We’ve discussed in my previous blog “Is racquetball a good sport for losing weight and getting fit?” that racquetball can burn a tremendous amount of calories. But for those out there that are new and have never experienced what that feels or looks like, I’ve found a video of two top ranked players at one of the US Open Racquetball Championships. It’s only a 46 second clip but as you’ll see, there is non-stop action as the ball is hit 22 times. This is only one rally, folks! Amount of energy is takes to continuously chase the ball, dive, hit it, and then get back up just to do it all over again is enormous. There were seven dives in this one segment alone and you can see that each player is constantly moving. The average amount of steps taken per minute in racquetball is 212 (Bumgardner) and most matches last 30 to 40 minutes so we can extrapolate that out to between 6,360 to 8,480 steps. Based on the research completed by Wendy Bumgardner in her article for verywellfit.com, 1,500 steps equal 1 mile (provided you’re running at an 8 mile pace) so these athletes are essentially running 4 and a half to 5 and a half miles each time they play a match. Pair this with the fact that racquetball is a total body sport, meaning all muscle groups are used during play. The quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and calves are used to accelerate, stop, dive and squat down to hit the ball low. The abdominal muscles are used with each twisting swing of the racquet. The arms are used to hit the ball, stop yourself from running into the walls and picking yourself up after you make a diving play. As you can see in the video, racquetball is not only challenging but a very fun sport to play.

Source:

Bumgardner, Wendy. “The Average Steps per Minute for Different Exercises”, verywell fit, FEB 2018, https://www.verywellfit.com/pedometer-step-equivalents-for-exercises-and-activities-3435742

But, what about how dangerous racquetball is? I don’t want to play racquetball because I’ll get hurt. This is something that I’ve heard time and time again when trying to get new people to try racquetball and there may be something to their unwillingness to step into the court. It can be easy to injure yourself playing racquetball, as you’re in a small room that has hard walls and a hard floor with one or more people swinging a racket at a ball that can be moving at upwards of 150 miles per hour. According to a study published by the Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine the most common types of injuries that occur playing racquetball are lower body muscle strains, sprains, and ligament injuries (Nhan et al.). Is due to the frequent acceleration and deceleration in the sport. Also occurring but to a lower degree were rotator cuff and head/neck injuries from swinging a racquet repeatedly. The vast majority of these injuries did not require a visit to a doctor’s office or emergency room and healed on their own with rest. Many of these types of injuries can be avoided with proper stretching and warm up before heading into the court. Other injuries that could occur in the racquetball court are players being hit with a racquet or a racquetball. While these are rare they do still happen from time to time. This is why is mandatory to wear protective eye goggles or eyewear in most Racquet Clubs. Over the years, I’ve been hit with a racquetball dozens of times and while it doesn’t feel very good, I was always able to continue playing the game. When that happens I would usually get a small bruise that lasted about a week. Most players will agree before play starts that if there is a “hinder” (opposite player accidentally interfering with a shot) they will hold up immediately to prevent possible injury. This is a safety measure and happens quite a bit during a game.

While I agree that racquetball can be dangerous at times, with proper warm up, safety gear and players agreeing to hold up if they get to close, you can mitigate those dangers allowing the game to be fun and safe. I believe the health benefits far outweigh the negatives.

Works Cited

Nhan, Derek T., Walter Klyce, and R. Jay Lee, “Epidemiological Patterns of Alternative Racquet-Sport Injuries in the United States, 1997-2016”, Orthop J Sports Med. 2018 Jul; 6(7): 2325967118786237. Published online 2018 Jul 23, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6056792/

Playing a high energy sport like racquetball is a great way to keep weight down and maintain cardiovascular fitness. In the United States, we’ve seen an epidemic in recent years regarding how much weight the average adult gains each year. It’s hard to point to any one lifestyle choice as the culprit but being not getting enough exercise is one of the top three, along with poor eating and sleeping habits. Physical fitness guidelines from the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness & Nutrition (https://www.hhs.gov/fitness/be-active/physical-activity-guidelines-for-americans/index.html) suggest that adults who physically active lead heathier lives and are less likely to develop chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes and stroke, than are there counterparts that are inactive. The recommendation from the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) is for adults to get at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week. If a person engaging in those types of activities, they will become even more fit and their risk of developing disease drops to lower levels. A study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine looked at data from over 80,000 participants over a 9 year period and concluded that people that played racquet sports, like racquetball, squash and tennis, decreased their chances of dying  by 47%. Could engaging in a racquet sport like racquetball be a strong component to keeping your body physically strong while keeping the body’s tendency to gain weight as we age, in check? I believe the answer is yes and I will provide solid data to backup that claim. First, let’s look at the physical side of racquetball and find out what this type of activity does for the body.

Why should you consider racquetball? There are many reasons to pick up the game of racquetball, according to the article “BALLS TO THE WALL” written by Mike Carlson (Carlson, Mike. Muscle & Performance, Oct 2012, Vol. 4 Issue 10, p24-24, 1p), players run around the court at top speed, chasing a small rubber ball that can reach speeds of over 165 miles per hour. All this running and stopping can be great for getting your body in shape, but is the game easy to learn? Mike says that racquetball is one of the simplest games to learn and that you can learn the skills you need to make the game enjoyable fairly quickly. Playing at a highly competitive level could take many years of drills and practice matches, but you’ll have lots of fun doing it. One thing I’ve learned when it comes to exercise, if you dread doing something you won’t stick with it long. It’s important to match yourself up with another player that’s relatively close to your skillset so the games are competitive. In addition to picking the game up quick, it can be inexpensive to get the gear you need for the game. In her article, “IS RACQUETBALL A GOOD WORKOUT?” (https://livewell.jillianmichaels.com/racquetball-good-workout-4724.html), Cindy Anderson states that you need four pieces of equipment needed for the sport, they are a racquet, safety goggles or glasses, court shoes and racquetballs. A quick search on Amazon (www.amazom.com) yielded a Python Series Beginners racquet for $21.57, Python Series Intro Eyewear for $8.99, Prince Men’s NFS Assault Indoor Court Sneaker Shoes for $32.99 and Penn Ballistic 2.0 Racquetballs for $4.29. So for around $68 plus sales tax you can get started with beginner equipment. As you progress you may want to upgrade your accessories and it will cost you a bit more as racquets can run into the hundreds of dollars.

The health benefits of playing racquetball are clearly laid out on the USA Racquetball website. Since there is so much movement in the game of racquetball you develop core strength as you swing to hit the racquetball from many positions. Quick twitch muscle fibers are created and honed due to the amount of starts and stops triggered during a game and this helps to improve a person’s agility and balance. Racquetball can be considered both an aerobic and an anaerobic activity. Aerobic because during each rally the heart rate increases causing the body to burn vast amounts of oxygen via respiration and as this happens the body burns fat quickly. Also, since games go to 21 points they can last 20 to 30 minutes, making it aerobic. On the other hand, there are many quick, hard bursts that make the body use an internal process called metabolization to burn the glycogen stored in muscles for energy, making it anaerobic. This is the same process used by the body when sprinting. Another health benefit is that since racquetball is a weight bearing exercise it strengthens the bones and muscles, helping you to maintain a healthy posture and even slowing bone loss as you age. Furthermore, cognitive functions that tend to decline with age may also improve. During a game of racquetball you must constantly make adjustments and adapt to new situations because the ball is moving around the court so fast. This repetitive type of activity will help to improve reaction times and quick decision making.

Most people today are concerned with their weight. Whether because they are overweight and need to lose a few pounds or because they are already at their ideal weight and want to stay there. We are constantly bombarded with commercials and magazine advertisements that tell us that we’re overweight and then tout the latest fad diet or we see endless pictures of some of the most fit people on the planet and are expected to look like them. However, science can help us out a bit here. The key to losing weight is to create a calorie deficit meaning that you burn more calories than you consume. If you can create just a 500 calorie imbalance per day, at the end of the week you’ll have lost around one pound since one pound of fat is equal to roughly 3,500 calories. A Harvard Medical School study showed that a 185 pound person playing competitive racquetball for an hour will burn close to 900 calories. That same 185 pound person will burn just over 600 calories per hour playing at a very casual rate. If you follow HHS’s guideline of 2 and a half hours of moderate intensity exercise, which racquetball surely is, and you played at a rate somewhere between casual and competitive, you’ll have burned an extra 1,875 calories which will equate to half a pound of fat burned. If you follow the recommendation of my earlier blog post “Health, Fun & Fitness” and played 4 and a half hours a week, you would be looking at a total of 3,375 calories burned or very slightly less than one pound a week. This, of course, assumes that your diet remains the same.

To wrap things up, I believe that the data supports my assertion that racquetball will help you get into to good shape while also providing the benefit of weight loss. There are many ways for us to get out and get fit, racquetball provides us with a way to do it and have fun at the same time. Now, pick up a racquet and get started!

Works Cited

“BALLS TO THE WALL.” Muscle & Performance, 1 October, 2012. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=0a7fd9d9-c04c-42e7-aadf-1c1ab4cfa6b7%40sdc-v-sessmgr03. Accessed 13 Oct. 2018

“Racquet Sports For A Longer Life.” NYTimes.com Video Collection, 7 Sept. 2017. Science In Context, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/CT508082949/SCIC?u=cazc_main&sid=SCIC&xid=c6c05982. Accessed 13 Oct. 2018.

Cane, Patricia. “Courting Fitness” Diabetes Forecast, American Diabetes Association, Aug. 1990, http://diabetes.org/. Accessed 14 Oct. 2018

Holdorf, Candice. “Racquetball: Playing For a Lifetime of Physical, Mental and Financial Health” Health IQ, SEP. 2017, https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Racquetball/Features/2017/September/18/Playing-Racquetball-For-a-Lifetime-of-Physical-Mental-and-Financial-Health. Accessed 16 Oct. 2018

“Calories burned in 30 minutes for people of three different weights.” Harvard Health Publishing, Updated: August 13, 2018Published: July, 2004, https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Calories-burned-in-30-minutes-of-leisure-and-routine-activities.htm. Accessed 10 Oct. 2018

Hi! My name is Krys Brightwell and I’ve played racquetball, at different levels, for about 30 years now. I fell in love with the sport when I was in my teens and still love it today. I played a lot during my time in the military and that’s where I honed most of my skills, leading me to win two State Championships in the B category and several local tournaments in the A category. Splat Racquetball is a place for us to discuss what we like about racquetball and also what we don’t. I’ve read many articles stating that racquetball is an excellent sport for creating & maintaining fitness and helping lose weight, if you need too. I can certainly testify to how grueling the sport can be. Since Americans are gaining and average of one and a half pounds of fat each once they start adulthood, this can have a serious effect on our health. We must find ways of keeping our weight in check and I maintain that playing racquetball 4 to 5 hours a week can help us do just that. We’ll be exploring those claims and others closely related to them in this blog.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill