Wimbledon Fever has gripped the nation over the last few weeks and excellent performances from Andy Murray and Johanna Konta have inspired many to get out and enjoy a game or two. Whether you’ve got your own tennis court or you’re thinking of joining a local club, there are a huge range of benefits in taking up the sport on a regular basis. Here are five health advantages of playing tennis:
A full body workout
When you play tennis you are giving your whole body a work out. There’s a significant amount of exertion for your arms in playing the shots. Your legs are constantly moving from the running, jumping and stretching involved in getting to and hitting shots. In fact, the whole of your body has to work very hard when you play tennis; play a set or two and you will have worked on almost every muscle you have.
Stronger bones
Exercise like tennis is actually fantastic for your bones. The best form of exercise for bone strength involves weights, but in tennis you are using the resistance of gravity against the weight of your body, which can be just as effective. In younger people, this sort of exercise helps to build bone mass. While, as we get older, we begin to lose bone mass and tennis is a great way to slow this loss.
Enhanced coordination
Coordination is a vital part of tennis – from getting your feet into position while you swing to the smooth movements of a powerful service. Playing tennis can help your brain to work different parts of the body independently and synchronise movements.
Weight loss
Undoubtedly one of the best aspects of playing tennis is that it is a fantastic workout that burns calories and helps you lose weight. Playing tennis for an hour can burn around 600 calories for men and around 420 for women. Those are pretty good figures when tennis is such a fun sport to play too.
Relieve stress
Exercise like tennis releases endorphins around your body which make you feel happier and relieve stress. Not to mention you get a lot of satisfaction and stress relief from hitting the ball with your racket. Whether you’ve had a hard day at the office or you just want to release some tension, you can do it on the court.
