The Health Benefits of Badminton

Badminton, tennis’s lesser-known cousin (which is still an olympic sport!), is easy to learn, a fun social activity and provides numerous physical benefits. So if you’re in need of a good workout, head to your backyard or your local gym for a recreational match against a friend or two. Badminton is a racket sport played on a rectangular court. Players score by hitting a shuttlecock, or birdie, with their racket over the net and in their opponents’ half of the court. Here are Samir Becic and Health Fitness Revolution‘s list of health benefits of badminton:

• Physical Fitness: Between the running, lunging, and birdie hitting, playing badminton burns your body fat. An hour game burns about 450 calories, but it goes by fast because it’s fun.

• Develop skills that are transferable to other sports: Improves your speed, reflex, intelligence, and productivity. Badminton is a fast paced game. Since players need to be attentive and powerful all the time, the game increases your speed and improves your reflexes. Intelligence is also a factor since players must know how to deceive their opponents in every shot so they could win the game. Thus if you play badminton, it will help you develop your agility, strength and intelligence.

• Increased Muscle Tone: It’s fantastic for the legs: the quads, butt, calves and hamstrings. Your core muscles get worked, too. And of course the arm and back muscles on the side you hold your racquet are getting a workout.

• Psychological Benefits: Because badminton promotes physical fitness, it helps to reduce stress and anxiety. Exercise increases endorphins, which are the brain’s feel-good neurotransmitters, and has also been found to improve mood and sleep. Badminton is also likely to put you in a good mood because it’s a social activity.

• Social Health: You’ll need at least one opponent, but you can also play with a teammate and two other opponents. The social interactions of a game, combined with feel-good endorphins, will result in positive feelings after a session on the court. You will become part of a community and you can join a league if you really enjoy the game.

• Good for Overall Health: As with all forms of physical exercise, badminton can reduce or eliminate your risk for many health problems, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. It can also reduce your risk for coronary heart disease by reducing your triglyceride levels and increasing your “good” cholesterol.