By Contributor Rachael Sellick
Fitbits, heart rate monitors, GPS watches, Apple Watches, Strava, Run Keeper…
There seems to be a new gadget or app every day for measuring fitness and activity levels. You can track how far you’ve run, how many flights of stairs you’ve climbed or how well you’ve slept. Or if you’re the competitive type, you can set goals and compete against your friends or complete strangers. You can even have your golf swing analysed by a digital coach with helpful suggestions on how to improve it.
And the reason these tools are so popular?
Advances in technology over the last few years mean that most of these gadgets can now either be incorporated into your phone or are wearable, and let’s face it: having a lightweight watch that tracks the distance you’ve covered on a run or a bike ride is a little more practical than having to cart around a GPS radio in your backpack…ok, so your watch might not be able to navigate you out of the Sahara desert, or get you to the North Pole, but it will probably be more than enough for your Park Run!
More importantly though, people are starting to become more and more health conscious, and we are increasingly using gadgets and apps to help motivate us to reach our weight and fitness goals. And rightly so, since in 2015 it was estimated that a quarter of adults in England are considered to be obese. We need to get moving!
So with that in mind, I wondered: just how good for you is tennis?
In terms of simple calories burned, tennis doesn’t fare that well when compared to other sports. I weigh around 130 pounds, so for me to play an hour of (non-professional) tennis, I would burn an estimated 413 calories (although this increases to 600 in a cardio tennis class), compared with 236 for table tennis, 590 for running (at 10 minute mile pace), or a whopping 708 calories per hour for squash.
So how about distance covered during a game?
Pro tennis players can expect to cover between 3-5 miles over the course of a match, depending on their style of play. Over the small area of a tennis court, the movement is all about quick changes in direction, which leads us on to the next point….
Which components of fitness are developed through tennis?
There is an argument for all of them (as with a lot of sports), but in my opinion the major ones are:
- endurance – both cardiovascular and muscular, what with the constant movement and repeated contraction and extension of multiple muscles
- agility – the ability to move quickly and change direction with ease
- balance – changing direction, hitting shots whilst on the move, volleying
- coordination – serving. Do I need to say more?
Ok, so maybe not all of them, but there’s no doubt that tennis targets both the upper and lower body, and is a great all round workout.
Get Involved in Nottingham!!
So if you haven’t tried it before, come along to one of our events in and around Nottingham over the next couple of months or pop down to one of our venues (top right) to see what it’s all about.