserves in the form of fat for times of scarcity. And that’s still in us. Today, the situation is the other way around. We have an overabundance of food and a hypercaloric one at that. Unfortunately, the evolutionary biological drive to want to metabolize it and to want to move is missing. Movement is a matter of the mind. Today, we have to largely overcome our instincts, and many people don’t do that. Peter Bamm once put it very nicely: ‘Sports is a very reasonable attempt by modern civilized humans to artificially create hardships.’”

Prof. Stefan Schneider’s book “111 Sporty Impulses That Make You Smart and Happy” was published in October 2025 by EMONS Verlag Cologne.