Pickleball is a long game. Recovery is what makes sure you get to play it.
Extra years of life expectancy · racquet sports vs. sedentary
The most rigorous longevity study of leisure sport ever run.
In 2018, researchers at the University of Copenhagen published the most rigorous longevity study of leisure-time sport ever conducted. Twenty-five years. 8,577 adults. Eight sports compared.
The winner wasn't running. It wasn't swimming. It wasn't cycling. It was tennis, associated with up to 9.7 extra years of life expectancy compared to sedentary adults. Badminton came second at 6.2. Jogging, the activity most people picture when they hear the word fitness, added 3.2.
Racquet sports beat every solo sport in the study. A separate British study followed 80,306 adults over nine years and found racquet players had a 47% lower risk of death from any cause. What keeps racquet players alive isn't just the cardio. It's the showing up.
Pickleball is the most social racquet sport in America. It sits inside the winning category. If you play, you've already opted into the longevity dividend.
But here's what no one is telling you.
The Copenhagen study didn't follow people who took up tennis at 35 and stopped at 50. It followed people who kept playing for decades. Every season you lose to an injury is a withdrawal from the dividend you already earned. Tap the events below to see the pattern.
The injury isn't the problem. What happens next is.
An illustration of the argument, not a clinical prediction. The point is the pattern, not the decimals.
The math is unforgiving.
This is where most pickleball players are quietly losing the long game without realizing it. They get pickleball elbow at 56 and stop showing up for six months. They tweak a rotator cuff at 62 and never quite get back. Each of those moments shaves years off a dividend they already earned.
The injury isn't the problem. Injuries are normal. The problem is what happens next.
When the system that's supposed to get you back on the court treats your body like an episode rather than a career, you don't come back the same. You come back guarded. Slower. Less often. And eventually, not at all. That's how 9.7 years becomes 4.
You aren't just fixing pain when you take recovery seriously. You're protecting an asset: the extra decade of life that pickleball already promised you. Every protocol, every adjustment, every screening is a contribution to a payout that won't show up for twenty years.
Most sports medicine is built around episodes. That model works fine for football players whose careers end at 32. It does not work for pickleball players who plan to play into their 80s.
A pickleball player needs a system, not a series of appointments.
Built for the players who plan to keep playing. Not a series of appointments, but a structure that runs on three layers of time.
The mobility that keeps your joints loaded. The post-session protocol that prevents tomorrow's stiffness. The sleep, hydration, and nutrition that let your body use the work you did on the court.
Strength and stability that build the resilience to absorb a fall, an awkward stretch, a wrong-footed lunge. The check-ins that catch where your body is drifting, before drift becomes injury.
The deep assessment. The screening that catches the imbalance you didn't know you had. The plan for the next twelve months, specific to your body, your goals, and your level of play.
Every claim here traces to a primary source. The studies are observational, which means they show association, not proof of cause. The honest version of the evidence is still a strong one.
Racquet sports associated with up to 9.7 added years of life expectancy versus sedentary adults. A 25-year cohort of 8,577 Danish adults. Observational, with a wide confidence interval.
Schnohr et al. · Mayo Clinic Proc. · 2018
Racquet sport players associated with a 47% lower all-cause mortality risk across 80,306 British adults over nine years.
Oja et al. · Br. J. Sports Med. · 2017
The largest cardiovascular mortality reduction of any sport studied, across 272,550 older adults. The strongest single replication.
Watts et al. · JAMA Network Open · 2022
Strong social ties associated with a 50% higher survival rate. Pickleball is the most social racquet sport in America.
Holt-Lunstad et al. · PLoS Medicine · 2010
Pickleball ER visits rose from 1,313 to 24,461 between 2014 and 2023, concentrated in adults 60 to 79, the exact demographic with the dividend to lose.
Ghattas et al. · Orthop. J. Sports Med. · 2025
Targeted hip-strength and change-of-direction training cut falls in senior pickleball players from 44% to 25%.
Myers/Hanks IJSPT '24 · Healthcare MDPI '25
The studies cited are observational and show association, not proven causation. Longevity figures for pickleball are inferred from racquet-sport research. This site is general health information, not medical advice for your specific case.
Dr. Joe Krzemien treats pickleball players because the demographic that plays it has the most to lose. Current team chiropractor for the Atlanta Dream. Former Atlanta Falcons team chiropractor, 13 NFL seasons. Active care for MLB, NBA, NFL, and Olympic athletes. Inducted into the Professional Football Chiropractic Society Hall of Fame in 2025.
He spent his career on the shortest careers in sports, and learned longevity by watching exactly how a body's career ends. The protocol he uses on a quarterback is the protocol he now brings to a 62-year-old who finally found a sport they love. The Long Game is that protocol, written down.
More On Dr. Joe →
Everything on this page, the case, the dividend, the reframe, the system, the science, is now a book. The Long Game is the full protocol written down: the daily, weekly, and annual work that keeps a pickleball player on the court for decades, not seasons.
A field guide from Dr. Joe Krzemien, built on the same recovery system he brings to professional athletes, and on the science behind why racquet sport may be the most powerful longevity tool you own.
Be First To Read It →The dividend depends on one variable. You have to keep showing up. Dr. Joe is here to make sure you can.