Poll: What is the most physicly demanding sport?

[dodo1331]

You guys try running a 4:10 mile, then tell me cross country and track aren't the most demanding sports.

 

[GundamSentinel]

It's said badminton is one of the most energy intensive sports. The high tempo makes it more demanding than sports like football or tennis.

 

[Jindrak]

Mixed Martial Arts. Have to be able to take pain and despite what it may look like when they're working the ground game, it is absolutely exhausting. All of your limbs gas pretty fast if you aren't in superb shape.

 

[AWAR]

What about a freaking Marathon

 

[ethaninja]

This is a pretty ridiculous question because in every sport there is more than just "It's this demanding". They are demanding in completely different ways. I mean we can probably all agree something like darts is the least physically demanding sport, but deciding the most is MUCH more difficult.

EDIT: Forgot to say, in my opinion something like gymnastics (olympic level) is very demanding because you need to be able to use ALL your muscles equally well, and stay in top shape all the time.

Yeah this would be my answer to the dime.

 

[TheTim]

Rugby (team sport) Or MMA (individual sport)

mma beats the body so much.

 

[xmbts]

mass genocide is the most physically demanding activity one can engage in...besides soccer

 

[Nocola]

GYMNASTICS. There is a reason you have to quit the sport in your early 30s in you're lucky.

If you think it's a girly sport you are only proving how little you know about it.

 

[beeejay]

Top class motorsport is very physically and mentally demanding. A formula 1 driver could play 90 minutes of football, but a professional footballer couldn't do two laps in an f1 car.

 

[Matu Flp Krwfe]

From second hand experience: Underwater Hockey

Name says it all. Sure, with basketball or rugby you might be moving about alot but underwater hockey takes the cake with roughly the same amount of activity, the resistance of water, plus oxygen being a commodity.

 

[cartzo]

i would say rock climbing, biased i may be as i am one but, it's very physically demanding, technique is difficult to grasp, and overcoming the fear part is almost impossible even the elite climbers have problems.

other than that i would say f1 racing, very scary, and puts the body under enormous stress.

 

[kickyourass]

Probably soccer, since 8 out of 10 soccer major injuries in soccer seem to involve a limb nearly coming off.

 

[arkwright]

extreme morris dancing.


4 hours of dancing combined with 10 hours of drinking while looking like a prat. thats endurance.

 

[Shoqiyqa]

I consider rock-climbing and dinghy-sailing to bother be serious omissions from your list of options. I have never been a big participant in either on any serious skill level, just an occasional amateur dabbler, but I've seen what people get up to in the high-end stuff and it's hard.

Spoiler: Videos

GYMNASTICS. There is a reason you have to quit the sport in your early 30s in you're lucky.

If you think it's a girly sport you are only proving how little you know about it.

Oh, yeah, that ... lucky is right.

Spoiler: Videos

 

[fix-the-spade]

Well nothing on that list for starters.

Any of the extreme endurance events have to come close. Whether that's the cycling Pro Tour (100+ miles per day, every day, for three weeks at a time, averaging 25-30mph, on a push bike!), Iron Man Triathlons, big mountain climbing or the various trans continental runs/ rides. Maybe even Ballet on a professional training schedule.

Anything that can be done in a day or less can't possibly qualify, however intense they get, they're over too fast, the athlete gets to sit down and recover. Other sports have those same moments of out and out intensity (just watch a sprint in the Tour De France), but then the athlete has to get up and do it again the next day, then again, then again.

Although of the short time frame sports motorsports like Moto GP and F1 take the cake. It's not just the physical aspect of being accelerated at multiple G for an hour plus, but also the mental demand of being able to keep that up whilst reacting and communicating with other people whilst pushing buttons and getting blasted constantly with hot air.

http://www.thefunco.com/images/large/gyroscope_L.jpg

 

[fix-the-spade]

From second hand experience: Underwater Hockey

I used to play that! All it takes is a bloody mind, just hold your breath and push the other guy(s) around.

 

[omega 616]

Wanderlei silva's is worse than this but I couldn't find it, he uses things to restrict his breathing.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

A little while ago, me and a friend got into a discussion about sports, becuse I am planning on joining the swim team next year. We both agree that swimming is the most physicly demanding sport, because you have to deal with water resistance and you have to go fast.

All pride aside, what do you thing is the most physicly demanding sport and why

Water resistance is nothing compared to gravity. Which is why, having done swimming as a sport and rugby, football (casually), hockey, cricket, tennis, squash and weight training, I can say with some surety that none of those are as physically demanding as climbing.

Seriously. I'm quite the climbing enthusiast, having done it at two seperate holiday parks, an Army training base, and last week at my university's newly renovated sports centre. It's exceptionally tough to do, much more so than swimming. You need to have a great deal of upper body strength to be able to try it, especially when dealing with overhangs, and it's tough too to find decent balance in some cases. I recall last week almost falling a couple of times because my balance was off, and having to literally jump on the wall to reach some of the handholds. And I'm an experienced climber, too.

Trust me, swimming is by no means as tough as that. It's not really easy, but swimming is more about technique, which is pretty easy to train for, as well as the obvious strength and fitness requirements. Climbing is all of that, and much more. So climbing is definitely a much more physically demanding sport, I think.

As someone who goes climbing at least once a week, i can confirm this. Its even worse outdoors. Especially if you are leading. What takes less than a minuet on a top rope can take five or ten minuets when leading. Its even worse outdoors XD

 

[Shru1kan]

From the sheer amount of activity and physical abuse, I'd have to go with Lacrosse or Hockey.
ed- oh, there's a poll. Those aren't on there. Consider them write-ins.

As someone who plays most sports besides track recreationally, nothing gets you more sore or sweaty than those 2 sports. Even playing goalie is just ridiculously intense.