While I do not have a competing list of great historical figures who were also emphatic sportsman, I am confident they exist.

Sport is not overrated. Its benefits in every manner of life are almost unceasing. My favorites include confidence, energy, and physical satisfaction. To go hard one day and play to the very edge and play through whatever pain and break down whatever walls are in the way is a high that will last you quite awhile.

It's not all that different from an intellectual marathon. I'm sure you know the kind, where your brain has been running through whatever text and leaping over whatever challenge so that after however many hours your brain doesn't even feel like it is human anymore and to talk to anyone else will surely be a heady failure but it's all just toast because you're finally finished and everything just seems calmer.

When we put our brains at sport and our bodies too we enter an altogether new plane. And coming down is the satisfaction, the release, the reward, the proof of accomplishment.

If you set out for sport and you achieve it you're happy for the goal and its completion. If you go back the next day you're even happier. That's two days in a row (and the second day when you're just starting exercise is a hard one) I'm doing really well! And then after that it's the same as if you are attacking a new and difficult piece of music, you watch yourself as you improve and the satisfaction becomes even greater physically and mentally.

If secretion from sport blocks things, than the secretion of your mind blocks other things. To accomplish them both is only to become more well-rounded. Does more well-rounded mean more efficient? I'm not sure. Is sport/exercise right for you? I'm not sure either. I only know personally that working my body to the brink relaxes my mind, eases me away from depression, and leaves me in a wonderful stupor of confidence that erases the fear of anything I'm faced with.

The health benefits are obvious and of course if you find the right sport fun is undeniable. There are almost infinite ways to go about it these days that you are sure to find something perfect for you be it yoga, cycling, team handball, or mixed martial arts. The beautiful thing about sport is that it is fully adaptable to your body and your needs. It's to you to decide how you want it to work in your life.

Kant liked to take long walks, does that count? And Oxford and Cambridge take great pride in rowing, and Harvard invented American football.

I see a difference between fitness and sport. To me sport is competitive. I would certainly encourage you to exercise, not for the endorphines - you have to push yourself pretty hard to feel the rush - but for your general health and for pleasure. I suggest trying different things and seeing what you have an aptitude for, and what you enjoy. Cycling is great, and is also a way to commune with nature - and many of these activities are deeply rooted in nature.  Running is harder on the knees; people either love it or hate it. Swimming is a great idea, and there's nothing wrong with walking. You could also take fitness classes or buy some equipment, but I would stress to do something you enjoy.

I have a friend who rides a road bike three times a week, a hundred kilometers. But I don't consider him a sportsman because he doesn't compete. Sport also has a spectator as well as participatory side. My friend never cared for the Tour de France before he took up cycling, but now he follows it avidly.  For myself sport is an integral part of my life. But it's a matter of temperament, not for everyone. For those of us who love sport, it's a passion, but not necessarily an enjoyable one. I don't play tennis to have fun. I play to play well, to win. Golf can become an obsession, but it's a time consuming and expensive one. I guess a major concern for you is injury and your hands.  I guess rock climbing is out.

I think sport really is overrated. What really matters is what gets you in the flow. Programming could be there for one person; math or music for another; something or the other would give you that mental high - every individual is different which is what leads us to those activities.

I for one never played any sport at all until 22 at which I picked up Horse Riding and then Polo. That gets me going. But its more the whole wind in your hair whilst on horseback sitting at an elevated position that attracts me - not the competitive nature of the sport. I start running on and off - the rush or runner's high is very well worth it. I wouldn't go so far to consider any of these a sport.

Fitness is on the other hand is very different from sport because I believe its the exercise that makes you "more efficient" and not the sport - you could get hold of that efficiency from any form of exercise - people usually resort to team sports because solitary exercise makes it boring - I think one may have an excellent exercise session relying on an iPod alone. Depends on what works for you. Later may actually become too late so I guess one must tackle it sooner than too late.

Regard sport: I seriously think sport and the entire competition and victory celebration bit a a bit too overrated - a team wins and there would be a ruckus around the entire neighbourhood in the middle of the night. I'm from Pakistan where cricket is almost a religion and the national cricket teams performance tends to be front-page news in all the dailies. The team winning a trophy turns people into maniacs and hordes of people come out on the streets celebrating and walking around in team kits and colours and flags round their necks - hordes marching on against the flow of traffic on main roads in commercial hubs is not too great a thing especially attempting to sleep in the night with the madmen celebrating (a particularly unique mode of celebration here is to take the silencers out of your vehicle and roam around the roads the entire night revving up the engines - the police even tend to look the other way for that entire night and celebrate).

Guess its entirely personal: to some sport is a way of life; to others - which would be most of us I guess - sport really is overrated.