The Health Benefits of Tennis

The promotion of sporting events goes far beyond fandom. The rich history of the game trails many paths to benefits in the aspects of mental health, social health, physical well-being, and many other benefactors. For the sport of tennis, this list is both immense and deep in content. Listing the health benefits only does so much to showcase the support for the game, often leaving the important details and aspects far from the discussion. Diving into the specifics and creating usage material that can be utilized outside of sport is an important knowledge base that the user is entitled to.

Creating this discussion will help center around these ideas, not limiting the discussion to a few mute points and leaving out the details all players deserve to have available to them. Below, we will help answer some of these enriched inquiries, backing our research with important documents and articles that pinpoint the areas of the game that augment different categorical components of health. This journey will help to shed light on some deep areas of impact without becoming too wordy or unreadable, in hopes of truly benefiting the user and guiding them through the many benefits gained from the sport of tennis.

Physical Pace of Play

As it relates to a conditioning sport, tennis is a great measure of your aerobics, your lateral movement streams, and your cardiovascular strength. The back-and-forth nature of the game calls for consistent reliability placed on breathing patterns. Tests have shown that regular play can help lead to lower chances at the development of cardiovascular disease, which carries a trickle-down effect that targets the major arteries, nerve endings, and other such important areas of functioning (Source). These are important areas of functioning that are heavily utilized over the course of the day to day movements. Improving strength in these mentioned areas or creating sustained stamina strands is one of the major benefactors the sport of tennis carries.

The lateral course comes from the side-to-side movements and the exertion placed on your joints. This exertion can be avoided by taking the correct strides, utilizing the different areas of the foot. This course of action is something that is learned through these differing movement streams, lending the two to become a beneficiary of one another. This piece plays an essential role in coordination development, reducing arthritis, and strengthening the joints. The joint health discussion is furthered with the development of new habits to associate to the game.

Studies show that players who participate in stretching routines, flexibility testing (like yoga), and other like activities off the court can help prevent against long-term joint injuries and pains (Source). This helps to create some crossover between sport and preparation, once again lending benefit to those who practice on their skill sets and prepare their bodies for competition.

Conditioning

The average game of tennis lasts for a few hours. The play is mostly consecutive, with small breaks in-between sets. This pace of play has already shed light on the cardiovascular increases, but what about the general stamina claims? Most of the ailments surrounding the sport revolve around repetition. One of the most common injuries in the sport is known as tennis elbow. Specific preventative measures are associated with this illness (Source) and others involved in the sport, but the main concern relies on the heart of the stamina discussion: conditioning.

A well-conditioned user can avoid a majority of these injuries based off of pure stamina increases. These increases help to regulate the natural functions of the body, limiting the stress caused by repetition by focusing energy bursts/increases on specific components of movement. This helps deter from targeting certain areas of the body, spreading the energy increases to all regions.

Pure conditioning can help place the user ahead of the curve, narrowing their focus on the aspects of the game rather than those constant flare-ups that can keep you from performing to the top of your capabilities. The sport provides a solid foundation for exercising the legs and arms, but additional strength training measures can be adopted to give the user these additional conditioning advantages over the competition.

Playing it to the Bone

Milk isn't the only caterer to building a stronger bone structure. The sport of tennis showed high correlation to the improvement and strengthening of the bone structures of all individuals, across genders and age gaps (Source: sections 63-85). This bodes well for anyone wanting to play the game. The major areas of impact include bones in the arms, legs, and neck, covering a major portion of increase at the main extremities of the body.

One of the most intriguing take-from comes at the neck, a part of the body that hardly ever receives the proper amount of care and attention. Not only is the focus from the neck often left out of the discussion but finding ways to stretch this region and exercise it regularly is often meek or limited. Improving the strength of the bones can also lead to stamina increases, a lower chance at the development of arthritis, and it can keep your entire body functioning to the highest level. The physical increases and associations extending from the participation in sport are well researched and the results stand to keep the user in the constant green of health advantages.

The Thinking Man's Game

The game of tennis is also a great challenge for the brain. Consistently mapping movements, taking the path of least resistance, and reading signals and cues from the opponent all relate to the mental aspect of sport. Mapping another's movement is key to reaching your destination within the correct amount of time. The ability to develop this tracking relies in the user's ability to notice subtle cues and fidgets. This creates practiced visual acuity, allowing the user to utilize the different components of the visual stream to keep up with the pace of the game. These visual cues are often the greatest differentiator when it comes to shot placement and counter moves.

Beyond the visual advantages, the mental capability to keep the opponent shielded from your moves is another developmental habit that can be learned from the game. Much like a poker face in a game of cards, holding your own can go a long way in keeping your counters from being detected. To perform this shielding technique, the user must develop a great sense of patience, determination, and wherewithal. These learned techniques transfer well within the real world. It is not too farfetched to say that these same mental capabilities can be used to keep your cool under the pressure of an important job interview or help you close on that big deal with a major company. These are just a few instances of transfer, with many more left to the imagination.

The Social Aspect

Mostly played on a competitive basis, the game can also lead to advantages in the aspect of social health. All sports contain an aspect of social advantages, but these can differ across sporting type. Tennis is often pegged as a one-on-one sport, with limited interaction tied to the game. This comment couldn't be farther from the truth.

For example, the sport of golf is often a singular competition, with the user having to rely heavily on themselves to produce an outcome. Golf has a lot of different clubs, outings, and team events that keep it as one of the top social activities for players of all ages. These similar crossovers are held within the sport of tennis. Tennis clubs and tennis associations were developed for the same reason as the existence in golf: to create a social aspect (Source).

Around every competition is a team backing the player, an association for inclusion within groups, and a social activity one can play for fun far into their later years. This social aspect also carries to holding oneself responsible, teaching the user good time management skills and the importance of practice. It also helps teach the involvement within a group, a good lesson for later in life when working within a career field involves heavy reliance upon a collective of individuals. These benefits and many others keep this sport within the realm of social health improvement.

Flexibility

As the game relates to flexibility, tennis is a great exercise for improved mobility. Flexibility is what allows us to work our joints and it helps us reduce our chances of developing muscle tightness and fatigue (Source). Tennis is a sport that allows the user to generate many different movement components, citing anterior, posterior, and lateral movements as the main body movement types. The anterior and posterior regions cover areas such as the abdominal, the thighs, the lumbar area on the back, and the plantar region of the foot.

The movements associated with the game ensure that the user is accessing each of these regions and working to strengthen them. Swinging the racket, planting the feet, turning the hips, and other like movements all help to prevent these regions from tightening or suffering from periods of dormant action. The nature of the game is to allow for these areas to flourish. This activity greatly influences flexibility gains via accessing all of the major components of the body.

Using all areas of the body is a great way to keep your joints from deteriorating over time. It also represents an opportunity for lesser active individuals to regain upon the strength streams they need to promote healthy functioning far into the future. This kind of body work cannot be obtained from all sports, helping to separate tennis as one of the top choices for improving flexibility.

Mood Improvement

The pursuit of happiness is something we spend our entire lives striving for. There are many different mental streams and brain releases that help showcase these improvements. The game is termed as a strategy game, which allows you to strategize and create recall in terms of memory. The moves and counter moves touched on previously are great examples of how tennis can improve upon your memory and recall capabilities.

The brain is consistently releasing endorphins and serotonin during play. The endorphins help to reduce upon the notion of pain and help to create euphoric streams of feeling. The serotonin acts as a mood stabilizer, increasing your focus and blocking out threats to the current exercise you are participating in. When used hand-in-hand, these two brain releases help to create a positive stream of feelings and reduces upon the threat of unwanted material.

The game also represents a great opportunity for stress release. Pent up muscle tension and stress can lead to tightness and cause the user to overwork their body throughout their day to day functions. Releasing these tensions via ball striking and creating force through swinging patterns helps create the outlet the user can rely upon for these releases. The game also features many different mood improvement benefits, but touching on these important factors is what helps lead the user to improving upon their mental state and prevents again the notion of piling on stress and unwanted feelings.

Conclusion

After diving into many different aspects of sport in a short amount of space, it is important to highlight some of the major areas of intrigue. The sport of tennis is a great social activity, teaching the user of inclusion, cooperating within a collective of people, and working with others. The physical benefits start at the extremities and extend far within the body, working with our central nervous system and major arteries to prevent the development of disease.

The mental intrigue of the game consistently places the user within a thinking mode. The brain is constantly trying to produce counters, gauge the opponent for staying a step ahead, and analyzing past results for things to target. The brain is in constant operation and this central housing unit sends the message to the extremities, creating a bridge between mental and physical advantages. These gained benefits extend to real-world situations, whether it be a job interview, a buying agreement, collaboration amongst co-workers, or increasing the preventative nature of the immune system; these benefits constantly surround us.

These are just a few of the glowing health benefits that extend from sport. While this list is not fully exhaustive, it does touch on the major components where the user stands to gain health advantages. Additional health advantages do exist, with most extending outside of sport within the different realms of things such as preparation, practice, and exercises one would do to improve upon their success within sport. Always keep an open mind with the sport of tennis and let the benefits speak for themselves as you enjoy one of the most competitive one-on-one games within the world of sports.