To enhance the performance, keep your body fit to play and avoid injuries, warm-up ad cool down exercises are imperative for start-up of any game / sport.
It doesn’t matter how old player you are; you will always need to devote some time to exercise. It will make your body physically active and engage your nervous system of the body in the play.
In a bid to warm up the body before play, we need some tips and tricks proposed by the professionals and physicians.
Here, we will direct you completely about pickleball warm up exercises and how to warm up your body before going to play pickleball. It will also guide you about how these exercises will help you to perform well and avoid injuries.
Warm up And Cool Down Exercises
From these exercises, find the one that works best for you and your body to warm up and cool down before and after the game.
Following are brief introduction of exercises to give you comfort, improve your stamina and bring enhancement in your game:
Pickleball Warm Up Exercises
1. Arm curves/swings
As you know, for picking the paddle and playing the game your arms need to be strong, so it’s mandatory to prepare them for the play.
There are three kinds mentioned below:
Forward swings: Curve your arm gently on the backward and forward sides. Do it reversely, like having one swing back and the other swing forward.
Circular Swings: Curving your arm clockwise and anticlockwise alternatively. In this, you have to swing your arm in a circular motion.
Horizontal swings: A horizontal curve is like hugging someone and then taking your arm back. It is a favorable backhand and forehands movement.
2. Jumping
Without using a rope; jumping, running, or lunging about 20 times. It is just like you are acting or copying the skipping motion without the use of a skipping rope.
3. Light Jogging
Jogging will help in blood flow and increase the heart rate. In return, it will help to tell your body to get ready for action. Perform it for 5 minutes in any place or space.
4. Hip curves
Like arm curves, hip swings are also in three forms, forward swings, side swings, and rotational swings.
Hip curves or swings help you to prepare your muscles and joints by making them effective.
Forward swings: In this curve your one leg backward and forward by standing on the other leg.
Side swing: Side to side curving of your leg.
Rotational swing: Rotate the tibia bone (a long bone of the leg, called shine bone) by lifting one knee to hip height.
5. Lunging
Lunging in multi-direction is helpful to make your body ready. It is also known as the two-point lunge.
In lunging, by standing with joined feet step forward and backward slowly. Secondly, perform a side lunge by stepping at the side and getting back to the middle. Repeat the process 5 times for each leg.
Fun Cool Down Exercises
Ending up your game! It’s time to cool down your body to have fatigue less day ahead. It can be calamitous to walk away from the court at once.
Do you know how to cool down your body? If not, don’t worry; we will help you out.
Often, everyone ignores that part of game, but those who incorporate a calm-down routine know the difference.
It aids in the healing process of tissues, muscles, and joints. I advise to don’t skip this step in your play.
1. Gentle Walk across the Length of the Court
Walk gently across the court to bring the heart rate to be expected. It helps lower the intensity of cardio and helps bring the heart rate to resting.
2. Quad Stretches
In this, you must bring your foot up from the back side and hold the toe of your feet/shoe by hand. Repeat and hold for 10-15 seconds.
3. Toe Touch
It’s a simple way of cooling down; you must bend down from the waist and touch your toe with your hands.
4. Overhead Stretches
A good way of stretching your body with deep inhaling and exhaling helps in relaxing your body.
In overhead stretches, you must inhale deeply during arm stretches to upward at least above the head. Look up, stretch your body, and then exhale to normalize everything.
Strengthening Exercises to play well
Every physical game need fitness and strength. By enhancing strength, you can prevent injuries during the game. Most of the players prefer going to the gym, while others do not.
The ones who are not used to gym exercises should try these simple exercises:
1. Bodyweight squats
This exercise is for strengthening the lower body that needs no instrument or equipment to carry out.
We can easily perform this exercise at home. It will help to gain hip mobility and muscles strength. Fat burning is the additional benefit of this exercise.
2. Planks and Side Planks Practices
For maintaining stability and strengthen your core muscles, you must try plank exercise. It boosts up your system to burn calories and stabilize balance.
If we talk about side plank, it is working for obliques which are two layers of muscles that are present at the core sides. It does protect your spine and bend your trunk.
These practices also help to decrease the risk of back injury and improve the balance of players.
3. Knee push-ups
Like bodyweight exercise, this also needs minimum or no equipment. An exercise mat is used for knee push-ups, but you can do it with any available carpet piece. The knee push-ups target the middle back, triceps and chest.
Balancing Exercises for your Body to enable fitness
Fitness and balance are basic requirements for any play to achieve the goals. Visit professionals to guide you to the best exercise that suits you.
We are mentioning some balancing exercises that are:
1. Warrior
To strengthen the backside of the player’s body, these exercises are recommended. It includes calves, hamstrings, back and ankle.
2. Chair pose
Chair poses gives strength to lower and upper body muscles. When we hold a chair pose for a while, we will feel some stretches around the upper back and shoulder. On doing it again and again, or on regular basis, the gluteus, ankles and quadriceps get strong.
3. Tree poses
These poses are simply termed as standing postures of yoga. It helps to stretch the groin muscles and help to make the legs and core strength.
How the warm up exercise will help you in pickleball?
Warming your body before going to pickleball play or any other aerobic activity will help you to achieve your target.
The warm-up exercises increase the blood flow in the human body and hasten your cardiovascular system.
It happens when your body temperature is raised. These practices will also prepare your muscles and joints of the body and dwindles the risk of injuries.
Final Thoughts On Warm Up And Cool Down Exercises
For lessening the risks of injuries and preparing your body and nervous system for any aerobic activity, the exercise heating your body is indispensable. It will make your body strong and ready for the game by raising body temperature.
Select the activity that suits your body and comforts you. You will notice the change in your play.
To sum up the discussion, it can be said that warm-up exercises are mandatory as a start-up for your game to achieve the goals.
I am Michael Wanner, an experienced and educated expert in the field of pickleball. I hold a degree in Sports Science from Cleveland State University, Ohio, USA. My expertise lies in the technical aspects of pickleball and how to play it effectively. I have spent many years playing and coaching pickleball and have a wealth of knowledge to share with my readers. I am a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their pickleball skills and strategies.
