Is this advice from Spock?
Nope! (But we like to think he likes racquet sports, too).
Research has shown that adults who engage in racquet sports have the lowest risk of dying, or well, dying earlier than their cohorts who swam, biked, did aerobics (dance or gymnastics), ran or played football or rugby.
It’s true!
Dr. Pekka Oja of the UKK Institute for Health Promotion Research in Finland, now retired, and his colleagues, studied 80,306 adults with an average age of 52 for nine years to prove it (from 1994 to 2003).
People who played racquet sports like tennis, badminton or squash had a 47% lower risk of dying than those who didn’t exercise. Of the other top two contenders, swimmers had a 28% lower risk and aerobic sports enthusiasts, a 27% lower risk.
Cycling also dropped mortality risk, not as much as racquet sports, swimming or aerobics, but it did!
Whatever your exercise poison, however, all types of exercising lowered the mortality rate of individuals involved in the nine-year study.
We here at Holabird Sports, having built our entire company from our founder’s love for tennis, agree wholeheartedly in the life-changing benefits of racquet sports.
If lowering the risk of death wasn’t enough, tennis players “scored higher in vigor, optimism and self-esteem while scoring lower in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety and tension than other athletes and non-athletes,” according to Southern Connecticut State University’s Dr. Joan Finn.
Tennis also outperforms golf, inline skating and most other sports in developing positive personality characteristics.
In addition, racquet sports improve athleticism, since their fast-paced nature increases the need for fast reflexes and speed/agility. With fast reflexes comes the need to think quickly; aiding in your higher level thinking.
What’s more, racquet sports are aimed at cerebral aspects, requiring more strategy and skill than physical strength. Tennis, for example, requires alertness and tactical thinking and may actually generate new connections between nerves in the brain, says scientists at the University of Illinois.
If that wasn’t enough, racquet sports help improve aerobic and anaerobic fitness, your "powerful first step," leg strength, general coordination, fine motor control, immune system, flexibility, hand-eye coordination, nutritional habits, and the list goes on and on!
Basically, like The Guardian says, "if you want to stave off death for as long as possible, you might want to reach for a tennis racquet.”
Check out our wide selection of racquets for tennis, squash, racquetball and pickleball, or come in-store today to test them out. We'll have you on the court in no time.
Live Long and Prosper Through Racquet Sports
