Racquetball is an indoor sport that offers marvelous benefits to the body both inside and out. You can play it alone, against another player, or in teams of two. The sport is known for its fast-paced rhythm that keeps the body actively engaged throughout the game. With that being said, you may ask: ‘Is racquetball a good workout and weight loss activity?’
Playing racquetball can be a great workout that can help you lose weight. Racquetball is a calorie and fat-burning sport that has many health benefits, from increasing heart health to improving balance and hand-eye coordination.
In this article, we will explore the benefits of racquetball as an active workout and how it can help you improve your overall health.
Racquetball Workout Benefits
Individuals interested in playing racquetball must have exemplary hand-eye coordination and cardiovascular stamina to support their gameplay. The game is known to be very engaging and fun, the evidence coming by way of how the focus on it being a workout is forgotten during the overall experience of this fast-paced game.
The benefits of racquetball are well documented. Individuals who take up the sport notice significant changes in their mental abilities and their physical bodies including, but not limited to, the items in the list down below.
1. Fat and calorie burning
An hour of racquetball can burn as many as 600-800 calories. In a single game, a player can run more than two miles. It’s considered vigorous cardio because it maintains your heart rate at about 70-80% of its maximum capacity. The harder a person plays, the harder their heart will work, which results in substantial calories burned.
Making a point to play racquetball regularly can lead to a steady decline in body fat levels, ensuring that the maintenance of a healthy weight is achievable. It’s an excellent workout for your midsection, and if played regularly will lead to rapid results in individuals looking to burn off excess weight.
2. Improves stamina
Due to racquetball being a game of endurance and high-intensity motion, the benefits of playing include the increase of the aerobic and anaerobic capacity of its players. The burning of carbs and calories through the quick and often repetitive motions gives your body the fuel to keep playing through a long game.
3. Stronger muscles and bones
Being a weight-bearing exercise, racquetball makes your muscles and bones stronger. By engaging the different major muscle groups throughout your body through stretching, running, and jumping, muscle tone is increased, and bone loss is slowed down. This makes racquetball an excellent sport for overall physical health.
4. Better health heart
Players are in constant motion during a game of racquetball, and your most important muscle- your heart- gets a healthy, pumped-up workout. It’s a rigorous workout, and conditioning is suggested for anyone interested in playing regularly. This will keep your heart healthy as it works to supply oxygenated blood to your hard-working muscles.
5. Hand-eye coordination
Your hand-eye coordination is continuously challenged during a game of racquetball. The objective of hitting the ball from all angles means having to reach, stretch, move and react in ways that will increase your range of motion, in turn building out your core through maintaining your balance, using your coordination to strike the ball and your flexibility to move in ways you wouldn’t normally throughout your day.
6. Mental agility
The quick decisions made to hit the ball and keep the game moving means that your mental agility is on the move, and the adaptation of your decision-making skills stimulates the connection between your brain and your muscles, improving your reflexes.
7. Stress reduction
Racquetball reduces stress by kicking your endorphins into high gear. Being fully occupied in a game of racquetball allows a player to disconnect from their day-to-day worries. The mind and body are engaged in the intensive workout, distracting the player in ways that allow for a different kind of relaxation.
8. Lower health risks
Regular racquetball gameplay reduces health risks such as high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. Because of its heavy heart-pumping action, the chances of coronary heart disease are lowered by reducing triglyceride levels and increasing the good cholesterol the body needs.
9. Social benefits
Racquetball is an exceptional game. It can be played alone, but most people prefer playing competitively. The game helps build social relationships that keep people coming back to the court week after week. Players are motivated to get their weekly exercise in because they know they’ll have a great time on the court.
The Muscles that Racquetball Targets
Racquetball is known to target all of the major muscles groups, making it a high-intensity full-body workout. As we have already seen, this sport burns fat and calories, strengthens your core, improves your flexibility and coordination, and helps lower various health risks in its participants.
The major muscle groups targeted during a game of racquetball include:
1. Back muscles
During a game of racquetball, the players are running and jumping to strike the ball with their racket. The postural back muscles are engaged as individuals swing to hit the ball. It’s a vigorous action, meaning that they are engaging the muscles surrounding the spine and neck to fire a well-aimed shot.
2. Pectoral muscles
When a player moves to strike the ball with a forehand motion, they engage the pectoral muscles in the chest, utilizing the trunk and abdominal muscles to add power to their swing. This, with the help of the back muscles, allows a player the benefit of balancing their posture.
3. Core muscles
A player’s core abdominal muscles are constantly engaged during a game of racquetball. They help maintain a player’s balance and posture as they use their agility to move across the court. The exertion of playing racquetball increase a player’s heart rate, and the core muscles help a player breathe deeply while they run to strike the ball.
4. Lower body muscles
Every step taken in a game of racquetball engages the large lower muscle groups. The agile movements, spurts of sprints, and positioning of the body for a fully torqued swing engage the gluteal, hip, and thigh muscles. They are constantly working to maintain the player’s center of gravity, which also means engaging the core for balance.
5. Arm and shoulder muscles
When a player swings to hit the racquetball, they are recruiting the strength of their deltoids and latissimus dorsi for a strike, also engaging the upper back muscles that support the movement of the shoulders. This means that every swing has power derived from the motion of the core and leg muscles, connecting through the spine to the arm.
The benefit of engaging in a full body workout such as racquetball means that the player doesn’t have to focus on concentrating where and how they are using different muscle groups throughout a game. This leaves a lot of space for the player to focus on putting their best effort into the game, allowing for an exciting and fun workout.
Playing Racquetball to Lose Weight
Racquetball is a game that is designed to engage the player in a workout that is beneficial to the mind and the body.
Because of its intensity and all of the energy exerted to play the game, racquetball is undoubtedly an excellent sport for active weight loss.
We know that engaging in a game of racquetball is an overall great workout for the body. Burning calories during a game of racquetball is easily achieved. The rate at which a person burns calories during a game of racquetball is due to the factors outlined down below.
Vigorous cardio
Due to the amount of cardio experienced in an hour-long game, racquetball is an excellent way to lose weight. If an individual plays racquetball 3 to 4 times a week for at least an hour per game, the number of calories burned can range from 1,800-3,200 calories in just a week.
Engaging all major muscles groups
At this rate, a player can see weight loss manifest in their bodies rapidly. Coupled with the use of all the major muscles groups, toning and strengthening of the muscular systems happen quickly. Bone density and strength are also increased when the body is engaged in weight-bearing exercises.
High-intensity
The promise of weight loss is one of the most significant benefits of playing racquetball. The intensity of the game makes exercise fun, and the use of the entire body to play the game rapidly brings the body into a state of sustainable fitness.
Last word
Anyone who plays this sport consistently is guaranteed to increase strength, achieve weight loss, and see their bodies change in a positive way.