How Many Calories
Does an Hour of
Squash Burn?
Squash is consistently ranked as one of the most demanding racket sports for cardio. Here is the real number, and why.
The short answer
A person of average weight typically burns between 600 and 1000 calories per hour playing squash, depending on intensity and body weight - putting it among the highest calorie-burning racket sports, ahead of tennis, padel, badminton and pickleball.
The exact number depends heavily on how competitively you are playing - a relaxed rally session burns meaningfully less than a hard-fought match against an evenly matched opponent.
Why squash burns so much
Three factors stack together. First, the court is small - roughly a third the size of a tennis court - which means constant sprinting and direction changes rather than sustained running. Second, rallies rarely stop; there is very little downtime between points compared to tennis or badminton. Third, squash involves a huge number of low lunges to retrieve the ball near the floor, which recruits large leg muscles repeatedly through a match.
The combination of high intensity and minimal rest is exactly the profile that produces a high calorie burn per hour, similar in principle to interval training.
Racket sports compared
Rough calorie burn per hour for a person of average weight, across a typical recreational session:
Ranges are general estimates based on typical activity intensity and vary by body weight, fitness level, and how competitively a session is played.
Track effort alongside your matches
Scorepion tracks your squash scoring automatically from your Apple Watch or Wear OS watch, so your session data - heart rate, active calories, and workout duration - sits alongside your match history rather than in a separate fitness app.
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