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Why Warm-Up Exercises Are Important in Pickleball?
As we mentioned earlier, warming up might be an extra or unimportant thing to do before playing pickleball. But you will hundred percent thank yourself after the match if you have done the warm-up drills.
Let’s get help from science to understand the importance of warm-up exercises for pickleball or any sports in general. Many studies have found that it is vital to try to warm-up drills before playing extreme sports.
Even though pickleball is not an extreme form of sport, it is still a form of sport that requires some running and strength to hit the ball.
Let’s understand the importance of a complete scenario. Assume you are about to do a pickleball exercise session with your friends. In this situation, your heart rate is low and muscles are stiff due to the resting situation.
If you start to play the match without any warm-up, your heart will have to suddenly increase the beats. This sudden increase in beats is not good for your heart and other organs of the body.
Moreover, the sudden usage of the muscles will cause them to fatigue. This fatigue might give you sore and painful muscles after the match, which is the last thing we want.
However, if you have done proper warm-up exercises for pickleball, your heartbeat will increase slowly and healthily. Moreover, your muscles will also not have to face the sudden strain.
Another important reason for doing pickleball warm-up exercises is that it helps you to prevent injuries. As the muscles are already stretched and don’t feel a sudden strain, there are fewer chances of injury in pickleball.
Here is a list of some other reasons why you should do pickleball warm-up exercises;
- Helps in the rapid recovery of the muscles
- Bring the blood and oxygen to the muscles
- Increases the metabolism of the body, which will help in losing calories
- Once you’re relaxed and pumped up, your performance will be improved.
Dynamic Warm-up Drills for Pickleball
Before explaining the best pickleball warm-up drills, let us give you a basic difference between static and dynamic drills so that you don’t get confused.
Static exercises are done after the match. This involves exercises such as holding a certain position or stretching your body in different motions to bring back your heartbeat to normal.
Let’s have a look at 5 best dynamic warm-up drills for pickleball;
Jogging
Jogging is a form of dynamic exercise. Although it’s a very basic exercise, it is one of the best pickleball warm-up drills.
If you are planning to increase your heart rate fastly, but have a very short period, then jogging is a good option for you.
There are two sorts of jogging that you can do before a match to kick-start your muscles;
- Normal Jogging – This is the basic sort of jogging. Unfortunately, you need a lot of space to do this exercise, but if you plan on going to the outdoor door, there are chances to find a place to do normal jogging.
- Spot Jogging – Spot Jogging is the best option for those who use indoor pickleball courts for match or practice sessions. To do this exercise, you have to stand on a spot and move your legs and pretend you are jogging. It is similar to jogging on a treadmill, except there is no treadmill in spot jogging.
Skipping
Another warm-up exercise that might be hard for some people is skipping. Skipping can be tiring and may require a lot of energy, but it is important to strengthen the muscles of the core, legs, as well as arms.
While playing the game, this warm-up exercise will help you to run fastly and to return the ball with great power to generate spins.
Lunges
Lunges is another form of dynamic exercise that targets multiple muscle groups in the lower body, including the glutes, quads, hamstrings, and calves.
Here’s a quick step-by-step method to do the proper lunges;
- Stand with your feet in a way that they hip apart and step forward with your right leg.
- Bend both knees until your right thigh is parallel to the ground and your left knee is above the floor.
- Push your right foot and return to the starting position. Repeat with the left leg.
Lunges can be done with or without weights and can be modified to other forms of lunges such as the side or walking lunges.
Arm Circles
It is important to conduct warm-up exercises for your arm as they are going to be used throughout the game. Some shots in pickleball require you to have stretchy or flexible arms which is only achievable if you conduct a proper warm-up.
You can do arm circles to do this. You can move your arms forwards, backward, horizontally, or even in a circular motion to improve flexibility.
Core Twists
To generate proper topspin and effective shots, your core has to be strong and engaged. Therefore, do the core Twists before a pickleball game to accurately hit those shots!
Final Verdict
Now the next time you’re about to play a practice match or the actual game, do not forget to warm up your muscles. Otherwise, you might get sore muscles and will find it difficult to play for days.
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