Playing Sports as You Get Older Can Help You Live Longer

When you hear the word ​“sports,” you might think of run­ning around a field or scor­ing goals. But if being active isn’t as easy as it used to be, the idea of play­ing sports might seem far-fetched. 

Just because some sports feel too intense or uncom­fort­able as you get old­er, that doesn’t mean it’s time to quit. Sports are a fun way to stay active, and play­ing sports when you get old­er has even been shown to help you live longer. The key is to focus on how sports can improve your health and find the sports that work best for you. 

How Play­ing Sports Can Help You Live Longer… 

The phys­i­cal activ­i­ty you get from play­ing sports can help you live longer by keep­ing the sys­tems in your body healthy. 

For exam­ple, stay­ing active affects your cir­cu­la­to­ry (car­dio­vas­cu­lar) sys­tem by improv­ing your heart’s abil­i­ty to pump oxy­gen-rich blood through your body. This can low­er your risk of blood clots and heart attacks. 

Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty has also been shown to boost your immune sys­tem and reduce inflam­ma­tion, which can tire out your immune defens­es. These ben­e­fits may even help pro­tect against cer­tain types of can­cer, like col­orec­tal or breast cancers. 

Also read: Heart Smart at Every Age: A Life­long Guide to Heart Health

…And Enjoy Liv­ing Longer 

Play­ing sports and exer­cis­ing are nat­ur­al ways to improve the qual­i­ty of your life as you age. Phys­i­cal activ­i­ty can: 

• Boost your mood 
• Decrease symp­toms of depres­sion, anx­i­ety, or stress 
• Improve sleep
• Keep your brain sharp and deci­sion-mak­ing skills intact 
• Make it eas­i­er to man­age chron­ic con­di­tions that often get worse with age, like arthri­tis or type 2 diabetes 
• Help you quit smoking

Anoth­er impor­tant way phys­i­cal activ­i­ty improves your qual­i­ty of life is that it keeps your mus­cles and bones healthy. As you age, it’s nor­mal for them to weak­en, which can lead to falls and bro­ken bones. Stay­ing active helps pre­vent this wear and tear, keep­ing you steady on your feet and safe­ly mov­ing around. 

Choos­ing the Right Sport

If the thought of play­ing sports still makes you squirm, don’t wor­ry. There are plen­ty of sports that are eas­i­er on your body as you age while still giv­ing you the phys­i­cal activ­i­ty you need. 

Rac­quet Sports

Ten­nis, bad­minton, and the oh-so-pop­u­lar pick­le­ball – sports that involve a rac­quet – have been shown to be among the best for stay­ing healthy and liv­ing longer. These sports get your heart pump­ing, improve your hand-eye coor­di­na­tion, and strength­en the mus­cles in your core, legs, and arms. 

One study among old­er adults in the US found that those who played rac­quet sports had a 27% reduc­tion in their risk of dying from car­dio­vas­cu­lar disease. 

In Europe, anoth­er study found that ten­nis play­ers lived near­ly 10 years longer than inac­tive peo­ple, while bad­minton play­ers added an extra 6.2 years to their lives. 

There’s anoth­er perk of rac­quet sports. They’re social! Spend­ing time with oth­ers isn’t just fun — it can actu­al­ly help you live longer , too. 

Also read: How Can You Improve Hand-Eye Coor­di­na­tion As You Age?

Danc­ing

Danc­ing is anoth­er excel­lent way to keep your body mov­ing. It gets your heart pump­ing, strength­ens your mus­cles, and can even help you lose weight. Plus, it improves strength, flex­i­bil­i­ty, bal­ance, and mobility. 

The work­out you get depends on the kind of dance you choose. For exam­ple, an hour of sal­sa or an aer­o­bic dance class gives you a sim­i­lar work­out to swim­ming laps or run­ning. An hour of tra­di­tion­al ball­room danc­ing is like tak­ing a brisk hour-long walk. 

Sports That Involve Walking 

Brisk walk­ing might seem sim­ple, but it’s incred­i­bly effec­tive. In fact, research from the Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion has shown that every hour of walk­ing could add two hours to your life expectan­cy. Over time, those hours quick­ly add up to days, months, and years. 

Look for sports that involve plen­ty of walk­ing. Golf (as long as you don’t use a cart), race walk­ing, and hik­ing are all great ways to get your steps in. 

You may also want to check out one of the lat­est sports trends: walk­ing sports. These are famil­iar games like bas­ket­ball and foot­ball adapt­ed for walk­ing instead of run­ning. While they are par­tic­u­lar­ly pop­u­lar in the UK, sports like walk­ing soc­cer are start­ing to catch on in the US. 

Sports That Are Good for Your Joints 

Exer­cise can be either low-impact or high-impact high impact. Low-impact exer­cis­es are gen­tler on your joints and usu­al­ly eas­i­er on your ankles and knees. High-impact exer­cis­es, on the oth­er hand, put more force on your whole body, includ­ing your mus­cles, bones, and tissue. 

As you age, it’s impor­tant to think about which type of impact is right for you. High-impact activ­i­ties can still be great for old­er adults, espe­cial­ly when it comes to bone health. But if you have cer­tain med­ical con­di­tions or issues with your bones or joints, low-impact activ­i­ties might be a bet­ter bet or you might need to take extra pre­cau­tions with high-impact activities. 

For exam­ple, osteo­poro­sis (a con­di­tion that caus­es bones to weak­en and become brit­tle, and more like­ly to break) is more com­mon as we age. High-impact exer­cis­es can increase the risk of injuries or stress frac­tures if you have this con­di­tion, so it’s impor­tant to choose activ­i­ties that meet your body’s needs. 

Going the low-impact route? Some of the best sports to check out include: 

• Swim­ming
• Bicy­cling
• Row­ing
• Golf
• Cross-coun­try skiing

Safe­ty First 

The most impor­tant thing to remem­ber when play­ing sports or exer­cis­ing is to lis­ten to your body. Resist the urge to push your­self too hard or try to play through pain. If your body is telling you that it’s time to rest or hint­ing that it may be time to switch up your sport, lis­ten. And if an activ­i­ty is painful or makes it dif­fi­cult to breathe nor­mal­ly, talk to your provider. They can help you find a sport that will keep you in shape while also keep­ing you safe. 

Also read: From New Goals to Phys­i­cal Ther­a­py: 6 Things to Know About Aging and Exer­cise

Whether you’re look­ing for a new sport, want to learn how to play your sport safe­ly, or have con­cerns about phys­i­cal activ­i­ty, your provider is here to help. Sched­ule an appoint­ment with a Duly Health and Care pri­ma­ry care provider.