5 Ways Pickleball Benefits Your Brain
Kourtney Spak
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Pickleball helps many of us keep on top of our physical health—some would even say it’s helped change our entire life.
But did you know that pickleball also benefits your brain?
With September being Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, we wanted to look into how our favorite sport improves our cognition and overall brain health.
In this blog, you’ll learn…
Why regular physical activity is important as we age
5 ways pickleball may prevent cognitive decline
Ready? Let’s get into it!
Does Physical Activity Slow Aging?
Medical researchers say that a variety of diseases and mental health conditions that come with aging may be delayed or even prevented through regular exercise—or in our case, regular pickleball matches.
As we age, our resting heart rate, blood pressure, body fat, risk of depression, and memory lapses increase. While max heart increases, oxygen uptake, bone strength, muscle mass, reflexes, and quality of sleep decrease.
Those effects of aging begin in middle age.
With a combination of strength training, stretching, and endurance exercises like walking, you’ll be able to slow the process of aging.
All you need is 30 minutes three to five times a week. And most of us are playing pickleball twice as long as what’s recommended!
5 Ways Pickleball Benefits Our Brain
1. Pickleball Boosts Mood
Pickleball makes you happier.
After only five minutes of physical activity, the brain begins releasing neurotransmitters (feel-good chemicals) throughout our nervous system.
These neurotransmitters—endorphins, endocannabinoids, and dopamine—boost mood and our overall mental health.
Studies have found that people with depressive symptoms later in life may be a predictor of increased dementia risk. Depression can also lead to social isolation, which is another major risk factor.
2. Pickleball Provides Social Connection
Being socially isolated is a major risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s dementia (one study reported it can double the chance of memory diseases). Social isolation happens naturally as we age—kids move out, we retire, and friends move away.
Pickleball gives us the opportunity to be social. With its seemingly never-ending popularity, pickleball is everywhere, and many of our peers are picking up a paddle.
If you’re new to the sport, find a local tennis club, YMCA, or JCC that offers beginner clinics or lessons.
Websites to get you started:
USA Pickleball even has a great user-friendly, up-to-date court finder called Places2Play
PicklePlay is an all-in-one directory to find local courts, clubs, events, and fellow players
Other places to find fellow pickleball players are on Facebook—utilize Pickleball pages and groups to get connected.
3. Pickleball Improves Memory
Are you running down every ball that comes your way? Are you rushing the net? Sprinting is a big part of the game which makes pickleball an aerobic sport.
It gets the heart pumping, and it improves memory and brain function by increasing the size of the hippocampus (the part of the brain responsible for long-term memory).
Improving the function of the hippocampus by playing pickleball will help you remember the rules of the game, the slang, and the different tactical plays.
Another great thing about getting your daily pickleball fix? It improves sleep quality which directly helps consolidate our short-term memories into long-term memories.
4. Pickleball Increases Adaptability
Playing pickleball boosts cognitive flexibility—the brain's ability to adapt to new, changing, or unplanned events. It’s also our ability to switch between two concepts or think about many different things at the same time.
Like many things, cognitive flexibility decreases as we age.
During a pickleball match, there are unexpected challenges and difficult points that require quick thinking and adaptation to the circumstances. Playing pickleball creates new neural connections in the brain.
Alzheimer’s attacks our neurons and neural connections, causing areas of the brain to shrink. Keep challenging your brain and giving it new things to figure out!
5. Pickleball Gives A Sense of Purpose
Being around fellow picklers and playing regularly, pickleball can give you a sense of purpose and achievement. A sense of purpose is associated with less age-related cognitive decline over time.
Having purpose may inspire you to set goals for yourself (e.g., play in a pickleball tournament, start a kid’s pickleball afterschool clinic, perfect your dink, etc.) and give you something to work toward.
Just the Dink
Pickleball offers a variety of brain-boosting benefits in addition to keeping us physically active. It can help slow the process of aging, give us a renewed sense of purpose, and create new friendships.
It’s not just a game—it’s a sport for life and for health.
