Sorry, Peloton Bike: There’s a Pickleball Game Somewhere

Is playing pickleball all the exercise you need?

By the time we here at Murmurs from the Losers’ Bracket discovered pickleball, we had already been used to getting our endorphin supply from a variety of other athletic pursuits.

I ran, swam and rode a bicycle for exercise. And with my wife, I joined a gym, where we sometimes participated in group classes for yoga, spinning and cardio with light weights.

But then about four years and a dozen paddles ago, pickleball took over my life. The gym membership expired, the bike’s tires eventually went flat in the garage, and my running shoes were replaced with court shoes.

(Once those new leg plains created by too much pickleball took over, the thought of running again was finished.)

The Peloton stationary bike sat forlornly in the extra bedroom, begging to be useful, even if only to serve as a clothes rack.

Pickleball had radically altered my recreational time.

It didn’t take long before pickleball became the only form of exercise I did. Sometimes, I’d play twice a day. But I wouldn’t go back to my old sweaty habits doing what I used to do for exercise.

I’ve tried recently. I’ve begun lap swimming at the local YMCA, and have a TV now in front of the Peleton as an incentive to make spinning more palatable.

But I still find myself turning away from those forms of exercise if there’s a pickleball game afoot somewhere – whether indoors or outside.

I suspect this lack of diversity in my exercise habits caused by pickleball might be bad for me, even though the venerable Cleveland Clinic extols the virtues of pickleball as a form of exercise.

The research hospital lists five benefits of playing pickleball: That it improves heart health; strengthens muscle and bones; increases balance and coordination; boosts brain health; and lengthens lifespans.

All good. But it’s far from a definitive judgment on the subject.

A peer-reviewed Canadian study published by the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, said pickleball is at best a moderate workout for middle-aged or older people.

And that you’d have to play pickleball for 4.5 hours per week to meet the recommended exercise guideline.

The study said you’d be better off getting your steps by walking for an hour rather than playing an hour of pickleball.

Playing doubles on a small court is an appealing part of the game, one that makes it accessible to players with mobility issues. But it doesn’t help others get a good aerobic workout.

The Canadian study said that only about 30 percent of the time playing pickleball qualifies as a period of vigorous activity. And about an equal percent of the time, you’re just standing around.

In other words, pickleball is better than doing nothing, but it’s not necessarily all you need to do to be in good shape.

Pickleball sites urge players who want to improve their game to do other workouts such as weightlifting and strength training.

“If you rely solely on pickleball to get in shape, you could end up with some muscular imbalances because of the overreliance on a dominant hand and side of your body,” a piece on the Paddletek site says.

“The motion of your swings is slightly different on each side. With weight training, though, you can work both sides of your body equally and avoid any imbalances,” it reads.

Other sites say that strength training improves core stability, increases shot power and lowers the chance of injury on the court.

But my problem with cross training is that it takes up time I could be playing pickleball.

If you look at each workout opportunity as an isolated moment in time, instead of a small piece of a larger patchwork of opportunities, pickleball almost always wins with me.

For example, do I go to the Y and do a mind-numbing 30 minutes of lap swimming, or do I go to the local pickleball courts and find some players there for open play?

The lap swimming would be better for me physically – and in the end I will really appreciate the new muscle soreness and rush of endorphins – but at the moment, the pickleball would be the most fun way to pass the time.

Or to put it another way: Pickleball would be better for me emotionally.

So, it’s tough. I tell myself I occasionally should be doing something else. But then I hear the becoming click of the pickleballs thwacking in my subconscious.

And it’s off to the courts.

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

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Frank Cerabino is a long-time columnist for the Palm Beach Post in Florida, a pickleball addict like the rest of us, and a newly published author. Check out Frank’s newly released book, I Dink, Therefore I Am: Coming to Grips with My Pickleball Addiction (available on Amazon and a great read (or gift!) for any pickleball player), for pickleball tips and laughs!

Sorry, Peloton Bike: There’s a Pickleball Game Somewhere

MURMURS FROM THE LOSERS’ BRACKET

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