Four moves to warm up before pickleball: forearm activation with a weighted bottle for 90 seconds per side, Spider-Man stretch, wide-stance side squat with hip hinge, and the karaoke drill for hip rotation. Each targets the specific demands of the sport and takes just minutes.
Here's 4 exercises I do to warm up before pickleball. I'm doing number 1 right now. So the first thing you want to do is warm up your forearms. A lot of us are going from the desk and the computer straight to the pickleball court. You want to warm up your forearm. I usually use a weight for this, but I'll use the weighted water bottle because it's a little bit heavier than a racket. You just want to go back and forth, 90 seconds per side. I know you may only use a racket in one hand. That's completely fine, but You want to warm up both forearms just in case. Next, we're going to do a Spider-Man stretch. You're just going to go back and forth within your range of motion. If you want to change it and rotate up and get more of that upper back thoracic rotation, you can turn it into the world's greatest stretch. The next is side squats. I want you to start with a wide stance, feet outside shoulder width, and you're going to go into a hip hinge. And push your knees out. Try not to let your feet come inside your hips. You want to stay outside to prevent crossing. And lastly, we're going to do karaoke. You're going to shift your hips over, back, over, back. Nice and easy. You just want to create internal rotation of the knee because pickleball is a wild sport. You're going to internally rotate, externally rotate those knees all over the place. There you have it.
Touch Your Toes in 6 Minutes | Release Muscular Guarding for Better Flexibility
