Pickleball Warm-Up Exercises Are Important!

As with other active adult communities, pickleball is a popular activity here at Village at Deaton Creek. Beforehand, most of us players prepare by “dinking”. This involves volleying the ball just over the net into the “kitchen.”

And that’s pretty much the warm-up.

Of course, many people in our club are new to the sport and aren’t aware of the proper warm-up activities to do before jumping right into a competitive game.

A proper warm-up will increase blood circulation throughout the body providing oxygen to your muscles. This will help reduce injury and aches and pains after the game. Cold muscles aren’t very flexible, making them more susceptible to tears.

The Longstreet Clinic,  who provided a generous contribution towards the recent construction of our new pickleball courts, sent over Elizabeth Hawkins, a physical therapist, to provide proper warm-up instructions.

Elizabeth told us that a good way to start a warm-up is to just walk for about 5 minutes. Simple enough. Next, Elizabeth handed out a couple of sheets full of stretching exercises.

Elizabeth led the group in some stretching exercises focusing on the limbs: the arms and legs. Shockingly, none of these hurt and actually felt good. It seemed to give the teams a mental boost, as well as a physical one.

Now, if you ever decide to take up pickleball, make sure you take the time to do a proper warm-up. You might just save yourself some injuries.

*Special thanks to The Longstreet Clinic and Elizabeth Hawkins!

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