Forget that jog: Why squash and tennis are the best way to stay fit in middle age

Playing squash, tennis and badminton is the best way to reduce the risk of suddenly dying, a
study has found.

The racquet sports reduce the risk of death by 47 per cent compared to doing nothing,
researchers discovered.

The study, which looked at the impact of different sports on health of people with an average
age of 51, found swimming cut the risk of death by 28 per cent, aerobics by 27 per cent and
cycling by 15 per cent.

Interestingly, it discovered that taking part in running and jogging, or football and rugby did
not have a significant effect on cutting the chance of death.

The study was based on 11 annual health surveys for England and Scotland from between 1994
and 2008.

Senior author Associate Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis at the University of Sydney said: ‘Our
findings indicate that it’s not only how much and how often, but also what type of exercise you
do that seems to make the difference.’

He added: ‘We found robust associations between participation in certain types of sport and
exercise and mortality, indicating substantial reductions in all-cause and CVD mortality for
swimming, racquet sports and aerobics and in all-cause mortality for cycling.’

The study, in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, aimed to quantify the impact of six
different sports on the odds of beating death.

It examined 80,306 adults over 30 who were questioned on how much exercise they had had in
the preceding four weeks, and if had been enough to make them ‘breathless and sweaty’.

Less than half the British population met the recommended weekly physical activity quota when
they were surveyed.

Participants were tracked for an average of nine years, in which time 8,790 died from all causes
and 1,909 from heart disease or stroke.
One ‘surprising’ part of the research was that football and running had no impact on reducing
mortality.

One possibility was that low levels of football and running among the sample population –
average age of 52 – may have skewed the results.

In addition, playing football and running may have other social and health benefits – which
were not looked at in the study which only looked at mortality.

Researchers did find a 43 per cent reduced risk of death from all causes and a 45 per cent
reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease among runners compared to people who did
no exercise.

But this apparent advantage disappeared when all the potentially influential factors were
accounted for – such as age, and body mass.

Researchers said a small number of deaths among footballers and runners, the ‘seasonality’ of
certain sports may have had some bearing on the results.

Professor Charlie Foster, one of the study’s authors Nuffield Department of Population Health,
University of Oxford, said: ‘Runners tend to be younger with a lower BMI. They are also less
likely to drink and smoke.

‘When you account for all these ‘influential factors’ the apparent benefits of running disappear,
when compared to those people who don’t run.

‘Also, running works mainly the heart, lungs and legs whereas swimming and racquet sports,
for instance, exercise the whole body.’

He added: ‘Running is very hard work and gets more and more difficult the older we get.’

Dr Tim Chico, Reader in Cardiovascular Medicine & consultant cardiologist, University of

Sheffield, said the study may be unreliable as it used self-reported data, rather than, apps that
record activity.
He said: ‘This study must not be misinterpreted as showing that running and football do not
protect against heart disease. In this study both runners and footballers had a lower rate of death
from heart disease.

‘Although this was not “statistically significant”, many other studies have found that runners
live longer and suffer less heart disease.’ He added that the use of a single questionnaire would
be less reliable than smartphone apps which track activity. These can ‘weed out people who
overestimate or exaggerate how active they are’ and ‘provide more convincing evidence of the
benefits of activity on the risk of heart disease. ‘

He added: ‘I will continue to tell my patients that regular physical activity (including running)
is more effective in reducing their risk of heart disease than any drug I can prescribe.’

Sir David Spiegelhalter, Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, University of
Cambridge, said in his view that the problem was there were ‘so few deaths among runners and
football players’ the statistics could not be relied on.