The Top Health Benefits of Playing Tennis
Tennis is a fun sport that offers a full-body workout. Playing tennis at a moderate intensity for about an hour can burn anywhere from 500 to 1,000 calories depending on your physique. This sport is an excellent way to engage in cardiovascular exercise. Tennis players are at a low risk of developing health problems, such as heart disease, high cholesterol levels and hypertension.
It’s more fun to hit groundstrokes and chase down your opponent’s shots rather than hopping on a treadmill at the gym. Tennis often requires players to do explosive sprints and other movements that spike their heart rate. Playing long rallies during a match is one way to improve cardiovascular endurance. However, it’s highly recommended that players take a break every few games to get their heart rate down to a normal resting level. There is also an anaerobic component to playing on a regular basis. In fact, the short bursts of sprints and other swift maneuvers on the court can burn fat tissue more effectively than running at a steady pace.
Playing tennis is also an effective way to develop strength and stamina in some of the largest muscle groups in the body. For example, the quadriceps and hamstrings are heavily used during most shots, especially the serve. Players have to emphasize the bending of the legs in order to generate good leverage for their shots. Hitting groundstrokes can also be beneficial to some of the muscles in the forearm. When hitting forehands and backhands with a lot of topspin, players have to master the pronation and supination of their forearm.
It’s highly recommended that tennis athletes work on their wrist flexibility in order to get an extra snap on each shot. Snapping the wrist can add a significant amount of spin to the most important shots in this game, including the serve. Overall, tennis players must have good flexibility in their entire body in order to lunge and stretch for difficult passing shots, especially when playing in defensive positions near the net.
