PADEL & YOUR HEALTH — What the Science Says About the Benefits of Padel
Padel gets you moving, works the heart, builds strength and coordination and puts four people on court together. DO→PADEL News Worldwide reports what the science says.
Padel is enjoyable, sociable and genuinely physical — and it is now being studied. DO→PADEL News Worldwide has read one of the peer-reviewed scientific reviews of padel, physical fitness and health promotion, and this is our own editorial presentation of the positive findings in it, section by section.
❤️ PADEL GETS YOU MOVING
- padel provides meaningful physical activity
- it involves repeated movement throughout play
- play is built from short movements in multiple directions
- it asks for acceleration, stopping and changes of direction
- it can provide regular recreational exercise
- it offers an enjoyable route into physical activity
❤️ HEART & CARDIOVASCULAR FITNESS
- padel provides a cardiovascular workout
- meaningful heart-rate responses have been measured during play
- oxygen consumption during padel has been studied
- recreational participation can contribute to an active lifestyle
- play combines repeated activity and recovery
💪 STRENGTH & PHYSICAL FITNESS
Research reviewed in the paper examined positive physical-fitness characteristics including:
- upper- and lower-body physical demands
- muscular strength
- handgrip strength
- muscular endurance
- abdominal endurance
- cardiovascular capacity
- speed
- agility
- explosive power
- flexibility
- balance
- coordination
- change-of-direction ability
🏃 DYNAMIC WHOLE-BODY MOVEMENT
Padel continually asks players to:
- move forwards
- move sideways
- change direction
- react to rebounds
- accelerate over short distances
- coordinate racket and body movement
- adjust position
- balance
- anticipate
- react quickly
🧠 BRAIN & MIND
- padel combines physical activity with continual decision-making
- it challenges concentration
- it challenges reaction and anticipation
- it involves coordination and motor skills
- the review considered potential relationships between racket sports, physical activity and cognitive development
- padel research has also investigated brain-health-related biomarkers
This is an area researchers are still exploring. Padel is a game, not a treatment: nothing here says it treats, prevents or cures any condition.
😊 ENJOYMENT
Padel combines:
- exercise
- competition
- fun
- learning
- challenge
- achievement
- social interaction
That combination matters, because enjoyment is what makes people want to come back. An activity somebody looks forward to is an activity they are more likely to keep doing regularly.
🤝 SOCIAL CONNECTION
Padel is predominantly played in pairs, which puts four people on court together every time.
- social interaction
- shared enjoyment
- teamwork
- communication
- competition
- friendship
- community
🌱 ACCESSIBILITY
Padel can be an accessible way into racket sport and into recreational physical activity. A player does not need elite technical ability before they can begin enjoying the game — the rally starts early, the points are playable from the first session, and the enjoyment arrives with them.
👩 RECREATIONAL WOMEN
The research reviewed included recreational adult women, where padel players displayed better measures in areas including:
- balance
- explosive power
- abdominal endurance
- cardiovascular capacity
- some body-composition measures
That is an observational comparison between groups. It is a genuinely encouraging picture, and it is not a finding that padel by itself caused every difference measured.
👨👩👧 ACROSS GENERATIONS
The populations covered by the research reviewed include recreational players, adults and younger players. On that basis the review identifies padel as having potential health-promotion relevance for adults and for children — a sport with something to offer across the generations of a family and of a club.
🌍 ACTIVE LIFESTYLE
This is the idea at the centre of all of it: padel combines movement, challenge, enjoyment and social connection in an activity people can want to return to.
That is what makes it more than exercise, and it is why it belongs in an active life.
PLAY • IMPROVE • TOGETHER.
Together We Are Stronger.
SCIENTIFIC SOURCE
This article is DO→PADEL News Worldwide’s own editorial presentation of findings and discussion from the following peer-reviewed scientific review. DO→PADEL did not carry out the research and is not an author of it; we report and explain it, in our own words, and no substantial text from the paper is reproduced here.
Bernardino J. Sánchez-Alcaraz & Javier Courel-Ibáñez, “The Role of Padel in Improving Physical Fitness and Health Promotion: Progress, Limitations, and Future Perspectives”. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2022;19(11):6582.
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19116582 · PMCID: PMC9180804 · PMID: 35682167
Nothing in this article is medical advice. If you have a health condition, or any doubt about starting a new sport, speak to a doctor first.