Abstract:

There is a close relationship between sports, physical activity and health, which is examined in multiple studies. These studies show that sports and physical activity are important for protecting and improving health. However, sports and physical activity can also have some negative effects depending on their level, duration, intensity and type. On the other hand, this close relationship is a product of historical, cultural and scientific effects. In the course of time, awareness has been raised with regard to doing regular sports and physical activities in order to enhance health and life quality and a common social awareness has been formed in this regard despite the failure to achieve the desired level of participation in such activities. This transformation can be analysed in terms of process sociology. Sports and physical activity are closely related to healthism and medicalization processes. While healthism affects participation in sports and physical activity by putting pressure on individuals to protect and improve health, medicalization has introduced medical approach and terminology to this field.  These processes are effective in emphasizing the link between sports and physical activity and a healthy lifestyle. Nevertheless, an excessiveness in the impact of such processes may be harmful to health. Excessive healthism can lead to issues such as stress, pressure, body image and self-respect. Medicalization may reduce sports to negative aspects and weaken personal experience. For this reason, it is important to adopt a balanced approach towards the relationship between sports, physical activity and health both on a mass and professional level.

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