Pickleball is an outdoor or indoor paddle/racket spot. It can be played with 2-4 players, and is a lot like tennis or badminton.
In many ways, this sport is a combination of ping-pong, badminton, and tennis.
As this sport has continued to grow in popularity, one question has been at the forefront of everyone’s minds: is it actually good exercise?
The answer? Yes! Pickleball can be a great way to work out and stay active.
If you want to find out more, just keep reading. We’ll cover everything you need to know about it in the sections below.
Is Pickleball Good Exercise?
Yes, pickleball is a good way to get some exercise in! In this sport, you’re chasing after the ball, much like tennis or badminton.
When you do this, you are moving your body quickly in short bursts.
This will increase your heart rate, which will increase and decrease as you move throughout the game.
Pickleball also requires endurance, hand-eye coordination, and strength! So, all together, it can be a very beneficial sport to play! It is considered a cardiovascular sport, and that’s a great thing.
Cardio is some of the best exercise you can do, but the way you do it isn’t always fun.
Pickleball allows you to get some cardio in, but still have fun doing it. We call that a win!
Can You Lose Weight Playing Pickleball?
It is important to note that the key element to losing weight is diet.
If you eat too many calories and work out, you are probably going to get the results you ask for.
The combination of exercise and a healthy diet is the key to losing weight, and keeping that weight off.
With that being said, there have been some great success stories for people who have been playing pickleball to help them lose weight.
A couple of people have reported losing between 70 and 135 pounds by playing pickleball.
Because this sport is a cardiovascular sport and can be the same intensity as many others, it can help you lose weight! It’s a good way to lose weight as long as you are also living a healthy lifestyle and eating healthy food.
One of the great things about pickleball is that this sport is less taxing on the body. It is played in a small court, and is ideal for people who are physically limited.
Because of this, it is actually a great sport for older people. There is still running around, but you don’t have to go long distances and potentially hurt your joints.
That isn’t to say that this sport is only for older people, though! Plenty of young and middle-aged individuals enjoy this sport, too. It’s a nice, casual sport to play year-round.
How Many Calories Can You Burn Playing Pickleball?
The amount of calories you burn while playing pickleball will depend on a couple of things.
This includes your overall health and weight, but also your age and the intensity at which you are playing the game.
Pickleball can be casual and slow-paced, or you can speed things up.
To track how many calories you can lose playing this game, it’s a good idea to wear a watch like the Apple Watch, which can give you this information.
Doing this, players typically report burning between 400-700 calories every hour, which is nothing to scoff at! Again, it all depends on how you are playing the game, and the level of intensity you’re willing to go to.
The more intense your session is, the more calories you will burn – simple as that!
You can equate this amount of calorie burning to running or jogging.
However, it’s more entertaining than that! Instead of watching your feet, you can watch a ball get hit towards, and you can swing a paddle around.
Overall, a lot of people would find this a lot more fun than going for a jog. Not to mention, you are playing pickleball with friends, so it is a social game, too.
Are There Any Other Benefits to Playing Pickleball?
There are lots of benefits to playing pickleball. Let’s go through a few of them in the bullet points below:
- You can play singles or doubles – pickleball can be played with one other person, or three other friends! Playing a sport with friends will always be more fun and boost your mood considerably.
By hanging out with your friends, you get the chance to be sociable while also being healthy. It’s the best of both worlds.
- It improves coordination and balance – single there’s a lot of running around, hitting, and watching involved, pickleball will help you improve your balance and coordination.
This will help you in daily life, as these things naturally get worse as we get older. It is a great way of ensuring that you never lose those skills.
- It helps to receive anxiety and depression – like any sport, physical activity is great for alleviating stress, anxiety, and depression.
Pickleball is no different! The release of hormones helps to fight off these negative feelings, allowing you to feel better about life.
- Pickleball improves the musculoskeletal function – playing this sport means that you are using a lot of different muscles around the body.
This will ensure that those muscles get exercised, which can help with mobility, and even help you heal faster and decrease the risk of coronary risk factors.
Final Thoughts
Pickleball is a sport that combines spring-pong, tennis, and badminton.
By playing it, you can get in some much needed cardio, while burning between 400-7oo calories an hour! That’s the same as jogging, but a lot more fun.
Of course, the amount of calories you burn will depend on the intensity that you’re playing at.
However, any amount of physical exercise is good for you, and can help you lose weight if you do enough of it.
If your goal is to lose weight, make sure that you’re balancing exercise with healthy food, and you should start seeing results in no time!
