The review does a good job pulling together research that highlights how sports and physical activity can support mental health—things like improving mood, reducing stress, and even helping with conditions like depression or ADHD. But honestly, it sometimes feels a bit too optimistic. A lot of the studies mentioned are correlational, but the paper talks about them as if they clearly prove that exercise causes all these benefits. That’s a stretch, there are so many other factors that could be influencing the outcomes, like someone’s background, mental health history, or even just access to good facilities.
Also, while they briefly touch on exercise addiction, they kind of gloss over other negative or mixed effects of sports, like the pressure elite athletes face, the risk of body image issues, or burnout. These are important, especially when we’re talking about mental well-being in such a broad way.
The section on mindfulness in sports is interesting, but again, it mostly references small-scale or early studies. There’s not much discussion on whether those findings hold up long-term or across different types of athletes. And for a paper aiming to provide “actionable insights”, it could really use a more critical eyes on study quality and bias.