Is Pickleball a Good Workout for People Who Hate the Gym?
The essentials: What studies measured: doubles pickleball ran about 4.1 METs and ~70% of max heart rate in older adults, counting toward the CDC weekly target. The workout that disguises itself as a game.
Treadmills bore you. Weight rooms feel like waiting rooms. If that is you, the honest question about pickleball is not "is it fun" but "does it actually count as exercise." Two research studies measured exactly that, and the answer is yes, with one honest asterisk. Here are the numbers.
What the lab study found
A 2018 study in the International Journal of Research in Exercise Physiology (Smith and colleagues) strapped portable calorimetry gear on 15 women and men, average age 65, and measured doubles pickleball. The results: average intensity of 4.1 METs, which sits in the moderate-intensity zone, a mean heart rate around 109 beats per minute, and a measured energy expenditure of 353.5 kcal for the one-hour match-play session (about four doubles matches of roughly 15 minutes each). After six weeks of one-hour sessions three times a week, the same study found improvements in cholesterol, blood pressure, and aerobic capacity in that group.
What the court study found
A 2022 study in the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity tracked 53 recreational players, average age 62, with watches and accelerometers during real sessions. Mean heart rate ran about 70% of predicted maximum in both singles and doubles, and players logged roughly 3,300 steps per hour in singles and 2,800 in doubles. The authors concluded both formats contributed toward meeting recommended activity guidelines for their older-adult players.
How that compares to the gym's job description
The CDC recommends adults get 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity weekly plus muscle-strengthening work twice a week. At the moderate intensity these studies measured, three one-hour pickleball sessions a week put 180 minutes on the calendar. Count the minutes you spend actually playing at moderate intensity toward the 150, and even with breaks between games, three sessions can cover the target. On top of that you get the lateral movement, balance, and coordination work that a treadmill never asks for. What pickleball does not replace is the strengthening piece; pair it with simple resistance work and you cover the full guideline.
Why it works for gym-haters specifically
The mechanism is disguise. In a gym, every minute is counted on a clock; in a game, your attention is on the ball, the score, and your partner, and the exertion arrives as a side effect. If the reason you hate the gym is boredom and self-monitoring, a scored game with other people removes both. The research measured the bodies; your experience of the hour is simply different.
The honest asterisk
Both studies were small and mostly older adults, so their exact numbers are reference points, not your personal readout. Intensity also scales with how you play: singles, fast rotations, and chasing every ball raise it; gentle social doubles lowers it. And if you have a health condition or have been inactive for a long stretch, check with a doctor before your first session, then start with beginner-friendly play.
Start in a way you will actually repeat
Book one beginner open-play session, not ten. Borrow or rent a paddle, wear court shoes (the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons describes court shoes as built for stability in all directions), and play for an hour. The best workout for someone who hates the gym is the one that exists next week too, so optimize for wanting to come back. Two sessions a week for a year beats an ambitious plan abandoned by February, every single time.
What a workout-disguised hour looks like
A typical open-play hour for a newer player: a few minutes of warm-up rallies, then a rotation of games to 11 with short breaks between them. The work arrives in bursts: split steps, lunges for dinks, quick recoveries, the occasional sprint for a lob. The breaks are built in by the format, which is why an hour of pickleball feels shorter than an hour on any machine that measures your effort back at you.
Soreness, sensibly
Expect your calves, hips, and paddle-side shoulder to notice the first sessions; side-to-side movement uses muscles that forward-only exercise misses. Some muscle soreness in the first weeks can be part of adapting. Persistent or sharp pain is a different signal: back off, and if it continues, see a professional rather than playing through it.
The Europe angle
Year-round indoor venues turn "three sessions a week" from a fair-weather plan into a calendar appointment. Pickle Haus (pickle.haus) is setting out to build the first and biggest network of dedicated pickleball centers in Poland, with a vision to lead across Europe. The brand describes this as its ambition; the centers are not open yet.
The bottom line
Measured in labs and on courts, pickleball lands in the moderate-intensity zone: around 4 METs and roughly 70% of max heart rate in the adults studied, enough to count toward the CDC's 150-minute weekly target. Add basic strength work, start with one session, and let the game disguise the exercise. And notice what happens to your week: a workout you look forward to stops needing willpower, which is the whole reason gym-haters end up fitter as pickleball players than they ever were as members.
Sources
Sources checked 22 Oct 2026. Header image is illustrative, not a photo of the events described.
Related stories
Five new pickleball facilities open in October: Yucca Valley, Monticello, Maricopa, Palm Springs and Moab
Eight courts here, twelve indoor courts there, 22 in Palm Springs: what opened this month, what it cost, and the access rules players need to know.
Pickleball's club shakeout: chains grew 37% this year, and The Picklr still landed in Chapter 11
Six major pickleball chains grew from 145 to 199 locations between January and September 2026, but indoor court growth is slowing and The Picklr's parent filed for bankruptcy. The buildout continues through a shakeout.
Life Time is building a dedicated pickleball destination in Palm Beach Gardens
Life Time has opened a new 20,500-square-foot pickleball destination with six courts across from its Palm Beach Gardens club, part of an expansion that also adds a 24-reformer studio and 5,600 square feet of exercise floor.