Racket Sports Shown to be the Healthiest Sports, Again
Andrew Merle
VP Marketing at Culture Pop Soda | Marketing Consultant for CPG & Healthy Lifestyle Companies | Ex Red Bull, New Balance, Clif Bar, Boston Red Sox, LA Dodgers
Racket sports provide the ideal combination for health.
Sports such as tennis, squash, badminton, and racketball simultaneously tax the cardiovascular system and the brain, delivering greater health benefits than aerobic exercise alone.
Racket sports build up your fitness while also requiring complex movements (front to back, and side to side) and quick strategic thinking. That combination of high-intensity training, strength building, flexibility, and mental toughness is rare among other sports.
Additionally, racket sports can be played at any age, and they bring you together with other people for social connection, which we know?is beneficial for health.
It should therefore come as no surprise that racket sports were once again shown to reduce the risk of death more than any other type of sport.
A?study?conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), just published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), showed that many types of physical activity lower the risk of death for older adults — but racket sports top the list with a 27% lower risk of death from heart disease.
Playing racket sports regularly was shown to reduce the risk of death from any cause by 16%, slightly better than Running which came in 2nd with a 15% risk reduction. Other sports analyzed included Cycling, Swimming, Walking, Golf, and Aerobic Exercise.
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These results are consistent with a previous large?study?published by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which looked at the link between 6 different types of exercise (Racket Sports, Swimming, Aerobics, Cycling, Running, Soccer) and the risk of early death.
Over 80,000 people were included, ranging in age from 30 to 98. The study — which spanned 9 years — showed that people who regularly played racket sports were 47% less likely to die (nearly 20 percentage points better than swimming, which came in 2nd with a 28% lower risk of dying).
These studies are not outliers. Another?recent analysis?of more than 8000 people over a period of 25 years determined that tennis can extend your life by nearly?10 years.?This was far greater than the longevity gains of other healthy sports such as soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years), jogging (3.2 years), and going to the gym (1.5 years).
Numerous types of activities can produce health and longevity benefits.
But racket sports consistently rank as the best sports for a longer life.
Start playing racket sports today and you could wind up living a decade longer.
General Manager, Lifestyle
2 å¹´See you on the paddle court!!
Co-Founder, Chairman & CMO at SportsEdTV ? Chairman & CSO at Crosscourt Advisors ? Advisor to brands, c-suite leaders, entrepreneurs and investors ? U.S. Patent Holder ? How can I help you?
2 年Another reason I’m happy to have chosen tennis as a 12 year-old for my main sport. Still playing at a high level 2-3 times a week 47 years later. And still LOVE it!