peer review to study, published in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, suggests that pickleball can provide a moderate workout for people who are middle-aged or older. But they would need to play up to 4.5 hours a week to meet the recommended exercise guidelines.
If you’re counting steps, the study showed you’ll pick up relatively few during an hour of pickleball, about half as much as during an average hour-long brisk walk.
And while the game reached a vigorous activity level a respectable 30 percent of the time for many players, it may not provide as much of a physical challenge for people who are young or already in good shape.
federal physical activity guidelines for Americans, recommend at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week for adults. Moderate-intensity exercise is usually definite like pushing yourself to the point where you can talk but not sing. Vigorous exercise, on the other hand, includes more demanding exercises, such as jogging, bicycling at a fast pace, and individual tennis.
Pickleball, played with a paddle and a perforated polymer ball, combines elements of tennis, badminton, table tennis, and racquetball. Pickleball players compete in a smaller space than tennis players; up to four pickleball courts can fit on a standard tennis court. A match is best played two games out of three and each game can last from 15 to 25 minutes. It is practiced by people of all ages, but the sport has long been associated with seniors and retirees after three men in Washington state invented it in 1965.
To find out if pickleball is as vigorous as jogging or tennis or closer to a more moderate activity like brisk walking, researchers at the University of Manitoba outfitted 53 recreational pieces of equipment pickleball players with smart watches to track their heart rates and accelerometers to measure their steps. Participants’ ages ranged from 29 to 73 years, although most were middle-aged or older.
They warmed up by walking or jogging around the courts for three minutes at an intensity they felt was “moderate” and then practiced various pickleball shots for 2 to 5 minutes before the game. The game lasted at least an hour, with 22 of them playing singles and the rest playing doubles. Time included short breaks if participants needed to rotate out of one court and wait for the next available court.
The study found that based on accelerometer data showing step count, players averaged 3,322 steps per hour, and about 80 percent of individual pickleball play was of moderate intensity. (The rest was light intensity.)
Doubles pickleball players moved less, posting just 2,790 steps per hour. During doubles play, the participants spent only half the time on moderate-intensity exercise and the other half on light-intensity.
But heart rate readings from players indicated that both singles and doubles competition could be providing more training than step counts showed, he said. Sandra Webber, principal investigator and lead author of the study, and an associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the University of Manitoba. Webber calls herself a “pickleball enthusiast” and at 54 play three to four times a week.
During singles and doubles matches, many of the men’s and women’s heart rates reached around 111 beats per minute, a level that would put older people in the moderate exercise range, Webber said. The average heart rate of the participants also reached about 70 percent of the predicted maximum heart rate for the singles and doubles players, which meets the definition of moderate activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The singles and doubles pickleball players spent about 40 percent of their time in the moderate heart rate intensity zone, about 30 percent in light activity, and about 30 percent in the vigorous zone, suggesting that with enough game time, players could reach the recommended activity goals.
“I would say 70 percent of the time people were on the court, they were getting exercise that would count toward their 150 minutes a week,” Webber said. “Based on our results, if people played pickleball for four and a half hours a week, they would meet their physical activity guidelines.”
Michael Joyner, a Mayo Clinic professor of anesthesiology and physiology who was not involved in the study, said he found heart rate responses to be more meaningful and would emphasize them over accelerometer data. The study likely confirms “what your hunches would be,” he said, “which is somewhere between the high end of moderate physical activity and the low end of vigorous physical activity,” during pickleball.
Ben Johns, 23, of Gaithersburg, Maryland, the No. 1 player in the world ranked by the Professional Pickleball Association in men’s singles and doubles, said pickleball has more sudden movements and less downtime than tennis.
“In general, in tennis, you can run to the ball from time to time, but most of the time you know where the ball is going and you move at a pace that is not instantaneous,” unlike in pickleball, Johns said. Also, the courts are smaller in pickleball and the sport often requires quick points near the net, he added.
But pickleball isn’t for everyone. As the sport grows, so do injuries. Webber said that tendon pain in the elbows, known as “tennis elbow,” is a common injury among pickleball players. He added that “there have been some very serious eye injuries from getting hit, usually with a ball, but also potentially with your partner’s paddle in the eye.”
Webber hopes to investigate other potential benefits of pickleball, such as muscle strength, flexibility and bone health.
Based on her study and personal experience, Webber remains an advocate for pickleball.
“Most people, once they try it, they’re hooked,” he said.
