30-Love: The Satisfaction of a Tennis Workout

From individuals to organizations, weekend warriors to professional players, minute observations to big-picture ideas, tennis has been top of mind across the board over the past two years.

“I feel like this is the tennis boom part two,” says Trey Waltke, general manager of the Malibu Racquet Club in southern California. “Everyone is talking tennis. Everyone is playing. People are rediscovering how great tennis is.”

Tennis shouldn’t rest on its laurels; the first boom didn’t last forever. But this is as good of an opportunity to reflect on what the sport has gotten right, during a time when so much has gone wrong.

Over the next few weeks, we'll do just that, with a series of stories—30-Love—that highlights 30 things worth celebrating about the New American Tennis Boom. Look for past articles on the left side of each page.—Ed McGrogan

WATCH: Jared Donaldson workout tips

All they were after was a good sweat. The forced closures of health clubs and gyms due to COVID-19 compelled countless fitness enthusiasts to seek their exercise fixes outside their usual methods. Something safe and accessible that could release some endorphins.

Tennis checked the boxes. These weren’t players looking for glory or to raise their NTRP rating. Many dusted off their old high school racquets, or purchased modest new ones at the big box stores before hitting the courts. Often, with kids in tow for a family workout. What they discovered was that besides bringing a smile to their faces, chasing that fuzzy, yellow ball around kicks your butt.

“The heart rate can get up quite high, quite quickly,” says Mark Kovacs, a high-performance coach who has worked with professional athletes. “It’s not hard for an average 40-year-old to get up to 170-180 beats per minute in singles. That’s because it’s a whole-body exercise. If you tried to reach that level on a bicycle it would be quite difficult.”

A recent study that looked at activity levels in Danish men and women over a 25-year period found that exercise of any kind was beneficial for life extension. However, more social exercise showed the greatest return on investment, with tennis leading the way by adding nearly 10 years.

The short and longterm health benefits of playing tennis make a long and attractive list. A stronger cardiovascular system, high calorie expenditure and increased range of motion are just a few of the perks. Kovacs points to the data supporting the intermittent nature of tennis—playing a point for about 20 seconds, resting for a similar amount of time—as being a proven method for effective workouts. Playing for the better part of an hour is this fashion is a guaranteed calorie-burner.

Not only does getting the heart pumping and lungs burning do your body good, but tennis is food for the brain as well. Players engage their concentration and problem-solving skills. Tracking and chasing a moving object, and the hand-eye coordination required to subsequently hit it, bolsters cognition. It’s not something readily trained in other leisure sports and is especially important to keep sharp as people age.

While swatting a ball offers its own type of cathartic release, the interaction between players is an added stress reliever. A recent study that looked at activity levels in Danish men and women over a 25-year period found that exercise of any kind was beneficial for life extension. However, more social exercise showed the greatest return on investment, with tennis leading the way by adding nearly 10 years.

Strengthens the body, sharpens the mind and adds a decade to your life. As far as workouts go, tennis is game, set, and match.