{"id":233869,"date":"2025-07-03T05:17:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-03T05:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233869\/"},"modified":"2025-07-03T05:17:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-03T05:17:12","slug":"surprising-study-finds-this-workout-adds-10-years-to-your-life-and-its-not-running-or-weight-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/233869\/","title":{"rendered":"Surprising study finds this workout adds 10 years to your life \u2013 and it\u2019s not running or weight training"},"content":{"rendered":"

While you probably know that running<\/a> can reduce all-cause mortality by improving your cardiovascular health, and weight training<\/a> can do so by preserving muscle mass, and metabolic and bone health, science<\/a> shows they\u2019re not quite as effective as another form of movement when it comes to living a long and healthy life: tennis<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The research involved 8,577 participants in Denmark, with an average age of 44, and the risk of all-cause and cardiovascular mortality was calculated based on the answers participants gave in a series of questionnaires around the frequency and duration of exercise they do, lifestyle factors like smoking, diet and alcohol consumption, and their education, income and medical history. Those who did tennis were expected to live 9.7 years longer than if they didn\u2019t do any exercise; those who ran had a life expectancy gain of 3.2 years; and those who did gym training, like weights, only had a 1.5-year longer life expectancy. <\/p>\n

\"tennis<\/p>\n

Westend61\/\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re sceptical, another study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine<\/a>, reinforces the findings. This one tracked over 80,000 participants for nine years, comparing the impact of various sports on their overall health. Those who regularly played racket sports \u2013 including tennis, but also badminton, squash, racquetball, and table tennis \u2013 had a 47% lower chance of all-cause mortality than those who didn\u2019t exercise. The study also evaluated the benefits of swimming<\/a>, cycling<\/a>, and aerobics: swimmers had a 28% lower risk, cyclists had a 15% lower risk, and those who did aerobics had a 27% lower risk.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Getty Images<\/p>\n

Tennis (and racket sports) are clear winners, but why? For the authors of the Danish study, they believe it\u2019s largely down to the element of social interaction. It fosters camaraderie, emotional support, trust, and a sense of belonging \u2013 all of which have been proven to impact health just as much as how much movement you do or how nutritious your diet is. Other experts put it down to the high-intensity interval training<\/a> effect: tennis naturally involves short bursts of intense effort, like sprints and rapid direction changes, which improve cardiovascular fitness, insulin sensitivity, and vascular function \u2013 health markers closely tied to longevity. So, if you’re already feeling inspired by Wimbledon, consider this your sign to book a court. <\/p>\n

RELATED STORIES\"Headshot<\/p>\n

As Women\u2019s Health UK\u2019s fitness director (and a qualified yoga teacher), Bridie Wilkins has been passionately reporting on exercise, health and nutrition since the start of her decade-long career in journalism. She secured her first role at Look Magazine, where her obsession with fitness began and she launched the magazine\u2019s health and fitness column, Look Fit, before going on to become Health and Fitness writer at HELLO!. Since, she has written for Stylist, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Elle, The Metro, Runner\u2019s World and Red.<\/p>\n

Now, she oversees all fitness content across womenshealthmag.com.uk<\/a> and the print magazine, spearheading leading cross-platform franchises, such as \u2018Fit At Any Age\u2019, where we showcase the women proving that age is no barrier to exercise. She has also represented the brand on BBC Radio London, plus various podcasts and Substacks \u2013 all with the aim to encourage more women to exercise and show them how.<\/p>\n

Outside of work, find her trying the latest Pilates studio, testing her VO2 max for fun (TY, Oura), or posting workouts on Instagram.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While you probably know that running can reduce all-cause mortality by improving your cardiovascular health, and weight training…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[2083,91639,1331,1330,70,91638,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-233869","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-content-type-default","9":"tag-contentid-2e17fef7-0b0b-48fd-99e6-ddb408b7bce5","10":"tag-displaytype-standard-article","11":"tag-locale-gb","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-shorttitle-surprising-workout-adds-10-years-to-your-life","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114787611196223775","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}