{"id":124781,"date":"2025-09-09T09:01:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:01:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124781\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T09:01:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T09:01:07","slug":"a-new-found-enjoyment-of-pickleball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/124781\/","title":{"rendered":"A New-Found Enjoyment Of Pickleball"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"post-date text-center\">\n<p>\t\t\tPosted on\t\t\t<a class=\"post-date-link\" href=\"https:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2025\/09\/08\/a-new-found-enjoyment-of-pickleball\/\" rel=\"bookmark nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 8, 2025<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n\t\t\tPosted by\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/author\/athenascalzi\/\" title=\"Posts by Athena Scalzi\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Athena Scalzi<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0\u00a0<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t \u00a0\n\t<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"48640\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2023\/08\/01\/a-spoiler-free-review-of-barbie\/whsathenas2\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/whatever.scalzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WHSAthenaS2.jpg?fit=225%2C337&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"225,337\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"WHSAthenaS2\" data-image-description=\"&lt;p&gt;Athena&lt;\/p&gt;&#10;\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/whatever.scalzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WHSAthenaS2.jpg?fit=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/whatever.scalzi.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/WHSAthenaS2.jpg?fit=225%2C337&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-48640\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/WHSAthenaS2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"337\"  \/>There are very few sports I like and even fewer physical activities I enjoy partaking in as exercise. Unfortunately, the older and heavier I get, the more I realize that I really should be doing some kind of movement. The movement of choice has been hard to determine, as I hate running, am not fond of going to an actual gym, and don\u2019t feel like joining a recreational sports team of any kind.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, pickleball has revealed its beautiful self to me. Pickleball, a sport known for its popularity amongst senior citizens, has turned out to be perfect for an absolute couch potato like me.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever wanted to play tennis but are definitely not fit enough to do so? Lo and behold pickleball, tennis\u2019s much less intense and inexpensive cousin. With lighter paddles, whiffle balls instead of tennis balls, and smaller courts than tennis, it\u2019s perfect for anyone who is less athletically inclined, such as myself.<\/p>\n<p>I truly never thought I\u2019d find a physical activity that I deemed \u201cfun.\u201d Going to the gym and lifting weights is not exactly fun. Running on a treadmill is not what I\u2019d consider fun. However, pickleball actually is pretty fun! I am excited to say I like it, and I\u2019m really happy I\u2019ve found something that I don\u2019t hate doing that also gets me up and my heart pumpin\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s really helped that my pickleball partner is my mom, and playing with her has been pretty great. She helps hold me accountable on days when I don\u2019t feel like getting up and playing, we play music from a speaker when no one else is there (which is 97% of the time), and sometimes we get Subway afterwards. It\u2019s nice to have some dedicated time together doing a decently fun activity, and I feel much less competitive when it\u2019s just against my mom. Like I don\u2019t get miffed when I lose, which I cannot say about most things (like Fortnite).<\/p>\n<p>While I do still hate being in the sun and despise sweating, I have found that I can tolerate the hour of playing that we do. We usually play a best two out of three, and that\u2019s roughly a good enough amount of time for me to feel like I have accomplished \u201cthe exercise.\u201d Like, I actually got up and spent an okay amount of time moving my body, and now I want to shower. That counts as being active in my book.<\/p>\n<p>I hate to say it, like\u00a0really\u00a0hate to say it, but I do actually tend to feel better after having played pickleball. It\u2019s almost like\u2026 exercise is good for you? Crazy, I know. And trust me, I\u2019ve spent\u00a0a lot\u00a0of time avoiding it. But dang, getting older does not feel great on my joints, and my weight isn\u2019t helping in that area, either.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not saying pickleball is my new secret to weight loss and the key to unlock health, but I figure it\u2019s better than absolutely nothing, which is what I was previously doing. It\u2019s fun, anyway, and that\u2019s all that really matters, right? Right.<\/p>\n<p>Have you played pickleball before? What do you think of it? What do you like to do to stay active? Let me know in the comments, and have a great day!<\/p>\n<p>-AMS<\/p>\n<p>Like this:<\/p>\n<p>Like Loading&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"sd-link-color\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\u2190 <a href=\"https:\/\/whatever.scalzi.com\/2025\/09\/05\/announcing-3-days-9-months-27-years\/\" rel=\"prev nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Announcing \u201c3 Days, 9 Months, 27 Years\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Posted on September 8, 2025 \u00a0\u00a0 Posted by Athena Scalzi \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 There are very few sports I&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-124781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}