The Sport You Can Keep Playing as You Get Older

What if one of the best ways to stay active as you age doesn’t feel like exercise at all?

You walk. You bend. You balance. You concentrate. You compete. You spend time outdoors. And, if you’re lucky, you spend a few hours laughing with people you like.

That’s lawn bowling.

And researchers have found some surprisingly interesting things about the people who play it.

It’s more physical than it looks

Lawn bowls can look deceptively gentle. You’re not sprinting around a court or pounding a treadmill.

But the game repeatedly asks your body to do things that become increasingly important with age: walk, bend, stabilize, coordinate movement, react, and control your body while reaching toward a target.

In one study, researchers compared 74 healthy women ages 60 to 75 who regularly played lawn bowls with women who didn’t.

The bowlers performed better on several measures associated with physical function. They had better knee strength, faster reaction times, less postural sway, better ankle and shoulder range of motion, and better scores on the Timed Up-and-Go test—a common measure of mobility and functional movement.

The researchers didn’t prove that bowling caused these differences. People who choose to bowl may already be healthier or more active than people who don’t.

But the findings are intriguing.

Then there’s the balance

Anyone who has actually delivered a bowl knows that balance isn’t incidental to the game.

You lower your body, extend forward, shift your weight and release the bowl while trying to remain stable.

Researchers tested dynamic balance in competitive bowlers, including people over 65. They found that years of bowling experience were associated with better control during the delivery stride, even after accounting for age.

That doesn’t mean lawn bowling has been proven to prevent falls.

It does suggest that practicing a movement that combines balance, coordination and controlled weight shifting may have value as we get older.

And you’re using your brain, too

A good bowl isn’t simply a matter of strength.

You have to judge distance, read the green, account for the bowl’s bias, choose a line, adjust for conditions and decide what you’re trying to accomplish.

Then you have to execute the shot.

It’s a physical activity, but it’s also a thinking game.

That combination is one reason sports and other “open-skill” activities—where you continually respond to changing circumstances—have attracted interest from researchers studying healthy aging.

The evidence isn’t strong enough to claim that lawn bowling prevents cognitive decline. But there’s something appealing about an activity that asks your body and brain to work together.

Then there’s something researchers can’t easily put into a fitness test

Other people.

A bowling club can provide something that’s surprisingly valuable as we age: a reason to get out of the house and spend time with other people.

You have teammates. Opponents. Regular playing days. Competition. Conversation.

Research on older adults participating in group bowling—even Wii Bowling, rather than lawn bowls—found increased social connectedness and decreased loneliness over an eight-week program. That study obviously doesn’t prove that lawn bowling has the same effect, but it illustrates the potential social value of combining activity with regular interaction.

And perhaps that’s part of the secret.

You’re not exercising because somebody told you that you should.

You’re playing.

But it isn’t completely risk-free

Lawn bowls is generally low-impact, but low-impact doesn’t mean no risk.

An injury review found that falls, trips and slips were important causes of injury among bowlers, with older players particularly vulnerable to the consequences of a fall.

So sensible footwear, good balance, awareness around bowls and steps, and maintaining strength are still important.

And lawn bowling shouldn’t replace dedicated strength or balance training for someone who needs it. The research itself makes that distinction.

The bigger lesson

Maybe the best exercise as we get older isn’t necessarily the exercise that burns the most calories.

Maybe it’s the activity we’re willing to keep doing.

Something that gets us moving.

Something that challenges our balance and coordination.

Something that makes us think.

Something competitive enough to keep us interested.

And something that puts us in a place where other people are waiting for us.

Lawn bowling happens to check a remarkable number of those boxes.

You may go to the green to bowl. But you’re also practicing how to move, think, compete and connect.

And that’s a pretty good way to spend an afternoon.