Harvard doctor: 3 unexpected health and wellness benefits of pickleball
Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. especially among older individuals, according to the 2023 Sports & Fitness Industry Association Topline Participation Report.
Like most sports, pickleball — which combines elements of tennis, ping-pong and badminton — is a great way to stay physically fit and tone your muscles. But some of its other benefits may surprise you.
An ongoing study Apple is conducting published findings in October that analyzed over 250,000 pickleball and tennis workouts that were tracked via Apple Watch technology by study participants. Researchers concluded that playing pickleball was associated with helping players reach moderate to vigorous heart rate zones that have been linked to an improvement in heart health.
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"There's very good data showing that the duration of time in the moderate heart rate zones, so zone two or three, is best associated with improvements on insulin resistance [and] VO2 max, which is an overall index on cardiac fitness," says Dr. Calum MacRae, a principal investigator in the Apple study who is also a cardiologist and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
However, pickleball's advantages exceed more than the commonly known perks of exercise like heart disease prevention and lower chances of developing Type 2 diabetes.
3 unexpected health and wellness benefits of pickleball
- Improved cognition: Certain types of exercise, including pickleball and tennis, "boost your overall level of cognition," MacRae tells CNBC Make It. These kinds of physical activity can also help to improve your "memory and recall overtime" as well as "slow rates of cognitive impairment," he adds.
- Lower levels of loneliness: Loneliness is a national epidemic with damaging effects on par with smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, according to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Pickleball's collaborative nature fosters a perfect atmosphere for players to meet and connect with other people. "From the social aspect, you have much lower stress, considerably higher indices of wellbeing [and] lower loneliness indices. All of those things have been shown to be associated with social interaction in an activity setting," says MacRae. Among people ages 70 and older, the social component of pickleball seems to be one of the biggest draws.
- More sunlight: "I think one of the things that we as a society have underestimated is the benefit of being outdoors, and a lot of pickleball is played in the setting of existing tennis courts or other newer courts that are being specially designed for pickleball that are outdoors," MacRae says. Frequent sunlight exposure is wonderful for regulating your sleep cycle and can improve your quality of sleep, which can impact your mental health, he notes.
All in all, pickleball has the doctor's approval: "Something like pickleball, which is an active, social sport and builds community, sustains people in regular exercise over time. It's really something that for us is exciting to see."
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