Research indicates that engaging in racket and team sports like tennis, badminton, and pickleball can add years to life expectancy, with social interaction and high-intensity bursts playing crucial roles in boosting resilience and reducing mortality risk.
Regular physical activity is not an optional supplement to health but a foundational building block of longevity, according to longevity researcher Dan Buettner and multiple cohort studies that track real-world outcomes over decades. Buettner has highlighted research showing that routine activities such as walking, swimming or jogging can add several years to life expectancy, while participation in racket sports appears to offer larger gains.
According to the large Copenhagen City Heart Study analysis published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, tennis was associated with the largest increase, about 9.7 years compared with a sedentary lifestyle, followed by badminton (6.2 years), soccer (4.7 years), cycling (3.7 years), swimming (3.4 years) and jogging (3.2 years).
Why racket sports stand out
Researchers behind the Copenhagen analysis followed thousands of participants for up to 25 years, comparing leisure-time activities with mortality outcomes. They found consistent associations between certain sports and lower risk of death from all causes and cardiovascular disease in particular.
Team and racket sports repeatedly showed stronger longevity links than solitary endurance activities – a pattern the authors and subsequent commentators noted may reflect more than exercise intensity alone. As Time noted, the social interaction inherent in many team and racket sports likely contributes to these benefits.
The interval effect
Physiological explanations offered by experts and by the original paper focus on the interval-like demands of racket sports: short bursts of acceleration and directional change followed by brief recovery, which engage cardiovascular, muscular and neural systems in a way that improves fitness without requiring formal interval training.
The combination of high-intensity spurts and recovery during typical rallies produces repeated cardiopulmonary and neuromuscular stimulation that may enhance overall resilience. The British Journal of Sports Medicine cohort evidence also points to lower cardiovascular mortality among participants in such sports.
Social connection drives adherence
Beyond biomechanics, social dynamics appear central to sustained benefit. Racket and team sports tend to be played with partners or groups, offering conversation, competition and social bonds that increase adherence over time.
Buettner has argued that regular participation often depends less on the perfect training program than on enjoyment and social connection; in that light he has pointed to pickleball as a modern example of a racket sport that is easy to learn, socially engaging and therefore likely to foster regular play.
Every minute counts
Public-health guidance aligns with the conclusion that “every minute counts.” The World Health Organization recommends adults undertake 150–300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity weekly, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous activity, or an equivalent mix, stressing that any activity confers benefit and that regularity matters more than perfection.
The bottom line
Taken together, the evidence and expert commentary suggest a pragmatic takeaway: choose activities you enjoy and that keep you returning regularly, mixing social, skill-based and aerobic elements where possible.
According to the Copenhagen study and subsequent coverage by multiple outlets, racket sports, by combining intermittent high-intensity movement with social engagement, consistently rank among the most potent leisure activities associated with longer life, while newer, community-oriented games such as pickleball may deliver many of the same adherence and social benefits even without decades of cohort data behind them.
Go deeper
