Get moving, everyone: why sport belongs to all of us

In the past two decades, growing awareness of the benefits of physical activity for physical fitness, mental well-being, and chronic disease prevention has led more people to engage in sport. Sport, many argue, also brings people together, helping to reduce loneliness and build friendships. In Hong Kong, organisations such as the Hong Kong Jockey Club are organising a range of sports programmes to encourage individuals of all genders, ages, abilities, and backgrounds to enjoy athletic activities.

Professor Amy Ha Sau-ching, Head of the Department of Health and Physical Education (HPE) and Chair Professor of Physical Education and Sports Science; Professor Andrew Edwards, Associate Head of the Department and an expert in exercise physiology; and Professor Kuo Chia-Hua, an expert in muscle physiology, sports nutrition, and human metabolism, have researched sport-related topics for many years.

In this issue of FLASS FORWARD, the three experts shared their insights on Sport for All. They discussed the benefits of engaging in sport, ways to promote participation, and the obstacles that prevent people from taking part in physical activity.

Professor Edwards: Sport for All is about everybody having a role to play in sport at whatever level they wish to participate. This afternoon, I played 3x3 basketball with students. I only played sporadically and mostly contributed off the bench. I was not the main star. But that does not matter, because the whole point is about being included at whatever level you can participate. Sport is a way to inspire people to maintain a healthy, sustainable lifestyle. Part of our job as scholars is to promote sport as a healthy behaviour that can improve quality of life and longevity. It is our job to help people appreciate that healthy lifestyles aren’t just about elite performers; they are about everybody.

Professor Ha: Andrew makes a great point about inclusion, and I think that word is really at the heart of everything. “Being included” is the key concept behind “Sport for All”. Sport is for everyone, not just the young or the athlete. Inclusion means recognising the differences among individuals and ensuring that everyone has the opportunity to participate.

Sport can be pursued individually or as part of a team. Individual sports, such as running or swimming, are those in which you participate or compete on your own. We can also do sport together. In team sports, such as football and basketball, we need to engage socially, mentally, and strategically with one another.

To ensure that everyone can join and enjoy sport, we must be mindful of each individual’s characteristics and needs. For example, autistic children may prefer individual activities, as they can find social interaction challenging and often respond well to routine and repetitive tasks.

Coaches and physical educators need to understand the needs of each unique individual. While the ideal is to include everyone in sport, it is essential to understand their needs and interests before bringing them together.

Professor Ha: Yes, and I think the policy side of this is really important to understand. Governments recognise that if their populations are not healthy, medical costs will rise. To reduce healthcare expenditure, governments encourage people to engage in health-related sport, such as walking, swimming, and other cardiovascular and aerobic activities. From around the mid-1990s onwards, more and more governments began to acknowledge the need to build healthier communities. At the same time, people began to reflect on what makes their lives better and happier. Diet and sleep are part of that picture, but sport has consistently been one of the primary means by which people pursue a healthy lifestyle.

Professor Kuo: This is a nice question. Sport is not only about elite performance; it is fundamentally about human adaptation. Living in the physical world requires us to respond continuously to physical and social challenges, and sport provides a structured and effective way to stimulate this adaptive capacity. While Olympic medallists represent the upper limits of human potential, the underlying biological benefits of physical challenge apply to everyone.

There is strong evidence supporting this. For example, an intervention study of 2,205 Scandinavians aged over 50, followed for more than 35 years, showed that individuals who increased their physical activity from low to moderate levels through to high levels had significantly reduced mortality risk 15 years later. This indicates that greater engagement in physical challenge is directly linked to longer survival. High-intensity exercise exerts greater selective pressure on unfit cells in the human body, facilitating cell renewal and contributing to a more youthful physiological state.

Therefore, promoting sport for all is essential. It enhances physiological resilience, supports healthy ageing, and improves quality of life. Sport is not exclusive to elite athletes. It is a fundamental tool for maintaining human function and longevity.

Professor Edwards: Absolutely, and I would add another dimension to what Chia-Hua has just described. While health is one reason, the fact that sport can bring people together is another compelling argument for encouraging everyone to play. Decades ago, the Olympic motto emphasised “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. In 2021, it was changed to “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together”. The Olympic values now place far greater emphasis on inclusiveness. People often speak of the friendships formed among athletes at the Games, and the updated Olympic motto reflects that inclusive spirit.

Inclusivity in sport is not a new idea. The origins of the Paralympics can be traced back to 1948, when a group of World War II veterans competed together. That is a long history of disabled people being involved in sport, and it is entirely in the spirit of Sport for All.

Today, the Paralympics runs as a full-scale event alongside the Olympics. In the modern format, the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games follow in immediate succession, with athletes competing in the same venues and in the same suite of competitions. The two events are now almost inseparable, which is exactly as it should be.

Paralympic athletes compete in the same stadiums and receive gold medals in the same way. That is inclusion in its fullest sense. Modern science, as Chia-Hua has outlined, confirms the link between health and physical activity. Sport for All is about making sport so inclusive that every person can enjoy its benefits. The Paralympics stands as a powerful example of just how inclusive sport has become.

Professor Ha: And I think we need to go one step further and challenge the myth directly. There is a persistent belief that sport is exclusively for athletes. Some people feel that, because they lack skills or were not born into a sporting background, they cannot participate. I would argue, however, that movement and exercise are as essential as food and water; they are necessities, as fundamental as oxygen.

Imagine being ill or injured and confined to bed for an extended period. Negative effects quickly emerge: weight gain, joint stiffness, a general deterioration of the body. Exercise is like a nutrient; it is vital for everyone. This idea is neatly captured by the training principle of “use it or lose it”, which holds that the benefits and skills gained from physical training diminish if they are not regularly maintained. If you don’t train your body consistently, you begin to feel the effects of ageing more rapidly.

Traditionally, particularly within Chinese communities, sport has been associated with elitism. This does not need to be the case. We often use a triangle to illustrate the hierarchy of athletic participation. Elite athletes sit at the apex, but the vast majority of the population forms the broad base below. It is this general public that should be given far greater opportunities to exercise. Unfortunately, many people still lack the knowledge or resources to participate in sport. In that sense, they are physically illiterate.

Professor Ha: Yes, and I think “physical literacy” is a term worth unpacking carefully. Physically illiterate people often do not know how to engage in sport. They may be aware of the benefits of movement and exercise; they may even understand why they should exercise; but they lack the knowledge of how and when to do so. As an educator, I believe we need ongoing education to promote physical literacy. We should advocate for it and spread the message that physical activity is essential for everyone.

Physical literacy encompasses three core qualities: knowledge and understanding, physical competence, and motivation and confidence. Together, these qualities enable a person to value and take responsibility for engaging in physical activity throughout their life.

Knowledge and understanding refers to the cognitive awareness that physical activity is important for health. It also means knowing how to move safely and effectively, and how to adapt movement to different situations. The second quality, physical competence, involves having a range of movement skills, including those related to running, jumping, throwing, balancing, and swimming, among others. It also entails the ability to apply these skills across multiple environments. The third quality, motivation and confidence, refers to the desire to be active and the sense of being capable enough to try new movements or activities.

With the right knowledge, competence, and motivation, individuals can live actively and participate in physical activity across their lifespans in ways that are meaningful to them. I want to stress that physical literacy is not just about sports or fitness levels. It is much more than that: it is about empowering people to be active, confident, and capable in managing daily life and enjoying their recreational time.

We conducted a study on the attitudes of adolescents aged 12 to 18 towards physical activity. We found that this age group receives the least attention from their teachers and parents when it comes to physical exercise. Adults often assume that adolescents should focus on studying rather than playing. I believe this assumption is wrong. We need to invest far greater effort in promoting the importance of physical education and sports participation in schools.

Professor Ha: Motivation is the most difficult. Someone may fully understand the benefits of exercise and move very competently, yet still choose not to.

We need to cultivate the right behaviour at school, which is the golden age for absorbing new ideas and learning new skills. We can ensure that children learn, at the very least, how to move. Even if they choose not to play sport when they become adults, they will still have that foundation.

I studied in the United States in my 20s. Before that, I had assumed that only those who were very good at sport should take part. When I arrived, I played softball and basketball with my professors, who were, if I may say so, rather clumsy. They moved slowly, but they still enjoyed. That changed my thinking entirely.

I saw, firsthand, that everybody can play sport. Winning may be one goal, but it is not the ultimate pursuit. People can play as a team. People can play to socialise.

Professor Edwards: That story really resonates with me, and I think it connects directly to something important about life after elite sport. An elite athlete can sustain the top level of performance until perhaps their early 30s, but the rest of life still lies ahead, and it cannot be lived at that same intensity. When elite athletes finish their careers, maintaining physical activity means making friends through sport and staying socially connected. It is very easy to become isolated after retirement. Sport is a way to socialise and to remain part of the community, and that reflects a certain attitude towards life.

I have lived and worked in four different countries and places, and wherever I have moved, I have played sport with people. It is my way of becoming familiar with a new environment.

Professor Ha: Andrew is absolutely right, and I think this idea of sport as a social glue is something we do not talk about enough. Sport is an excellent means of bringing people together. We can play simply for fun or friendship. In social sport, everyone keeps everyone else moving. That is another reason why we advocate for Sport for All.

Perhaps I do not feel well today and have no desire to move. But then someone knocks on my door and invites me for a run, and I join. Sometimes we need to build that kind of atmosphere. We need to cultivate that culture, that habit, that behaviour.

Professor Edwards: This is such a common situation, and I think it gets to the heart of why so many people give up. People are rarely motivated to train simply for the sake of losing weight. Again, I think socialisation and social facilitation are genuinely important. The evidence shows that you will perform better, lift more, and run faster when someone else is in the room with you. That is scientifically established. It comes down to how you make the experience enjoyable. Playing in a group, with friends, makes a significant difference in terms of fun and enjoyment.

Professor Kuo: I want to raise several persistent misconceptions regarding the fat-loss effects of exercise, most notably the belief that moderate-intensity aerobic exercise is the most effective approach for reducing body and abdominal fat. However, substantial evidence indicates that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is more effective for fat loss.

Unlike moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, HIIT is largely anaerobic and imposes substantial physiological stress, including muscle and airway microdamage. This stress accelerates tissue turnover and increases the immediate demand for repair and regeneration, contributing to the functional rejuvenation of muscle and lung tissues.

Rather than increasing total 24-hour fat oxidation, exercise, particularly high-intensity exercise, primarily stimulates lipolysis, mobilising fatty acids to support membrane repair and regenerative processes in challenged tissues.

Nutrient timing also plays a critical role. Consuming nutrients soon after exercise supports muscle repair and may reduce fat accumulation by directing nutrients preferentially towards regenerating tissues, such as skeletal muscle and lungs, rather than towards storage in adipose tissue. Fat loss induced by exercise is therefore not driven by increased fat burning, but by the redistribution of energy substrates towards tissue repair and adaptation.

Professor Edwards: It can. Humans are generally competitive; that is part of human nature. However, many studies show that if you have a personal trainer, you perform better, not because you are competing with them, but because someone is there, watching and supporting you. So when exercising in a group, both the social facilitation factor and the competition factor are at play. These are two separate things, but they are interrelated.

Professor Ha: Right, and I think competition is only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to weight loss specifically. Losing weight sounds simple, but it is not. There are many underlying factors behind weight gain and loss. I would say the most effective approach is to reduce and balance your diet rather than to rely on exercise alone.

I have observed that many training programmes fail because the pace is too fast. When you exercise intensely, your muscles ache. You feel tired and reluctant to continue. You stop, and often never start again. That is precisely why people should exercise progressively. The principle is to overload your body slightly beyond its current limit, but not excessively. Training loads should increase gradually. If you rush the process, the programme will cause harm rather than benefit.

Owing to physiological and other individual differences, people respond to the same training programme differently. While training involves method and discipline, the first principle is always recognising individual differences. Coaches therefore need to tailor programmes accordingly.

Professor Ha: In many ways, yes, and this is something coaches and trainers need to take seriously from the very start. When coaches and trainers seek ways to motivate people to exercise, they must acknowledge that differences exist between males and females. From my 30 years of experience in education, most males tend to enjoy competitive sport more than females. Perhaps due to hormones or ego, males tend to enjoy competing with one another.

Most females, relatively speaking, prefer exercising for togetherness rather than competition. Coaching boys and girls can therefore look quite different. When training boys, you can often encourage competition. Boys fall, get up, and carry on; they enjoy winning and are not afraid of failure. Girls tend to respond differently. Winning is not always their primary concern. They do not necessarily want to fall or to look bad.

Coaches and PE teachers need to understand the psychological differences between genders. In fact, everyone is different, and we need to motivate different people in different ways. We need to understand each individual before setting out a training plan. Coaches and teachers also need to return to study periodically, to update their knowledge of sports science and coaching practice.

Professor Ha: I am glad you brought that up, because I think the CAR framework gives us a really useful structure for thinking about motivation. It stems from Self-Determination Theory (SDT), developed by psychologists Edward Deci and Richard Ryan in the 1980s. In CAR, C stands for Competence: the capacity to perform an activity. The more capable we are, the more motivated we become. A stands for Autonomy: the more capable we are, the more choices we have, whether to play golf or tennis, for instance. And when we have the freedom to set our own goals and to discuss our training regime with our coaches, we are more motivated. R stands for Relatedness: in sport, this means teamwork, camaraderie, and the interactions between players, coaches, and athletes. When all three factors operate together, they provide a powerful motivation for an individual to participate in sport.

Professor Edwards: Definitely, and I think the reason comes down to relatability. You are inspired when you see someone you can relate to doing sport and being celebrated for it. If you look at the development of women’s sport, professional football in the UK provides a strong example. Every club that was traditionally male, such as Manchester United and Liverpool, now has a women’s team. Women’s football matches are broadcast on television, with their own leagues, their own commentators, and their own fan base. This has broadened the appeal of football enormously.

While football was once heavily male-dominated, there is now a large and growing number of women who want to play. Girls’ teams are covered by local newspapers in the UK. Viewing figures now show a far more even split between female and male audiences than would have been the case 30 years ago.

When people see relatable figures in the media doing something they aspire to do, they are encouraged to follow. It also comes down to individual differences. There are still plenty of people who have no interest in football. To encourage them, you need to find their equivalent inspiration in basketball, or whichever sport speaks to them.

Professor Ha: Policy and practice must always go hand in hand. Governments play a crucial role by providing policies alongside the human and financial resources needed to support different groups of people to take part in sport. For policy to be implemented successfully, it requires all relevant parties to coordinate their efforts across training, marketing, and resource allocation.

Institutions such as the World Health Organisation (WHO), UNESCO, and national governments are the primary policy-setters. At the university level, we should draft proposals aligned with the initiatives these bodies promote. When they are prepared to invest resources, we can assist them in achieving their strategic goals.

Professor Edwards: And the impact of national teams is something governments should not underestimate either. When considering the role of government in promoting Sport for All, it is worth reflecting on the influence that national teams can have on their supporters. The England women’s national football team, the Lionesses, has achieved remarkable success, reaching the final of the FIFA Women’s World Cup and winning the UEFA Women’s European Championship. The Lionesses’ presence in these finals attracted millions of television viewers, capturing the attention of fans across the country. Such achievements have inspired a generation and elevated the profile of women’s sport, in turn inspiring the next wave of female footballers.

Professor Kuo: According to my observation, approximately 70% of gym clients are women, compared with 30% men, suggesting a higher level of health awareness among women.

Professor Ha: That is a really interesting observation, Chia-Hua, and it makes me think about the groups we often overlook in this conversation. Elderly people often have ample time, and disabled people frequently have a strong desire for social connection through cultural or sporting activities. Despite apparently unfavourable circumstances, these groups are often more eager to participate in physical activities and face fewer barriers than one might expect.

Research has shown that individuals with higher socioeconomic status (SES) are generally more willing to devote time to exercise, as they tend to understand the health benefits it brings. In contrast, those with lower SES often cite the demands of earning a living and caring for their families as barriers. They face more obstacles to regular exercise.

That said, I have also observed that some individuals with lower SES do manage to maintain a balanced lifestyle. From my conversations with retirees, middle-aged individuals, university students, and school children, one theme consistently emerges: time. And ultimately, it comes down to how we prioritise the things that matter most to us.

I believe education plays a crucial role in addressing these obstacles. By educating individuals regardless of their SES, we can shift mindsets and encourage more people to engage in physical activity. Education empowers people to recognise the value of exercise and to integrate it into their daily lives.

Professor Kuo: I completely agree with Amy on that. My previous research shows a consistent pattern: socioeconomic status (SES), particularly educational attainment, is a major determinant of sports participation, as evidenced by a study conducted in New Taipei City. Prioritisation appears to play a key role in shaping individuals’ willingness to engage in sport.

The study also shows that students living in areas surrounding Taipei, particularly those whose parents do not have a university education, tend to have higher body mass indices (BMI) and shorter stature. Their parents also exhibit higher rates of chronic disease. These findings underscore that educational attainment has cross-generational effects on health and sports participation.