A pingpong workout?

Table tennis, or pingpong, can be played with one-one-one or with a partner. (The Gazette)

As we enter the coldest months of the year, our usual outdoor activities — hiking, running, playing bags, etc. — may have to be put on hold for a while.

Many people struggle to find indoor activities they can enjoy during the winter. This can lead to boredom, laziness and lack of motivation.

Table tennis, or pingpong, can be fun and burn some calories. (The Gazette)

While bingeing shows on Netflix is OK every now and then, it’s important to find a hobby or activity you enjoy that doesn’t involve a TV, computer or phone screen.

One all-time favorite indoor activities is pingpong, or the more general term — table tennis.

It’s possible playing table tennis never crossed your mind as exercise, but it’s an activity that is fun and challenging and is a great game to play with friends or family.

If you enjoy playing sports of any kind, especially tennis or pickleball, there’s a great chance you’ll enjoy pingpong as well.

As the name “table tennis” would imply, the game is played on a table and basically is a mini version of tennis. A standard pingpong table is 5 feet wide and 9 feet long, sits about 2 ½ feet off the ground, and typically will cost somewhere between $100 and $300, depending on the quality of the table.

Just like in tennis, players must hit over a net to keep the ball in play. Instead of a tennis ball, a pingpong ball is plastic and is about the size of a golf ball, but much lighter. Instead of tennis rackets, players use a smaller wooden paddle with a coat of rubber on the outside to help control the distance and direction of the ball.

Now that you know the equipment needed to play table tennis, here are some general rules to give you an idea of how to play the game. The rules, as you would expect, are very similar to those of regular tennis. You can play either singles (1 vs. 1) or doubles (2 vs. 2), but it’s much easier for most people to play singles in pingpong because of the size of the table.

To keep the ball in play, you must hit the ball in one bounce or less and land it on your opponent’s side of the net. To serve, the ball must hit the table on your side of the net once before landing on the other side of the net. Unlike regular tennis, where the serve must land on one half of the court, a pingpong serve can land anywhere on the table.

Scoring is another aspect of table tennis that differs from regular tennis. Generally, you either play first to 11 or first to 21 (you have to win by two), and you switch servers every two points.

Obviously, you can ignore all of this and just hit the ball back and forth with the other person. If you’re competitive, though, keeping score is nothing short of a necessity.

If you want some kind of competition, but don’t want to play against someone, you and your partner can work together to see how many times you can hit it back and forth in a row before hitting it into the net or off the table.

You may not think of table tennis as an activity that burns a lot of calories. If you’re comparing it to a CrossFit workout, you’re correct. But playing pingpong for 30 to 45 minutes is better than sitting on the couch all day.

In fact, a study suggests you can burn 250 calories for every hour of playing table tennis. It also gives you a full-body workout as — using your arms, legs, back and abdomen while playing.

In terms of cognitive health, playing table tennis has significant benefits many people may not realize. When asked about the health benefits of table tennis, Dr. Daniel Amen, the founder of Amen Clinics and Brain MD, said “I think it is the best brain sport. It is highly aerobic, uses both the upper and lower body, is great for hand-eye coordination and reflexes and causes you to use many different areas of the brain at once as you are tracking the ball, planning shots and strategies, and figuring out spins.”

Amen said pingpong is “like aerobic chess.” The significant health benefits, both physical and mental, make table tennis a game that everyone should try at some point in their lives.

If you want to try table tennis, but don’t have the necessary resources, that doesn’t mean you can’t play. Social gatherings could be a great opportunity to play if you have a friend or family member with a pingpong table.

There also are table tennis leagues and tournaments in the area. A few places with table tennis clubs or leagues are the Northwest Recreation Center, Rockwell Collins (Rockwell Table Tennis Club) and the Iowa Field House in Iowa City.

If you want nothing to do with the cold and are looking for an indoor activity that is great for both your brain and your body, give table tennis a try.

Comments: adam.vanoort@thegazette.com