I find skipping rope is better. It's great for your calves, great for cardio, good for the core, and also helps re-enforce being on your front of your feet and getting into the habit of prepping for movements. Alternate your feet front and back, twist as you jump, alternate off one foot at a time, etc.
General fitness and endurance, certainly, but not as far as any badminton-specific movement patterns go.
Thank you everyone for your reply. I am gonna take it as cycling would be useful for staying basically bit and improving stamina... but nothing specific to badminton. So, the question arises? what specific exercises can be done to improve the game?
Shadow badminton. Shadow is an infuriating combination of boring and mentally taxing (if done right). But it's probably the best badminton-specific exercise you can do. God I hate shadow. It makes my brain hurt too much.
For starters, do rope skipping, it trains your legs to be strong and reminds you to be always on your balls of feet.
I'm doing cycling (20/30 minutes at 80% max velocity) and skipping 2x 750 times for 2 months, 3 times a week. I think it's starting to make difference.. I'm a 39 years old player
Uphill cycling seems to help a lot. I always enjoy cycling uphill next to where I live. (It's like a 20minute uphill route) It helps me jump higher, move faster. Oh and if you have gears on your bike, don't really make use of them. The whole point of gearing is to cycle easier. This won't help you exercise.
this in from my own experiences, so i maybe wrong about this but cycling help to improve my muscles at the inner thigh region (cant remember whats called in english). And therefore helps me a lot on footwork. I can move quicker and step further than normal and can't feel as much stress as normal (this is very easy to tell). So when i have to do an extreme reach to lift. (almost as a split, but i cant do a spit , im too stiff). But i guess you guys know what i mean.