Odd sports that provide great fitness boosts
You may not have heard of chess boxing (11 alternating rounds of fisticuffs and chess moves) or underwater rugby (apparently, above-ground rugby isn’t tough enough for guys from Sweden and Norway) or Quidditch for muggles (based on the broom-flying game from the “Harry Potter” books by J.K. Rowling).
But while these offbeat battles may be a little over the top, there are several often-overlooked sports that provide enormous fun and extensive health benefits. We’re talking about table tennis, pickleball and joggling.
How much, and how much benefit?
One 2011 study looked at the info on more than 1 million exercisers and found that vigorous (300 minutes) or moderate (150 minutes) weekly exercise reduced the risk of death from all causes over the study’s lifetime by up to 34 percent.
Another study, in BMJ Sports Medicine, found that participants in aerobics (joggling), cycling, racquet sports (table tennis and pickleball) and swimming, reduced their risk of death by 27, 15, 47 and 28 percent respectively, over the course of the study.