Table tennis and the brain
Table tennis is one of the sports that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities. The game is played by millions of people across the world from disabled people and folks in retirement homes to school students or business professionals.
On top of the many health benefits it has on your body(losing weight, staying active, reducing cardiovascular risk, etc) it also has a lot of benefits for your brain.
It has been listed as one of the games with the highest rate of brain stimulation. It is the perfect sport for improving your mind’s condition because it has a low injury risk and it puts little stress on your muscles.
1. Develops mental acuity
Mental acuity is the measure of the sharpness levels of the human brain. Alzheimer’s weekly reports that table tennis improves the brain sharpness significantly. After a series of studies done in Japan, they discovered that a normal game increased the blood flow to the brain and reduced the risk of getting dementia. Dementia is a chronic disease that is characterized by memory problems, changes in personality and poor reasoning.
The studies found that older ping pong players tend to improve the function of the frontal lobes of the brain, which regulate decision making, problem-solving, and voluntary movements.
Because you have to calculate the speed, spin and placement of the ball coming at you, usually in under a second, it acts like solving a puzzle and keeps your brain fully engaged.
2. Stimulates your brain
As stated before, playing table tennis stimulates different parts of the brain. The process of anticipating an opponent’s shot, makes the player use the prefrontal cortex of the brain similar to what is used during strategic planning. The aerobics involved during the playing of the game simulates the hippocampus area that enables an individual to create and maintain long-term memories.
The parietal lobes which are responsible for translating sensory information are stimulated through the process of following the ball and reacting to spin.
The more you use your brain the better it will perform. Especially when you get older. Similar to Sudoku and crosswords puzzles, table tennis helps with memory and concentration by stimulating the corresponding brain areas.
3. Improves your mood
The very first thing that you notice when playing table tennis is that your mood improves. This is because it triggers the increase of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemical substances that enable the transmission of signals and messages across the brain. Increased neurotransmitters levels have been reported to reduce the rate of depression. Various brain functions are regulated by neurotransmitters such as movement, feelings, memory and stress.