Top 11 Incredible Benefits of Racquetball You (Probably) Didn’t Know

Racquetball is a great sport that more and more people seem to be taking up. Since it’s an indoor sport, it can be played in all types of weather making it a great form of exercise all year-round.

You can play with an opponent or as a team against two other people, or you can practice on your own.

No matter how you decide to play racquetball, there is no question about how beneficial it is for you. 

Let’s dive in

Burn Calories Effectively

If you play a regular 20-minute game of racquetball, you’ll be running around the court and engaging your whole body. In fact, the average player runs over 3,600 feet during a 20-minute match according to research. If you play a full hour (three 20-minute games), you’ll be running over two miles. This equates to as much as 800 calories burnt (a minimum of 600). If you play a few times a week, you can you’ll be burning calories left and right without a problem.

Trim Fat in the Body

If you have excess fat especially around your midsection racquetball can be beneficial. Playing a normal game of racquetball is an excellent workout for your whole body but especially for your midsection. You are always moving during your match and lunges and squats are natural parts of the game. These movements along with stretching and jumping to make shots are a complete core workout without a single sit-up. To help reduce belly fat and excess fat in your body, in general, you should play racquetball on a regular basis. 

Improve Cardiovascular Health

You already know how important your heart health is for your overall wellbeing. Your diet and lifestyle choices do a lot to keep your heart pumping properly, but exercise is also important for it. Racquetball is beneficial for your heart health because you’re constantly moving at a fast pace. It’s the equivalent of running but with more effort because you’re using other muscles to swing your racquet and to change directions rapidly. This works your heart and makes it stronger.

Playing racquetball can help lower your risk of coronary heart disease, too. This is because it lowers your triglycerides while raising your HDL (good cholesterol) as any physical exercise does. With your cholesterol levels in check, you’ll decrease your risk of heart disease and lead a better, healthier life.

Strengthen Muscles and Bones

As any workout will do, racquetball can help you get stronger muscles as well as bones. Even though this isn’t a typical strength training workout, the game is considered a weight-bearing exercise that taxes your muscles and forces them to get stronger. Since you’re constantly moving in different ways, you’ll be working all of your various muscle groups in one workout.

At the same time, proper exercise along with a balanced diet can help slow down bone loss that naturally happens over time. By staying active and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, you’ll be able to properly utilize nutrients to feed your bones to keep them strong and healthy.

Help with Flexibility and Mobility

To play racquetball properly, you have to be able to run, swing a racquet, and hit a quick ball that is bouncing all over the court. This requires your body to react quickly and effectively. The more you play and get used to the quick motions the more your body will respond properly. You’ll notice that you have better coordination as well as balance and overall mobility.

If you just started playing or are about to start, you will probably stumble as your body gets used to running fast and hitting the ball. However, the more you play, you’ll notice that you will move around better and will make more shots with ease.

By pivoting left and right to follow the ball your coordination and mobility will improve. Your reflexes that you use to swing your racquet to connect with the ball will also improve over time. With stronger muscles and bones your body will move easier, and you won’t feel as stiff as you may have before which will help improve your flexibility. All of this equates to a better range of motion that you’ll be able to feel on and off the court.

Improve Hand-eye Coordination

Your body won’t be the only thing that feels more in balance; you’ll also benefit from better hand-eye coordination. In racquetball, you have to hit a rubber ball that is speeding around the court as it bounces off of walls, the floor, and the ceiling. You have to react quickly and swing your racquet so that you can hit the ball and make a good shot. As you do this, your hand-eye coordination will naturally improve so that you can play the game properly.

On a biological level, the movements that you have to perform in a racquetball match improve neural adaptation because your body has to react faster. To do this, your body will create faster connections between your muscles and your brain. Your reaction time will improve, and you’ll be able to follow the ball better during a match. This will translate to other aspects of your life, too, as better reactions and improved hand-eye coordination can help you while driving, climbing ladders, or playing with your children.

Boost Your Brain Power

With your neural connections reacting faster your brain power and mental agility will also improve thanks to playing racquetball. As it strengthens your other muscles as well as your heart, it will also improve your brain by improving your cognitive functioning. The repetitive motions of racquetball work your brain in a similar way that interval training does. Your body and brain get used to the repetitive movements like switching grips, swinging the racquet, and pivoting back and forth. This helps your muscle memory so that you can easily perform the movements over time.

Similarly, you have to think clearly and react quickly while playing the game. This forces your brain to put in more work as it has to process your movements to properly perform. With a quick-acting mind, you’ll also be able to think clearer off the court thanks to this improved mental agility. 

Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise

In simple terms, aerobic exercises are activities where your limbs move your body, and your muscles are moving in repetitive and some-what rhythmic motions. Your heart rate increases along with your breathing so the oxygen in your body can burn the fat as well as the carbs in your body to produce energy to continue functioning.

Anaerobic exercises are activities that specifically target individual muscles or muscle groups. This is a targeted workout where you aren’t moving around a lot. Thanks to this, you don’t need as much oxygen as this activity only burns carbohydrates. Your muscles are strengthened during these workouts.

Racquetball is a unique exercise that functions as both an aerobic exercise and an anaerobic exercise. Your whole body is constantly moving, and your muscles are being strengthened. This is what helps you burn calories properly while also losing body fat.

Get a Whole Body Workout

As all of the other benefits have proven, racquetball gives you a full-body workout. It works all of your different muscle groups and burns fat as well as carbohydrates in your body. Racquetball also strengthens your core which improves your overall balance as well as your posture and even your breathing. With a complete workout, you don’t have to worry about concentrating on different parts of your body during regular exercise either. Racquetball really can help you from head to toe.

Lower Stress Levels

Racquetball can help lower your stress levels and the health risks that come with stress. Endorphins are created in your brain whenever you do any exercise. This naturally lowers your stress level and can even make you forget your worries temporarily. You’ll be too busy focusing on the game to fixate on trivial matters.

With lower stress levels you’ll also be decreasing stress-related health issues. For example, lower stress levels can help lower your blood pressure and even reduce cortisol in the body which contributes to belly fat. This makes you an overall healthier person.

Have Fun and Be Social

Racquetball is fun and social. You play with other people most of the time so you’ll be able to make new friends or see your friends more often when you have a standing racquetball date. The healthy competition also helps improve your relationship with people as you can learn how to handle different emotions and impulses through sportsmanship.

Finally, this is not just a workout it’s a sport. That means that it’s meant to be a fun game. You’ll have a good time running around the court with your friends and improving your game as you go.

As you can see, racquetball has a lot of different benefits for your mind and body. By playing on a regular basis, you’ll be able to take advantage of each of these benefits and improve your overall health while having fun.