Tennis adds 9.7 years to your life: here's why

In 2018, a study that had tracked over 8,500 adults for 25 years delivered a stunning conclusion: tennis players lived, on average, 9.7 years longer than sedentary individuals. Not 9.7 months. Not 9.7 percent longer. Nearly a full decade of additional life.

What made this finding remarkable wasn’t just the size of the effect — it was that tennis outperformed every other form of exercise studied. Running added 3.2 years. Swimming added 3.4. Cycling, 3.7. Even health club activities only added 1.5 years. Tennis almost tripled the longevity benefit of running and delivered more than six times the gain of going to the gym.

This wasn’t some fringe finding from a small pilot study. It came from the Copenhagen City Heart Study, one of the largest and longest-running cardiovascular research projects in the world, published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings — one of the most respected peer-reviewed medical journals. And the results point to something far more interesting than “exercise is good for you.”

The real question is: why tennis? What is it about chasing a felt-covered ball across a rectangular court that adds nearly a decade to your life — more than any other physical activity ever measured?

The answer, as it turns out, involves a convergence of longevity mechanisms that no other single activity replicates so completely.

What you’ll learn:

The Copenhagen study and what it found
Why social sports outperform solo exercise
The cognitive demands that protect your brain
Tennis as natural interval training
Grip strength: the hidden longevity biomarker
How tennis improves HRV and cardiovascular resilience
How SuperAge helps you track what matters
Practical recommendations by age group
Scientific references

The Copenhagen City Heart Study: what the data actually shows

The Copenhagen City Heart Study began in 1976, enrolling 8,577 adults from the general Copenhagen population. Participants were assessed at multiple time points over 25 years, with researchers tracking physical activity habits, health outcomes, and mortality. The study controlled for age, sex, education level, socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol intake, diabetes, and existing cardiovascular disease.

In their 2018 analysis, Schnohr and colleagues compared life expectancy gains across eight different sports and physical activities relative to sedentary individuals. The results, ranked by additional years of life expectancy:

Sport/Activity	Additional years of life
Tennis	+9.7 years
Badminton	+6.2 years
Soccer	+4.7 years
Cycling	+3.7 years
Swimming	+3.4 years
Jogging	+3.2 years
Calisthenics	+3.1 years
Health club activities	+1.5 years

The pattern was immediately striking to the researchers: the top three activities were all social sports. Tennis, badminton, and soccer — activities that require at least one other person — clustered at the top, while solitary activities like jogging, swimming, and gym work clustered at the bottom.

Key insight: The study didn’t just find that exercise extends life. It found that the type of exercise matters enormously — and that social, cognitively demanding sports deliver dramatically greater longevity benefits than solitary physical activity of comparable intensity.

This finding has been reinforced by subsequent research. A 2020 analysis published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine examined data from over 80,000 adults and similarly found that racquet sports were associated with the greatest reduction in all-cause mortality — a 47% lower risk compared to those who did no sport at all.

But these numbers only describe the what. To understand the why, we need to dissect tennis into its component longevity mechanisms.

The single biggest reason tennis outperforms solitary exercise is also the most overlooked: human connection.

Social isolation and loneliness are now recognized as independent risk factors for premature death — on par with smoking 15 cigarettes per day. A 2015 meta-analysis by Holt-Lunstad and colleagues, covering 3.4 million participants across 70 studies, found that social isolation increased the risk of premature death by 29%, loneliness by 26%, and living alone by 32%.

Tennis is inherently social. You need at least one other person. In doubles, you need three. You converse between points. You negotiate scheduling. You develop rivalries and friendships that span years or decades. The sport creates a recurring social structure — a reason to show up, engage, and connect with others on a regular basis.

This isn’t a trivial benefit layered on top of exercise. The social component appears to be a primary driver of the longevity effect. Consider the evidence:

Tennis (+9.7 years) vs. jogging (+3.2 years): Both involve intermittent high-intensity movement. Both develop cardiovascular fitness. The key difference? Tennis is social; jogging is typically solitary. The 6.5-year gap is enormous.
Soccer (+4.7 years) vs. swimming (+3.4 years): Soccer is a team sport with constant social interaction. Swimming is done in lanes, often in silence. Both are excellent cardiovascular workouts — but soccer delivers an additional 1.3 years.
Health club activities (+1.5 years): Gyms are full of people, yet the interactions are minimal. You wear headphones, follow your program, and leave. The social structure is weak — and the longevity benefit is the lowest of all activities studied.

Social interaction during exercise activates specific biological pathways that solo exercise does not:

Oxytocin release. Face-to-face social interaction triggers oxytocin secretion, which lowers cortisol, reduces blood pressure, and promotes parasympathetic nervous system activity. Playing tennis with a friend or a group literally changes your hormonal profile compared to running alone at the same intensity.

Reduced chronic inflammation. Social isolation is associated with elevated levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) — both markers of chronic inflammation that accelerate biological aging. Regular social engagement through sport helps keep these inflammatory markers in check.

Stress buffering. The social support network formed through regular sports participation creates a psychological buffer against life stressors. This “social buffering” effect has been shown to reduce HPA axis activation (the stress response system) and lower allostatic load — the cumulative wear and tear of chronic stress on the body.

Cognitive demands: your brain on tennis

Tennis is one of the most cognitively demanding sports in existence. Every point requires rapid processing of spatial information, prediction of opponent behavior, tactical decision-making, and fine motor adjustment — all happening in fractions of a second.

This cognitive load is a feature, not a bug. It’s one of the reasons tennis is so protective against cognitive decline.

What your brain does during a single rally

During a typical tennis rally, your brain performs the following operations in real time:

Visual tracking: Following a ball traveling at 60-130 mph, calculating its trajectory, speed, and spin
Spatial processing: Positioning your body relative to the ball, the court boundaries, and your opponent’s position
Pattern recognition: Reading your opponent’s body language, racquet angle, and positioning to anticipate where the next shot will go
Decision-making: Choosing shot type (forehand, backhand, slice, topspin, lob, drop shot), placement, and power — typically within 300 to 500 milliseconds
Motor execution: Coordinating dozens of muscles in a precise sequence to execute the chosen stroke
Strategic planning: Constructing points, exploiting weaknesses, varying patterns to remain unpredictable

This is essentially a full-brain workout happening every few seconds for 60 to 90 minutes. No other common physical activity demands this level of simultaneous cognitive engagement.

BDNF: the brain fertilizer

High-intensity exercise — especially exercise with a strong cognitive component — stimulates the production of BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), a protein that supports the growth, survival, and plasticity of neurons. BDNF is sometimes called “fertilizer for the brain” because it promotes neurogenesis (the creation of new brain cells) in the hippocampus — the brain region critical for memory and learning.

A 2019 study in Frontiers in Neuroscience found that racquet sports players showed significantly higher BDNF levels compared to runners who exercised at the same intensity and duration. The researchers attributed the difference to the added cognitive demands: the combination of physical exertion and rapid decision-making creates a uniquely powerful stimulus for BDNF production.

This has direct implications for longevity. Low BDNF levels are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, depression, and accelerated cognitive aging. Activities that boost BDNF — particularly the combination of aerobic exercise with cognitive challenge — are among the most protective interventions against age-related brain decline.

Natural interval training: the ideal exercise pattern

Watch a tennis match closely and you’ll notice a distinctive rhythm: 5 to 15 seconds of explosive effort followed by 15 to 25 seconds of recovery, repeated hundreds of times over one to three hours. This is, by design, high-intensity interval training (HIIT) — the exercise protocol that research has consistently shown to be the most effective for improving cardiovascular fitness, mitochondrial function, and metabolic health.

Why intervals outperform steady-state cardio

The advantage of interval training over steady-state exercise (like jogging at a constant pace) is well documented:

VO2 max improvement: Interval training improves VO2 max — maximum oxygen uptake capacity and one of the strongest predictors of all-cause mortality — more effectively than continuous moderate exercise. A 2017 meta-analysis found that HIIT improved VO2 max by 5.5 mL/kg/min on average compared to 1.8 mL/kg/min for moderate continuous training.
Mitochondrial biogenesis: The repeated cycles of energy depletion and recovery during interval exercise trigger the creation of new mitochondria — the energy-producing organelles in your cells. More mitochondria mean more efficient energy production, less oxidative stress, and slower cellular aging.
Cardiac remodeling: Interval training promotes beneficial changes in heart structure and function, including increased stroke volume (more blood pumped per beat) and improved cardiac output. This is reflected in improved heart rate recovery — the speed at which your heart rate drops after exertion, a powerful predictor of cardiovascular mortality.
Metabolic flexibility: The alternation between anaerobic bursts and aerobic recovery trains your body to switch efficiently between fuel sources (glucose and fat), improving insulin sensitivity and reducing metabolic disease risk.

The beauty of tennis is that you don’t need to set interval timers or watch a clock. The structure of the game — serve, rally, point, brief rest, repeat — creates a natural HIIT protocol. And unlike structured HIIT on a stationary bike, the intervals in tennis are variable and unpredictable, which adds the cognitive benefits discussed above.

The longevity-optimal exercise zone

Research suggests that the “sweet spot” for longevity is 150 to 300 minutes per week of moderate-intensity activity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous activity. A standard singles tennis match lasts 60 to 90 minutes and involves both moderate-intensity movement (walking between points, positioning) and vigorous-intensity bursts (sprinting, hitting). Two to three matches per week places you squarely in the longevity-optimal exercise zone.

Grip strength: the hidden longevity biomarker in your racquet hand

Here’s a longevity connection that most tennis players don’t realize: every time you grip your racquet and absorb the impact of a ball traveling at 50+ mph, you’re training one of the most powerful predictors of all-cause mortality.

Grip strength is now recognized as a robust biomarker of biological aging. A landmark 2015 study in The Lancet, covering nearly 140,000 adults across 17 countries, found that every 5 kg decrease in grip strength was associated with a 17% increase in cardiovascular mortality and a 16% increase in all-cause mortality. Grip strength predicted death more reliably than systolic blood pressure.

Tennis develops grip strength through a mechanism that’s difficult to replicate in a gym: reactive grip loading. When you hit a forehand, your hand and forearm must absorb and redirect forces of 40 to 70 pounds at impact. This happens hundreds of times per match, across a wide range of angles and wrist positions. The result is grip strength development that is dynamic, functional, and sustained over decades of play.

Beyond grip: full-body functional strength

Tennis also develops:

Rotational core strength: Every groundstroke involves trunk rotation against a stabilized lower body — precisely the type of functional core strength that prevents falls and maintains mobility in older adults
Lower body power: The constant lateral movement, lunging, and sprinting develops leg strength and balance — critical for fall prevention, which becomes the leading cause of injury-related death after age 65
Upper body coordination: The serve alone involves a kinetic chain from feet to fingertips that develops shoulder stability, scapular control, and arm strength through a full range of motion

HRV and cardiovascular resilience

Heart rate variability (HRV) — the variation in time between successive heartbeats — is one of the most important biomarkers of autonomic nervous system health and overall resilience. Higher HRV indicates a nervous system that can flexibly respond to stress; lower HRV is associated with cardiovascular disease, inflammation, and premature mortality.

Tennis improves HRV through multiple complementary pathways:

Aerobic conditioning. The sustained cardiovascular demands of tennis strengthen the heart and improve vagal tone — the activity of the vagus nerve, which is the primary driver of parasympathetic (rest-and-recover) function. Improved vagal tone directly increases HRV.

Post-exercise parasympathetic rebound. After each burst of high-intensity effort during a rally, your nervous system rapidly switches from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) to parasympathetic (recovery) dominance. This repeated switching — hundreds of times per match — trains your autonomic nervous system to be more responsive and flexible, much like interval training for your nervous system.

Stress reduction through play. Tennis is, fundamentally, a game. The element of play — competition, challenge, the satisfaction of a well-struck ball — activates reward pathways in the brain and promotes a psychological state that supports parasympathetic recovery. This is markedly different from the experience of grinding through a treadmill session.

Social engagement effects. As noted earlier, the social component of tennis triggers oxytocin release and reduces cortisol, both of which support higher resting HRV. Studies have shown that people who exercise with others have consistently higher HRV than those who exercise alone at the same intensity.

Tracking your cardiovascular progress

Your training readiness score — a composite metric that includes HRV, resting heart rate, and sleep quality — is one of the best ways to monitor whether your tennis habit is building cardiovascular resilience over time. A gradual upward trend in morning HRV and training readiness over weeks and months indicates your autonomic nervous system is adapting positively.

How SuperAge helps you track what matters

Understanding why tennis is so powerful for longevity is the first step. The second step is tracking whether it’s actually working for you — and that’s where SuperAge comes in.

SuperAge connects to your Apple Watch and other wearable devices to monitor the biomarkers most directly affected by tennis:

HRV trends: Track your resting HRV over weeks and months to see whether your tennis habit is improving autonomic nervous system resilience. SuperAge calculates your HRV baseline and trends so you can spot meaningful changes rather than getting distracted by day-to-day noise.
Heart rate recovery: After a match, how quickly does your heart rate drop? SuperAge monitors your heart rate recovery — one of the strongest predictors of cardiovascular mortality — and tracks it over time.
Training readiness: SuperAge’s training readiness score tells you whether your body is recovered and ready for another match, or whether an extra rest day would be more beneficial. This helps prevent overtraining, which can suppress HRV and negate some of the longevity benefits.
VO2 max estimation: Track your estimated VO2 max over time — the single strongest predictor of all-cause mortality. Tennis should gradually improve this number; if it stalls, it may be time to add more intense rallies or additional conditioning work.
Biological age: By combining multiple biomarkers, SuperAge estimates your biological age relative to your chronological age — giving you a single number that reflects whether your longevity habits (including tennis) are actually moving the needle.

The goal isn’t just to play tennis and hope for the best. It’s to play tennis and verify that your body is responding the way the science predicts it should.

Practical recommendations by age group

The beauty of tennis is its adaptability. You can play competitively at 25 or socially at 85. Here’s how to approach the sport at different life stages for maximum longevity benefit:

Ages 20–40: build your base

Frequency: 2–3 times per week, mixing singles (more intense) and doubles (more social)
Focus: Developing technique and cardiovascular fitness. This is the decade where VO2 max improvement is most rapid.
Watch for: Overtraining. Young players often push too hard and don’t recover adequately. Monitor your HRV and training readiness scores — if they trend downward, add rest days.
Complement with: Strength training 2x per week to build the muscle mass and bone density that will protect you in later decades.

Ages 40–60: optimize and protect

Frequency: 2–3 times per week, with at least one doubles session for the social component
Focus: Maintaining VO2 max (which naturally declines ~1% per year after 30) and preventing injury. Warm up thoroughly — tendons and ligaments become less elastic with age.
Watch for: Shoulder and knee issues. If pain persists, address it early. Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) becomes more common in this age range — proper technique and a well-fitted racquet reduce the risk.
Complement with: Mobility work, yoga, or stretching to maintain range of motion. Grip strength exercises on off days.

Ages 60–80: play for connection and function

Frequency: 2–4 times per week, primarily doubles
Focus: Social engagement, balance maintenance, and cognitive stimulation. The longevity benefit at this age comes as much from the social structure as from the physical activity.
Watch for: Falls and balance issues. Court shoes with good lateral support are essential. Consider playing on clay or grass (softer surfaces) rather than hard courts to reduce joint impact.
Complement with: Balance exercises (single-leg stance, tandem walking) and light resistance training to maintain muscle mass and prevent sarcopenia.

Ages 80+: stay in the game

Frequency: As often as enjoyable, typically 2–3 times per week
Focus: Gentle rallies, doubles play, and the social routine. At this age, the act of showing up, engaging with others, and moving your body is the intervention.
Watch for: Overexertion. Heart rate monitoring becomes especially important. Shorter sessions (30–45 minutes) with longer rest periods between points.
Complement with: Walking on non-tennis days to maintain baseline cardiovascular fitness.

Why tennis beats other “longevity exercises”

Let’s address the obvious question: if the social component is what matters most, why not just join a hiking group or a rowing club?

The answer is that tennis isn’t superior because of any single factor. It’s superior because it stacks multiple longevity mechanisms simultaneously:

Longevity mechanism	Tennis	Running	Swimming	Gym
Social connection	Strong	Weak	Weak	Weak
Cognitive demand	Very high	Low	Low	Low
Interval training	Built-in	Optional	Optional	Optional
Grip strength	High	None	Low	Moderate
Balance/agility	High	Moderate	Low	Low
Bone density loading	High	High	Low	High
Longevity-optimal duration	Natural	Self-paced	Self-paced	Self-paced

No other common activity delivers all seven mechanisms in a single session. This “stacking effect” is likely what produces the outsized longevity benefit observed in the Copenhagen data.

For a deeper comparison of how different sports rank for longevity, see our complete guide to the best sports for longevity. You can also see exactly which sport burns the most calories when total energy expenditure matters. If you’re looking for a racquet sport with an even lower barrier to entry, our analysis of whether padel qualifies as serious cardio shows that its intermittent heart rate profile delivers HIIT-like cardiovascular benefits in a social doubles format.

Limitations and context

Scientific integrity requires noting several caveats:

Observational data: The Copenhagen City Heart Study is observational, not a randomized controlled trial. It’s possible that people who play tennis are different from joggers or gym-goers in ways the study didn’t fully control for — income, access to healthcare, personality traits, or baseline health.
Self-selection: Healthy, socially connected people may be more likely to choose tennis in the first place. The study controlled for many confounders, but residual confounding is always possible in observational research.
Cultural context: The study population was Danish. Tennis culture, access to courts, and the social dynamics of the sport may differ in other countries.
Dose-response uncertainty: The study showed that tennis players lived longer, but didn’t establish the exact “dose” needed. Playing once a month and playing five times a week were not distinguished in the primary analysis.
Any exercise is better than none: If you don’t enjoy tennis, don’t force it. The best exercise for longevity is the one you’ll actually do consistently. For those who prefer high-intensity group workouts, see CrossFit after 40 for guidance on managing intensity safely. The Copenhagen data showed that even the lowest-ranked activity (health club, +1.5 years) still delivered meaningful longevity benefits compared to being sedentary.

That said, the consistency of the finding — social racquet sports at the top, solo activities at the bottom, across multiple large studies — is too strong to dismiss as coincidence.

The bottom line

Tennis adds 9.7 years to life expectancy not because of any single mechanism, but because it simultaneously activates at least five major longevity pathways: social connection, cognitive stimulation, interval training, grip strength development, and cardiovascular resilience. No other common physical activity combines all of these in a single session.

The Copenhagen City Heart Study’s finding isn’t really about tennis. It’s about what humans need to age well: regular physical challenge, mental engagement, and meaningful connection with other people. Tennis just happens to package all three into a game that people enjoy playing for decades.

If you’re looking for the single most efficient thing you can do for your longevity — something that simultaneously trains your heart, brain, muscles, and social bonds — it’s hard to beat picking up a racquet.

Scientific references

Schnohr P, O’Keefe JH, Holtermann A, et al. “Various leisure-time physical activities associated with widely divergent life expectancies: the Copenhagen City Heart Study.” Mayo Clinic Proceedings. 2018;93(12):1775-1785.
Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Baker M, Harris T, Stephenson D. “Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: a meta-analytic review.” Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2015;10(2):227-237.
Oja P, Kelly P, Pedisic Z, et al. “Associations of specific types of sports and exercise with all-cause and cardiovascular-disease mortality: a cohort study of 80,306 British adults.” British Journal of Sports Medicine. 2017;51(10):812-817.
Leong DP, Teo KK, Rangarajan S, et al. “Prognostic value of grip strength: findings from the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiology (PURE) study.” The Lancet. 2015;386(9990):266-273.
Milanovic Z, Sporis G, Weston M. “Effectiveness of high-intensity interval training (HIT) and continuous endurance training for VO2max improvements: a systematic review and meta-analysis of controlled trials.” Sports Medicine. 2015;45(10):1469-1481.
Schmolesky MT, Webb DL, Hansen RA. “The effects of aerobic exercise intensity and duration on levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor in healthy men.” Journal of Sports Science & Medicine. 2013;12(3):502-511.