The Many Health Benefits of Playing Badminton
Badminton is a fantastic sport. Not only is it great fun and a good opportunity to socialize with like minded people, but there are also many health benefits of playing badminton.
Let’s take a look at a few of these now.
Flexibility – no one can deny that Badminton improves your flexibility in most of the major muscles, including the hamstrings, erector spinae, pectorals, triceps and many other areas. It’s an absolute necessity that good players maintain a healthy level of flexibility in all of these muscles. Whilst stretching hasn’t been proven to have a positive effect before playing, there is certainly plenty of evidence to prove that it is beneficial afterwards.
Strength – Obviously your upper body won’t gain too much strength due to playing Badminton, but your forearms, thighs and calves will be sufficiently challenged to improve their strength and power. Anyone who has ever done a series of jump smashes back to back will testify to the huge challenge this places on the thighs muscles.
Muscular Endurance – Absolutely vital to any Badminton players, it’s the ability to keep going right to the end of a match. Virtually every muscle group has to continuously contract in a long game of badminton. From the calves right up to the shoulders.
Heart and Lungs – Again Badminton places a very challenging workload on the heart. Those who regularly play singles or against a particularly good doubles pairing will agree with me on this one. Short bursts of all out effort are often required in quick fire rallies which can often last for well over 10 shots per point. This series of stop start action, intense activity interspersed with short periods of rest is very much like interval training which is rapidly becoming one of the most popular types of fitness training techniques.
Mobility – As we age our joints can become less fluid or moveable. The connective tissue and bone endings can become worn and are therefore not as mobile as when we were younger. It’s important as we age to maintain a certain amount of movement in our joints otherwise both our posture and the performance of simple everyday tasks becomes much more of a challenge. Badminton helps to lubricate and mobilise almost all the joints on the body so again it’s a very useful sport to take part in.
These are just a few of the most obvious health benefits of playing Badminton, but what many people overlook is the social side of the sport. Not only for meeting and interacting with people who share the same passion for the sport as you, but more so for the bringing together of people who love to use and challenge their bodies in a way that can actually improve their health and well being the way that Badminton can do.
