Most athletes play for reasons other than health. In a competitive environment with physical contact that rewards over-exertion and playing through injuries. Th

Most athletes play for reasons other than health. In a competitive environment with physical contact that rewards over-exertion and playing through injuries. Those that keep pushing their body to their limit will likely find consequences. Just doing so many repetitive movements for sports will damage the body unless the athlete can train those pathways to be strong enough. Most athletes seem to play until they can't play through injury anymore. In contrast, exercise that keeps good health in mind can require noticeable extra energy consumption and seems like it would fall in line with the huge volume of research showing the benefits of exercise. In contrast this article seems to point to studies of increased resting metabolic rates being harmful with no evidence about exercise.