I recorded my squash sessions using an apple watch and its fitness tracking functionalities for 2-3 months. In this article we will see how many calories I burned during my sessions and determine how many calories per hour one can burn by playing squash.
Active Calories burned while playing squash
Below are a bunch of screenshots of my workout session summaries recorded with the apple watch. The monthly view shows the number of active calories burned in each session along with a summary of total active calories burned during the month and time played.
If I tap on a session, I can view more details like active calories, total calories, time played, and heart rate statistics. For the purposes of this article, we only care about the active calories and not those we burn sitting around and cooling off between games. We also care about the time duration of the sessions. Scroll past all the images to continue reading.
Calories per hour burned playing squash
The screenshots show huge variations in the number of calories I burned during each squash session typically ranging from 300 to 800 calories. In some extreme cases, the calorie count crosses 1000. Upon closer look at individual sessions, we can see that the number of calories burned vary with the time duration of the session. The other influential factor is the average heart rate, which indicates how intense that particular session was.
The truth is, I dont have a super intense squash session everyday as I play a large variety of players at the club; from juniors to junior pros to masters. Some games are more competitive than others, and I rarely cross the 2 hour mark. The average squash session lasts about 1 hour and 20 mins.
If I divide my total calories for the month by the number of minutes I played, I get a calorie count per minute. Multiply that by 60 and I get the calories burned per hour playing squash. For the month of November I burned 9460 Calories in 1422 minutes. This translates to approximately 400 Calories per hour.
If I do the same for the month of October, I get 13396/1730 = 7.74 calories per minute and therefore 464 calories per hour.
That one squash session in December despite being over two hours burned a total of 1231 calories at a rate of 505 calories per hour.
From this 2+ month dataset comprising a total of 41 squash sessions, I can conclude that I burn between 400-500 calories per hour playing squash. This number might change for you based on the following factors.
Other Factors Influencing Caloric Expenditure in Squash:
- Weight: Heavier individuals tend to burn more calories due to the increased effort required to move their bodies. Im a lightweight at about 60 kgs. I dont have many calories in my body to burn in the first place. If you are bigger and heavier than me you will likely exert more energy than I do if all other factors stay constant.
- Intensity: High-intensity rallies and continuous movement significantly elevate the calorie burn. If every squash session was extra competitive (only pros realistically get that luxury), the calories burned per hour would definitely go up by a few hundred points.
- Duration: Longer matches or extended play sessions naturally result in more calories burned. The calories burned per hour would stay the same though.
- Skill Level: Beginners might not burn as many calories initially compared to experienced players who engage in more vigorous and skillful rallies.
- Playing vs Training: if you are training or doing hard repetitive drills, you are likely to burn more calories in a shorter amount of time as compared to when playing a match. The point of productive training is maxing yourself out and performing under high intensity. A controlled and intense one hour training session may burn 50% more calories per hour than a one hour match.
Watch how to warm up a squash ball.
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