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Want to get fit? These are the best team sports

Australian Rules has plenty of fitness benefits, according to new data.

Australian Rules has plenty of fitness benefits, according to new data. Photo: Getty

More time-poor Australians are turning to team sport in an effort to combine exercising and socialising.

Killing two birds with one stone and taking up a team sport is becoming more attractive as each year goes by, according to William Strange, founder and CEO of Sport Performance Tracking.

“As we become increasingly busy, many office workers are supplementing gym sessions with team sports,” he told The New Daily.

“The drawcard is you can catch up with friends and get fit at the same time.”

So which team sport is the best for you?

SPT – which provides sport-tracking data to more than 800 clubs globally – has crunched the numbers to find out.

It compared fitness results, including calories burned, distance travelled and average top speed achieved by male and female players in amateur leagues across Australian Rules, soccer, hockey, rugby league and many others.

And the results were particularly positive for hockey and Australian Rules, with those who play either sport reaping the fitness benefits.

For women, hockey (594 calories burned in a 70-minute match) edged soccer, while men who play Aussie Rules at an amateur level burn a whopping 920 calories per match.

Tammy Morphet, who plays hockey in Geelong, said the team environment motivates her to keep working on her fitness goals.

“It [that environment] motivates me to go to training, even when it’s cold or pouring rain,” she told The New Daily.

“Hockey is taxing on your body, especially because you need both stamina and speed in your legs as well as strength through your upper body and core.”

You don’t have to be Patrick Dangerfield or Anna Flanagan to play team sport and enjoy the physical benefits, said Aaron Williams, who plays Aussie Rules for Hoppers Crossing in the Western Region Football League.

“I’ve been playing football since I was nine,” he told The New Daily.

“I’ve made life-long friends and the fitness has helped with my job in scaffolding.

“I’m glad to know I’m in the right sport for getting fit as a bloke who has never been naturally athletic.”

See the graphics below for the best team sports for getting fit.

Women

Men

*Calories burned is an estimation based on the average weight for Australian men and women

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