It’s not the first exercise you’d think of for fitness or muscle tone. But playing table tennis, or ping pong, has a plethora of hidden health and fitness benefits – and the US actor Susan Sarandon is such a fan, she even co-founded a popular US chain of ping pong social clubs called ‘SPiN’.

Not only does table tennis tone arms, work up a sweat and improve overall fitness – it also boosts brain health, says Susan. Most importantly, it’s open to everyone. ‘Ping pong cuts across all body types and gender – everything, really – because little girls can beat big muscly guys,’ she says. ‘You don’t get hurt; it is not expensive; it is really good for your mind. It is one of the few sports that you can play until you die.’

New research published in the journal Nature backs this up: a team of researchers tracked a group of healthy adults aged 55-65, all beginners in the sport. Regular table tennis training for 12 weeks led to a significant improvement in physical fitness, improved reaction time, better hand-grip strength and reduced visceral fat. Not bad for a fun, low-cost hobby…

‘Table tennis offers moderate-intensity activity, which is good for your heart, along with lots of other benefits,’ says the British Heart Foundation. ‘Your arms, core and shoulders get a workout as you swipe for and direct the ball. In a fast-paced game, you’ll work your legs and ankles as you dash between the corners.’

Susan says she started playing ping pong because it was fun, but also because she wanted to encourage wider participation in the sport by making it more accessible. Over the years, she’s donated professional-grade ping pong tables to under-funded schools in New York City and regularly hosts high-profile, star-studded ping-pong tournaments and charity balls.

Inspired? Find a club near you by visiting tabletennisengland.co.uk.

A small study of university students in Spain found that better cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with better cognitive processing speed and a smaller volume of the cingulate cortex of the brain. However, brain volume differences did not explain the links between cardiorespiratory fitness and cognition. The paper was published in Physiology & Behavior.

Cardiovascular fitness is the ability of a person’s heart, lungs, and blood vessels to supply oxygen-rich blood to muscles during sustained physical activity. A person with good cardiovascular fitness can walk fast, run, cycle, swim, or do other continuous activities for longer periods without becoming exhausted quickly. It is often called aerobic fitness because it depends heavily on oxygen-based energy production, and it is an important component of overall physical fitness.

A common scientific measure of cardiorespiratory fitness is VO₂ max, which estimates the maximum amount of oxygen the body can use during intense exercise. Cardiorespiratory fitness can be improved through regular aerobic activities such as brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming, dancing, or rowing.

Better cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and early death. It can also improve everyday functioning, mood, sleep, and general energy levels. Low cardiorespiratory fitness means the body has more difficulty sustaining activity that requires a continuous oxygen supply.

Study author Neus Camins-Vila and her colleagues note that neuroimaging studies indicate that certain physical fitness components, primarily cardiorespiratory fitness and muscular strength, are associated with larger volumes in specific brain structures.

For example, among young adults, previous studies found that higher cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with larger volumes in several regions of the brain. The researchers conducted a study examining the associations between cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, flexibility, and balance in relation to the volumes of specific brain regions and the participants’ overall neuropsychological profiles. They also sought to determine if sex differences moderated any of these relationships.

Study participants were 94 undergraduate and graduate university students from Barcelona, Spain, and its surroundings, recruited through social media and posters. To be included, participants were required to be between 18 and 25 years of age, to be sufficiently proficient in either Spanish or Catalan to follow instructions, and to have self-reported a regular level of physical activity over the past six months. There was also a list of medical conditions that would exclude prospective participants from the study.

After joining the study, participants first completed an online questionnaire covering demographics and medical history. This was followed by three face-to-face sessions involving a cognitive assessment, an evaluation of physical fitness, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain.

The cognitive assessment lasted 60 to 90 minutes. During this time, participants took a series of neuropsychological tests covering attention and cognitive processing speed (i.e., attention-speed), executive functioning, memory, and visuospatial function. The physical fitness assessment focused on cardiorespiratory fitness, strength, flexibility, and balance.

Results showed that students with higher cardiorespiratory fitness tended to have better processing speed and a smaller volume in the cingulate cortex region of the brain. The researchers theorize that a smaller cingulate cortex in this age group may actually be a sign of advanced, healthy brain maturation rather than a negative outcome, as the brain naturally prunes connections to become more efficient during early adulthood.

When analyzing the data by sex, different patterns emerged. In men, flexibility (the ability of joints and muscles to move through their full range of motion without pain or excessive stiffness) was associated with higher processing speed. In contrast, higher flexibility was associated with lower processing speed in women. The researchers suggest that very high flexibility in women may be linked to joint hypermobility, a condition that can cause pain or fatigue, which could negatively impact cognitive test speeds.

In women, better visual memory was associated with higher strength, and better verbal memory was associated with better cardiorespiratory fitness. Furthermore, lower volume of the hippocampus region of the brain in women was associated with higher flexibility but worse balance.

“Different physical fitness components were associated with cognitive functions and brain volumes in young adults, and some associations—particularly those involving physical flexibility and attention/processing speed—varied by sex at birth. Brain volumes did not explain the observed fitness–cognition associations,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between cognitive abilities and physical fitness. However, it should be noted that the study authors carried out a large number of statistical tests, but only a few of them returned statistically significant results. They did this without applying any correction for multiple comparisons—procedures routinely used in research studies to mitigate the risk that statistical tests might return statistically significant results purely due to chance. This means that many of the reported findings might simply be products of random variations in the data, rather than real systematic associations between the observed characteristics.

The paper, “Associations between fitness components and brain health in young adults: A cognitive and brain volume MRI study exploring sex differences. The YoungFit study,” was authored by Neus Camins-Vila, Adrià Bermudo-Gallaguet, Samira Rostami, Rosalia Dacosta-Aguayo, Judit Escarré-Grifell, Blai Ferrer-Uris, Albert Busquets, Louis Bherer, and Maria Mataró.

Rewind a decade or so, and Jeremy Clarkson had a particular disdain for exercise, healthy eating and denying himself life’s pleasures. He never worked out, smoked 40 cigarettes a day and, in his own words, drank four pints of wine daily. Now, at 65, his entire outlook on health and longevity has shifted.

At the heart of Clarkson’s desire to change are his young grandchildren.

‘I’m not going to dwell on the joys of being a grandparent because what can be said about it has already been said. But I have decided that it is so wonderful that I want it to go on for as long as is humanly possible. Which means I must do everything in my power not to die,’ he wrote in his column forThe Times.

And the British TV personality has certainly had a couple of wake-up calls.

After being admitted to hospital with pneumonia in 2017, Clarkson then suffered what he described as ‘really bad coronary artery problems’ at the end of 2024. Documented in the latest series of Clarkson’s Farm, he experienced a ‘sudden deterioration’ in his health and needed a stent fitted to restore proper blood flow.

Why Clarkson Finally Started Taking His Health Seriously

Since then, he has taken up reformer Pilates, had a pickleball court installed at his Oxfordshire home and started going for walks when the weather is just right.

‘Eventually, I decided that organised, indoor exercise was not for me and decided instead to do walking. Not when it’s raining obviously. Or if it’s too cold, or hot. And not if I’m busy. But on a reasonably temperate Sunday morning, I’d get out there and pootle along,’ he wrote.

‘So far I’ve relied on luck to keep me alive. But I’m in sniper’s alley right now and I have to work at dodging the bullets. Two years ago, I saw old age as a wearisome tangle of tubes and knee-replacement surgery. Now though, thanks to my grandchildren, I’m actively looking forward to it.’

Clarkson’s comments highlight just how much his attitude to ageing has changed.

‘I’m buying time. It hurts and it’s expensive. But it’s better than wasting your money on a new watch.’

The Diet Changes Behind Clarkson’s 3-Stone Weight Loss

Diet has also become a key part of his health overhaul.

He now eats burgers wrapped in lettuce rather than buns and opts for alcohol-free versions of his Hawkstone beer. Underpinning much of that change has been a microdose of the GLP-1 medication Mounjaro, which Clarkson credits with helping him lose more than three stone in six months by suppressing his appetite – although he admits he doesn’t particularly enjoy the experience.

‘When you are on Muntjac [his name for Mounjaro] you can come down in the morning and idly help yourself to a small handful of sunflower seeds,’ Clarkson said. ‘And it’ll feel like you’ve just finished a massive Christmas lunch. You’re stuffed.

‘So you find yourself living a minibar existence. Tiny packets of milk, sachets with only three grains of sugar in them, vodka in thimbles. That’s not living, though. That’s existing.’

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

Ryan is a Senior Writer at Men’s Health UK with a passion for storytelling, health and fitness. Having graduated from Cardiff University in 2020, and later obtaining his NCTJ qualification, Ryan started his career as a Trainee News Writer for sports titles Golf Monthly, Cycling Weekly and Rugby World before progressing to Staff Writer and subsequently Senior Writer with football magazine FourFourTwo.

During his two-and-a-half years there he wrote news stories for the website and features for the magazine, while he also interviewed names such as Les Ferdinand, Ally McCoist, Jamie Redknapp and Antonio Rudiger, among many others. His standout memory, though, came when getting the opportunity to speak to then-Plymouth Argyle manager Steven Schumacher as the club won League One in 2023.

Having grown up a keen footballer and playing for his boyhood side until the age of 16, Ryan got the opportunity to represent Northern Ireland national futsal team eight times, scoring three goals against England, Scotland and Gibraltar. Now past his peak, Ryan prefers to mix weightlifting with running – he achieved a marathon PB of 3:31:49 at Manchester in April 2025, but credits the heat for failing to get below the coveted 3:30 mark…

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