Is padel good exercise? Fitness and health benefits

Padel looks gentle from the café window. Then you play an hour of it and come off court with your shirt stuck to your back. So is it proper exercise, or a nice social with some running about?

It’s a genuine workout. Some of the bigger health claims you’ll see online rest on thinner evidence than the headlines suggest, though, so below we’ve separated what the research supports from what it doesn’t yet.

What a game of padel asks of your body

Padel is stop-start exercise. Researchers who’ve tracked matches describe short rallies of around 10 to 15 seconds, with four to six shots in each, broken up by pauses a little longer than the rallies themselves. In each point you cover only a few metres, mostly in quick bursts forwards and sideways, but across a full match that adds up to a few kilometres.

Because the walls keep the ball in play, there are more hits per minute than in tennis. A 2022 review of padel research found that this faster rhythm comes without a big jump in physical intensity, which is part of why beginners can play for an hour without being wiped out.

How hard does your heart work?

Studies of match play put the average heart rate at somewhere around 70 to 80% of maximum. The LTA’s lead physical preparation coach puts typical match play in a similar band, roughly 70 to 85%. That’s a useful range for heart and lung fitness.

Those figures are lower than studies have found for tennis, squash or badminton. How hard padel works you depends a lot on the level of the game. Stronger players move faster, hit more often and play longer rallies, so a competitive match is a tougher session than a relaxed social with beginners.

We’ve left out a calorie figure on purpose. The numbers quoted online vary widely, and they depend so much on your weight, your level and how hard you play that a single figure would be a guess.

Does it count towards your weekly exercise?

The NHS guidelines for adults are at least 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, or 75 minutes of vigorous activity, plus strengthening activities that work all the major muscle groups on at least two days a week.

The NHS doesn’t list padel by name, but it does give doubles tennis as an example of moderate activity, and a typical padel game is a fair match for that. Push the pace and it can tip into vigorous. An NHS rule of thumb for moderate effort is that you can still talk but couldn’t sing, which describes most social padel nicely.

So two 90-minute games a week covers the aerobic part of the guidelines for most people. Padel doesn’t cover the strength part on its own, and a London padel physio writing in The Padel Paper says it’s the part padel players most often miss. Bodyweight work at home, such as squats, lunges and press-ups, counts.

Muscles, balance and reactions

Padel uses your legs constantly, for the small adjusting steps, the split step and the low positions for volleys and balls off the glass. Every shot turns the trunk, and overheads load the shoulders.

The research here is encouraging but early. One study compared middle-aged women who played padel regularly with women who didn’t exercise, and found the players had better strength, balance and aerobic fitness, and smaller waist and hip measurements.

That’s a comparison at one point in time, so it can’t prove padel caused the difference; people who are already fit may simply be more likely to play. The authors of the 2022 review make the same point and call for proper trials.

The constant changes of direction and awkward bounces off the glass also train balance and quick reactions, which the LTA highlights as a benefit. That makes sense given how the game is played, though it’s less well measured than heart rate.

Racket sports and a longer life

The strongest long-term evidence isn’t about padel specifically. A large study of more than 80,000 adults in England and Scotland, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2017, found that people who played racket sports had a 47% lower risk of dying during the follow-up period than people who didn’t, and a lower risk of dying from heart disease and stroke.

Two cautions. That research mostly reflects tennis, badminton and squash, as padel was barely played in Britain then. And it’s observational, so it shows a link, not proof that the sport itself was the cause. Even so, it’s a good sign for any regular racket sport.

The mental and social side

Padel is played in pairs on a small court, so you’re always near people and usually talking. The LTA argues that this sociability is padel’s main health benefit, because people enjoy it and keep coming back, and regular activity is where the gains come from. Plenty of exercise plans fail because people stop; a weekly game with friends is easier to keep up.

The research on mental health is thinner. A 2025 review of padel and pickleball studies found that most padel research looks at performance psychology, such as confidence and pre-match nerves, and the authors flagged wellbeing in padel as a clear gap. So it’s fair to say padel is sociable and enjoyable. It’s too early to make firm claims about mood or brain health from padel-specific studies.

The injury trade-off

No sport is free of injuries, and padel has a recognisable pattern. A 2023 systematic review found roughly three injuries per 1,000 hours of play. The elbow is the most commonly injured single area, often the same problem as tennis elbow, while the legs as a whole account for more injuries, with calves, ankles and knees all featuring.

Many padel injuries come down to load: jumping from no exercise to four sessions a week, skipping the warm-up, or playing in the wrong kit. Build up your playing time over a few weeks, and don’t turn up cold.

Shoes matter more than people expect, because running shoes have soft, high soles built for straight lines and padel shoes are made for sideways stops on turf. If you’re returning to exercise after a long break or have a health condition, check with your GP before starting.

So, is it worth it?

We think so, mainly because people keep playing it. The heart rate numbers are respectable rather than spectacular, and on its own padel won’t build much strength. But a fitness plan you drop after three weeks does nothing, and a weekly game you look forward to adds up over a year.

If you’ve been inactive for a while, start with one game a week for the first month and see how your calves and elbow feel the morning after. Add a second session once they’ve stopped complaining.

A standing weekly four makes that much easier to stick to, and there are some ideas for finding people to play with if you’re short of a group. New to the game itself? The beginner’s guide starts from the very first rally.

Next on the blogPadel lessons: are they worth it, and what to expect