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Pickleball, a mix of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, continues to grow in popularity and has become a staple across community centers, retirement homes, school gymnasiums, and sports arenas. One of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S., it is less intense than tennis but more exhilarating than ping-pong.
However, the question remains: Is pickleball good or bad for you? Does it have health benefits, or does playing it risk your well-being?
In this article, we will explore the above and more, sharing the benefits and risks of pickleball to help you decide whether it is the right sport for you.
Is Pickleball a Good Workout?
You can compare pickleball with other low-impact aerobic exercises to better understand its intensity, but few matches are close or equally fun.
The closest matches are walking, running, cycling, and swimming. And though they are effective, they don’t work your body the way pickleball does. The first is too leisurely, the second is hard on joints, the third only works the lower body, and the fourth is not suitable for all.
Moreover, pickleball’s charm lies in its flexibility. You can play pickleball indoors or outdoors, in a less exhilarating mode like in doubles, or a more intense mode like singles.
While playing in the single mode, you can further adjust the game intensity to limit movement and activity. For instance, rather than hopping across the court, you can play pickleball on one side of the court (Down the line) or diagonally (Cross the line).
So, the answer is yes. Pickleball is a good workout as it is more effective and complete than other low-impact workouts, highly flexible, and more fun. The last bit matters, as the fun element helps you follow it committedly and maximize the gains.
Health Benefits of Pickleball
There aren’t many sports that are suitable for everyone. Some are too vigorous, like tennis, while others require little mobility, like ping pong. Pickleball is not perfect for everyone, but it is ideal for many, as it lies in the sweet spot.
The young and the middle-aged can play it to strengthen their body and improve their cardiovascular health, while the old can swing the paddle for the above or to relieve stress, regulate blood pressure, and enhance cognitive skills.
Here are some potential health benefits of pickleball and the reasons why you should start playing it today.
Photo by @ The Landings
It is Good for Your Heart and Lungs
Pickleball is good for heart health, helps you lose weight, regulates blood pressure, lowers cholesterol levels, and improves lung function. In short, it boosts your cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory health.
A recent study also highlighted that playing pickleball lowers one’s risk of heart disease and improves heart health and cardiorespiratory fitness.
With just an hour or two workouts, pickleball players can burn around 600 to 1,000 calories, making it a fun sport for burning calories.
It Strengthens Your Bones, Joints, and Muscles
Requiring underhand serves and played on a 44-foot by 20-foot court, smaller than tennis, pickleball is a low-mobility and low-impact sport. This means it is easy on the knees, requires less running, and causes less stress while giving you the needed exercise to strengthen your bones, joints, and muscles.
This is why pickleball’s popularity is growing in retirement homes and among senior adults, as it enables them to get more than a simple cardio and unlock maximum mobility.
It Improves Balance and Hand-Eye Coordination
Pickleball is good for health because it brings the best of both worlds, tennis and table tennis, helping seniors get more than cardio and improve their fitness levels. Playing pickleball, better said, striking and receiving the ball with a paddle, also helps them improve balance and hand-eye coordination.
Also, it gives them the perfect lower body workout, forcing their feet to move with the rhythm and in coordination with their upper body.
Further, these movements positively impact their cognitive skills, helping them function better, enjoy independence, and healthy aging.
It Relieves Stress and Anxiety
Going beyond the body, the benefits of playing pickleball extend to the overall mental health. Like other aerobic activities, playing pickleball makes the body release endorphins, which helps control anxiety.
Endorphins, or feel-good neurotransmitters, relax the mind and distract the focus from all the stressful things that cause burnout.
Much more than a distraction, playing pickleball is a remedy to improve mental health, and researchers have found that pickleball players are more satisfied, less depressed, and happier with their lives.
It Helps Socialize and Battle Loneliness
Social loneliness is a pressing issue. It significantly increases the risk of dementia and premature death, worsening mental health as you age.
Low-impact and fun sports like pickleball help you find new friends and feel like you belong. Research to study the impact of playing pickleball on seniors’ mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic showed pickleball players felt less lonely and more satisfied.
In a nutshell, pickleball is a great workout and an excellent alternative to cardio and other racket sports, offering many physical benefits that can improve overall health.
Is Pickleball Bad For You?
Knowing the health benefits of playing pickleball, let’s explore the other side. Could playing pickleball be bad for you? Yes, it could be.
However, it depends on how you go about it. Like every exercise or physical activity, pickleball has a risk of injury, but it is substantially low.
Moreover, thanks to softballs, low mobility requirements, and low impact, optimizing the game per your preference to limit the risk is possible.
On the contrary, going too hard at it from the get-go increases the risk factors significantly, making the game do more harm than good.
Here are some health risks of playing pickleball that you should consider to ensure the sport benefits your health, not worsens it.
Sprained Ankles and Wrist Injuries
The pickleball court is small, but the risk of sprained ankles and wrist injuries remains. The sport requires quick movements and quite a lot of bending and reaching, so it is possible to strain the ankle or wrist while playing pickleball.
Heat Strokes and Sunburn
Playing outdoors always carries a risk of heat stroke and sunburn. Thus, if players don’t factor in the temperature, environment, or personal tolerance to heat, they could get sick due to excessive heat or extreme conditions.
Muscle Strain
The sport has a low impact, though it requires moving your muscles, and if they are unaccustomed to such activity or exercise, the risk of muscular strain increases. In particular, the risk is highest in seniors who start playing pickleball outdoors without getting accustomed to playing indoors.
How to Make Pickleball Safer?
Luckily, it is easy to make pickleball safer. Unlike tennis and other high-impact sports, it is not like the game is naturally dangerous.
In fact, it only becomes risky if players don’t take the necessary precautions or ignore the conditions or their stress tolerance.
So, here’s how to reap maximum positive benefits from the sport and make it less risky and fun.
Stretch and Warm Up
Stretching and warming up before the game helps you get the blood pumping and puts your body in the game mode. Even a 5 to 7-minute warm-up can help avoid joint and muscle-related risks or significantly reduce them.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CUYNbcFe-w&t=3s
Choose Lightweight Paddles
Selecting the right paddles also significantly improves the overall experience and makes the game less risky. Pickleball paddles are available in different sizes, thicknesses, weights, and materials. A thin and lightweight paddle is best to increase mobility and limit strain.
Select the Right Ball
There are unique pickleball balls for different settings. For instance, the indoor pickleball balls are orange with fewer but bigger holes for better bounce and responsiveness, while the outdoor balls are yellow with more but smaller holes for controlled bounce and more stability.
Both balls serve their unique purpose, making the indoor or outdoor pickleball experience safe and perfect.
Thus, choosing a suitable ball is essential to keeping the game fun. An indoor ball could make the outdoor experience more stressful due to excessive bounce, while an outdoor ball would cause extra strain on players indoors.
Wear Protective Gear
Wearing supportive shoes and protective goggles could also help reduce the risk of unintended injuries. Like other exercises, choosing the correct attire and wearing the right shoes are essential to keep the pickleball experience fun.
Bottom Line
Seeing the potential benefits and risks of playing pickleball, it is clear that the former outweighs the latter. The low-impact paddle sport is the perfect full-body workout for young, middle-aged, and senior adults.
It causes minimal strain and gives many health benefits, including helping maintain healthy bones and joints, achieving healthy weight, and improving cognitive function.
The cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory health benefits of pickleball alone are enough to inspire a switch to paddle and incorporate the sport into daily life, especially for senior adults who are at a high risk of heart disease.
However, if you are still unsure whether pickleball is the right physical activity, it is best to consult your healthcare provider.