Tennis racquet
So, what are you thinking? Start playing tennis!Reuters

If you want to enjoy your beautiful stay on mother earth, researchers have found a list of sports, which can play an important role in helping you prolong your life. They are racquet sports, which includes badminton, tennis and squash. Besides these, swimming, aerobics and cycling also have some good benefit.

So, from now on, you know which sport to play, pick up a racquet and idolise stars like Saina Nehwal and Roger Federer to prolong your life. If you are thinking of going out to play in the next hour or so, you should involve yourself in a racquet sport.

The study was published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine by a huge group of researchers, who conducted surveys for more than a decade.

The respondent, who were 30 years and older, in the questionnaire, were asked about their physical activities, the games they played of late, their frequency, and exercises, the time they spent on it.

The study primarily looked at the various kinds of sports and their impact on the health of the respondents. After nine years, the respondents' survival was also surveyed and it emerged some of them had already died.

Also, after taking into account various factors, the researchers also compared death risk among those respondents, who played a particular sport, and not the other.

After taking into account various factors, the researchers also compared death risk among those respondents, who played a particular sport, and those who were not involved in the same sport.

After collating the various nitty-gritty required details, the researchers came to the conclusion that people, who were involved in playing tennis or racquet sports reduce the odds of death by 47 per cent while for others such as swimming was 28 percent and aerobic exercise (27 percent). The study also focussed on the risks of death from heart diseases, which also suggested racquet sports to be the best at 56 percent, followed by swimming (41 percent).

Sports like swimming and racquet sports are not hugely popular when compared to football, which is regarded as the most popular sport in the world. But that does not mean one should stop playing football, all sports have their own advantage.

Ulf Ekelund, professor in physical activity and health at the Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, said that the study proves playing sports is helpful for everyone, at all age levels.

"There is so much evidence that physical activity, including sports participation and all kinds of exercises, are associated with a reduced risk of both non-communicable diseases and the risk of death The take home message is that if [you] do sport, [you] should continue doing sport. If [you] don't like to do sport [you] should try to find some other kind of exercise," The Guardian quoted Ekelund as saying.