Is Pickleball Good Exercise?
Yes, pickleball is moderate-intensity aerobic exercise, and about 3 to 5 hours of play a week reach the adult guideline of 150 minutes of moderate activity. Singles produces more steps an hour than doubles (3,322 against 2,791), and the guideline adds a separate requirement of muscle-strengthening activity on 2 or more days a week on top of the aerobic minutes.
- Pickleball is moderate-intensity exercise, averaging 109 to 112 beats a minute in the two measured groups, and singles asks for more movement than doubles.
- The measured burn is about 354 calories an hour, an estimated 280 to 415 across body weights of 60 to 90 kg, and 370 to 451 active calories an hour in one player’s watch readings across formats.
- The weekly target takes about 3.25 to 5 hours of play for the aerobic minutes, plus muscle-strengthening on 2 or more days as a separate requirement.
What Kind of Workout Is Pickleball?
Pickleball is a paddle sport played as singles or doubles over a low net on a court 6.10 m by 13.41 m (20 ft by 44 ft), and measured play averages in the moderate-intensity band. Moderate intensity is 3.0 to 5.9 times resting energy use and vigorous intensity is 6.0 or more. In a study of 15 adults aged 40 to 85 who wore a portable calorimeter, players averaged 4.1 METs, meaning 4.1 times resting energy use, with a mean heart rate of 108.8 beats a minute. In a study of 53 recreational players averaging 62 years, mean heart rates were 111.6 beats a minute for singles and 111.5 for doubles, which is 70.3 and 71.2 percent of predicted maximum.
More than 70 percent of play time in the 53-player study fell in the moderate-to-vigorous heart-rate zones for both formats. Accelerometers classed 80.5 percent of singles time and 50.4 percent of doubles time as moderate. Across the 15 players in the calorimeter study, METs ranged from 1.5 to 7.7, from below the moderate band to above the vigorous threshold, and heart rates from 79 to 158 beats a minute. Measured against each player’s own treadmill-tested maximum, the average was 50.9 percent of heart-rate reserve, with a range from 21 to 83 percent across players. The average player reached the moderate threshold within about a minute of starting a 15-minute match, and effort occasionally reached the vigorous range. Intensity is set by the players.
The evidence has limits. The calorimeter study had 15 players and the heart-rate study 53, with average ages of 65 and 62, so the figures describe older recreational players and not younger or tournament players. Intensity was set by the players, the heart-rate study used wrist watches and accelerometers, and the six-week results compare players with their own starting measurements. The format split in calories further down rests on one player’s watch.
How Many Calories Does Pickleball Burn?
The measured burn is about 354 calories an hour. Across 15 adults, the mean for 60 minutes of play was 353.5 calories (standard deviation 85.0), or 5.9 calories a minute, with a range from 2.1 to 10.8 calories a minute across the players. The 8 women averaged 330.0 calories an hour and the 7 men averaged 381.6. Each player wore a portable calorimeter and a heart-rate monitor for four 15-minute matches, 60 minutes of play in all, and the matches are not identified as singles or doubles.
Calories by format come from one player’s smartwatch record. Across 43 pickleball readings on an Apple Watch, singles (11 readings) came to 451 active and 578 total calories an hour, competitive doubles (8 readings) to 401 and 523, and open-play doubles (24 readings) to 370 and 496, with average heart rates of 116, 112 and 101 beats a minute. The record is one person, a consumer watch run in its tennis mode, not peer reviewed, and it does not define active and total calories, so the figures are that player’s readings and not a result for players in general. Competitive doubles read 11 percent below singles in active calories and open-play doubles 18 percent below (Racket Chronicle arithmetic).
Scaled to body weight, the calorimeter mean works out to 4.63 calories per kilogram an hour (353.5 calories divided by the group’s average weight of 76.3 kg). Applied to players of 60, 70, 80 and 90 kg (132, 154, 176 and 198 lb), that gives about 280, 325, 370 and 415 calories an hour. This is Racket Chronicle arithmetic and an estimate, not a measured result: it assumes calorie burn rises in proportion to body weight, and it describes adults aged 40 and over playing at the pace of that study.
Singles asks for more movement than doubles. Singles and doubles use the same court, so a singles player covers alone the ground that two partners share, and doubles asks each player for less court coverage. In the 53-player study singles produced 3,322 steps an hour and doubles 2,791, about 19 percent more for singles (Racket Chronicle arithmetic), at the same average heart rate of about 111 beats a minute. Heart rate did not separate the formats in that study, so the calorie gap between formats rests on the one-player record.
Open play adds waiting: players rotate off between games, and a wait of 15 to 20 minutes for the next game is possible. The single player’s open-play readings were the lowest of the three formats, at 101 beats a minute, and competitive doubles in league or tournament play read higher. Weight change depends on the calories eaten and the calories burned, and in the six-week study of 15 adults playing 3 hours a week, mean body weight did not change significantly (up 0.13 kg, 95 percent confidence interval from down 0.25 to up 0.52).
How Much Pickleball Meets the Weekly Exercise Guideline?
The adult guideline in the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition, is 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity, or an equivalent mix, with 2 minutes of moderate activity counting the same as 1 minute of vigorous. Every minute at moderate or vigorous intensity counts, and the guideline prefers that the minutes are spread across the week.
Dividing 150 minutes by the share of play time at moderate intensity or higher gives the weekly hours of play (Racket Chronicle arithmetic, rounded up to the next quarter hour). With more than 70 percent of play time in the moderate-to-vigorous heart-rate zones for both formats, 150 divided by 0.70 is 214.3 minutes, or 3.57 hours, which rounds up to 3.75 hours at most. By accelerometer, singles at 80.5 percent moderate needs 186.3 minutes, or 3.11 hours, which rounds up to 3.25, and doubles at 50.4 percent moderate needs 297.6 minutes, or 4.96 hours, which rounds up to 5.0. The range is 3.25 to 5 hours of play a week across the formats and measures, and the hours are play time, not time spent waiting between games. A minute at vigorous intensity counts as two minutes of moderate activity, so a game that reaches the vigorous range needs fewer hours, and each figure is a ceiling for its measure and not a forecast for any one player.
Those hours fit three to five sessions, for example three sessions of 75 minutes (3.75 hours) or five sessions of an hour (5 hours). The six-week study used 60 minutes of play on three days a week, which is 3 hours.
The second requirement is separate: muscle-strengthening activity of moderate or greater intensity that works the legs, hips, back, chest, abdomen, shoulders and arms on 2 or more days a week. The guideline’s examples are lifting weights, working with resistance bands, calisthenics such as push-ups, pull-ups and planks, carrying heavy loads and heavy gardening. The hours above cover the aerobic requirement only.
What Health Benefits Does Pickleball Have?
In a six-week study of 15 adults aged 40 to 85 who played four 15-minute matches on 3 days a week, five measures changed compared with their starting values. Systolic blood pressure fell 4.75 mmHg and diastolic pressure fell 2.50 mmHg, HDL cholesterol rose 3.08 mg/dL, LDL cholesterol fell 3.67 mg/dL, and VO2max, the maximal oxygen uptake, rose 3.11 mL/kg/min from a starting average of 26.2. Each of the five changes was statistically significant (p below 0.05).
Six other measures did not change significantly: body weight, waist circumference, body fat percentage, total cholesterol, triglycerides and blood glucose. The study followed 15 players for six weeks and compared them with their own baseline, so it shows what happened to this group and not what pickleball does for every player.
In the 53-player study, singles and doubles were classed as moderate-to-vigorous activities that contribute substantially to older adults reaching the physical activity guideline. Both samples averaged 62 to 65 years, so the benefits measured here are those of older recreational players.
Mood, memory, bone density, cancer risk and lifespan are outside what these measurements cover.
What Are the Downsides and Injury Risks of Pickleball?
Falls are the main route to injury. A review of US emergency department records from 2013 to 2022 found 1,110 cases of pickleball-related musculoskeletal and head injury, representing an estimated 66,350 injuries nationally. Falls caused 65.5 percent of them, rising to 71.5 percent at ages 65 to 80 and 96 percent at 81 and over. Fractures were 32.7 percent of diagnoses, the wrist was the most injured body part at 12.7 percent of injuries, and female players had 69.1 percent of the fractures.
Strains and sprains were 30.8 percent of diagnoses, and the study’s category for them is overuse injury; they fell most often on the lower leg (31 percent) and the ankle (14.7 percent). Players aged 65 to 80 made up 61.1 percent of the estimated injuries and the mean age was 64. Below age 35 the leading mechanism differs: being hit with a paddle at ages 0 to 17 and a twist or inversion at ages 18 to 34. The estimate was 611 injuries for 2013 and 13,690 for 2022. These are counts of emergency department visits with no hours of play recorded, so they give no injury rate per hour of play, and injuries treated outside emergency departments are absent.
In the six-week calorimeter study, the research team learned in conversation that nearly every one of the 15 participants had fallen once or twice while playing at some earlier time. That is a participant report and not a measured rate.
Is Pickleball Good Exercise FAQs
Can you lose weight playing pickleball?
Weight change depends on the calories eaten and the calories burned, and playing pickleball covers only the second. The measured burn is about 354 calories an hour in the calorimeter study and 370 to 451 active calories an hour in one player’s watch readings, depending on format. In the six-week study of 15 adults playing 3 hours a week, mean body weight did not change significantly (up 0.13 kg, 95 percent confidence interval from down 0.25 to up 0.52).
How many times a week should you play pickleball?
The aerobic guideline of 150 minutes of moderate activity takes about 3.25 to 5 hours of play a week by Racket Chronicle arithmetic, which fits three sessions of 75 minutes or five sessions of an hour. The six-week study used 60 minutes on 3 days a week. The guideline prefers that aerobic minutes are spread across the week, and the muscle-strengthening requirement of 2 or more days is separate.
Is pickleball good exercise for older adults?
Measurements in older players found moderate-intensity play: 53 recreational players averaging 62 years had mean heart rates near 111 beats a minute, and 15 adults aged 40 to 85 averaged 4.1 METs. In the six-week study those 15 adults showed favorable changes in blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol and VO2max. For adults aged 65 and over the guideline adds balance training to the aerobic and muscle-strengthening parts, and falls caused an estimated 71.5 percent of pickleball injuries at ages 65 to 80 and 96 percent at 81 and over in US emergency department records for 2013 to 2022.
Is pickleball aerobic or anaerobic?
Heart rate and oxygen uptake data place pickleball in the moderate-intensity range: players averaged 4.1 METs in the calorimeter study and 70 to 71 percent of predicted maximum heart rate in the 53-player study. Effort reaches the vigorous range at times, with player values up to 7.7 METs and 158 beats a minute. The studies measured heart rate, oxygen uptake and movement, which classify intensity but do not split a game into aerobic and anaerobic energy.
Is pickleball enough exercise on its own?
Pickleball supplies the aerobic requirement at about 3.25 to 5 hours of play a week, with doubles at the upper end of that range on the accelerometer measure. The guideline adds muscle-strengthening on 2 or more days a week, using activities such as lifting weights, resistance bands and push-ups, and adds balance training for adults aged 65 and over. Those parts are separate requirements, so aerobic play covers one of them.
What are the negatives of pickleball?
The main negative is injury, mostly from falls: in US emergency department records for 2013 to 2022, falls caused an estimated 65.5 percent of pickleball injuries and fractures, led by the wrist, were the most common diagnosis. Players aged 65 to 80 made up 61.1 percent of the estimated injuries. The other limit is effort: relaxed open-play doubles with waiting between games read lowest of the formats in the one-player record, at 370 active calories an hour. The emergency department data are counts with no hours of play recorded, so they do not give a rate.
Sources
Boss T. “The Workout Value Of Pickleball Compared To Other Racquet Sports,” Forbes, July 22, 2024
