Life is better with badminton it – and now that life could be a little longer too, suggests new research carried out into the impact of selected sports and exercise on life expectancy.

Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, the benefits of playing regular badminton as part of an active lifestyle have long been a virtue when it comes to improving overall health, wellbeing and fitness.

Now, it has been statistically suggested, by studies in Denmark, that actually swinging a racket on a badminton court with friends and family can extend your life expectancy more than other sports and exercise typically associated with ‘getting fit’.

In fact, smashing shuttlecocks even to the point of raising your heart rate a little, can add an average 6.2 years to your life.

That’s right. According to research in Copenhagen tracking the lifetime activity of 9,000 people for up to 25 years as part a long-running study into heart health, it was identified that racket sports with an strong and enriched social connectedness– such as badminton – alongside team sports can extend longevity by as much as 9 years.

OK, so we admit our friends at tennis topped the list but the benefits of badminton more also aced it.
Badminton even left the traditional aerobic exercises of jogging (3.2 years), swimming, cycling and going to the gym (1.5 years) for dead when it came to putting a few extra miles on your life expectancy.

This research follows a 2017 survey of more than 80,000 British men and women that found those who played racket sports tended to outlive joggers.
It also supports common medical theory that playing badminton until you experience mild breathlessness regularly in middle age can reduce chances of premature death by about 23% in the subsequent 20 years.

One thing is for sure, there are no excuses for staying away from the badminton court as we enter a brand-new year – and there are over 22,000 courts in England to choose from too.

Click here to enjoy all the benefits of badminton on court, at a club or at a session near you.

Anywhere, Anytime #seeyouoncourt

Article and images courtesy of badmintonengland.co.uk