How to warm up in badminton to avoid injuries

It’s surprising how many players I have seen on court without proper warm-up, not only recreational players but sometime academy players also make this mistake.

But not doing proper warm-up before playing badminton can have a negative impact on their body.

This article will cover a proper process which you need to follow everyday before playing to avoid any injuries and get that blood flow up so that you can move more swiftly on Court.

Why is it important to warm up

The purpose of a warm-up is to

• prevent injury by increasing the body’s core and muscle temperature.
• Warm muscles increase the rate of energy production which improve reflexes and lowers the time it takes to contract a muscle.
• A good warm-up should also increase the range of motion and mentally prepare you for exercise.

Some misconception

One common mistake which I have seen most player doing is not understanding the difference between static and dynamic exercise.

Difference between static and non-static (Warm-up) exercise.

Static exercise

In this type of exercise, you hold a position for a particular time like a ground touch, split, etc.

These should be done when your body is properly warmed up, think of your muscle as a rubber band, stretching it when it is not lose can cause you injury.

So static exercise should always be performed when you are done with running and not be the first thing

Non-static exercise

These are different from the earlier ones because, here you are constantly moving your body meaning your main goal here is to warm up all of your muscles and to make them lose as much as possible before your practice session to avoid injuries.

Using proper equipment is also necessary to avoid injuries read how to choose a racket

Step by step exercise

• Running
• Neck rotation
• Shoulder rotation
• Wrist movement
• Lower Back
• Knees exercise
• Ankle rotation
• Skipping
• Footwork and Wall practice (If you have time)

The first thing you need to do after getting in a proper attire is doing enough running (jogging) for at least 20 minutes(in winter) and for 10 minutes(In Summer) to get that blood flow up and running.

Try to maintain a consistent speed instead of going all out, your goal is to warm up your muscle not to tire them, so run at a normal pace.

After running, perform exercise for each body parts as shown below

Neck

While playing badminton there is a lot of neck movement involved like when you are hitting show from the back of the court.

if you have not properly warmed up neck muscles chances are high of getting sprain, do these exercise before your practice session

Side neck stretch

Procedure

1. Stand straight and place your left palm on right ear
2. Now gently push your neck towards left shoulder as shown in picture
3. Do the same with other side

Front and back neck stretch

Procedure

1. Use your hand to gently push the neck forward and backward
2. 10 times for each position

After that you can also do clockwise and anticlockwise rotation with your neck (10 round each)

Quads, hamstring and calf

These muscle groups receive most attention from a badminton player during strengthening exercises

Knowing warmup routine for these are also equally important

Deep lunges

Procedure

• Objective is to stretch the lunging leg parallel to shoulder as shown in the picture
• Your back , shoulder muscles are also getting stretched

Standing lunges

Procedure

• Objective is to bring knees as close to your chest while not losing balance and keeping support leg straight

Hamstring, calf and quad are getting workout in this exercise

Support lunges

Procedure

1. Objective is to stretch lunging leg parallel to opposite shoulder
2. In this exercise more focus is on hamstring and inner leg muscles

Shoulder

The number of players who have asked me about the tips on how to cure the shoulder pain is unbelievable, but you can avoid this by some exercise

Shoulder side and back exercise

Procedure for side stretch

1. Make plus sign with both arms , here horizontal arm is being stretched from the inward force applied through vertical arm
2. keep the horizontal arm as close to chest as possible while keeping it straight

Procedure for back shoulder

1. Raise both arms
2. Touch left shoulder from back side by right hands (make sure to move forearm only and not changing shoulder positions
3. Now touch right elbow with left hand while maintaining previous position
4. Apply pressure on right elbow and try to pull it to left side (as shown in picture)

Shoulder rotation

Full arm rotation clockwise and anticlockwise (10 rep with each arm) ,After that use both of your arms and perform the same motion

Wrist

I believe this is one of the most ignored body part when it comes to warming up

To bring power in your shots wrist strength is essential, so follow this exercise to warmup your wrist.

hold both arms in front and parallel to each other and rotate it clockwise and anticlockwise 10 times
This exercise is enough for you to warm up these muscles

Lower back

Back muscles are used when you are shifting your body weight from lung position to base position, it is necessary to properly warm up this muscle to move more fluently on Court.

Advance windmill

Procedure

1. stand with both feet wide (Two inch wider than shoulder)
2. While keeping back and knees straight try to touch toes with alternate hand
3. More advance version would be to touch head to knee as shown in picture

Other exercises

• Rotate your hip and make a circle clockwise and anticlockwise (10 rep each)

Knees

Chances of getting knee injury in badminton are very high because you are constantly doing lunges jumps and other source of any movement continuously every single day, so always warm up muscle around knees.

Here don’t confuse it with bones i am talking about the muscle which surrounds it,

Knee bend (advance)

Procedure

1. Get in a stretched lung position
2. Place both hand on ground as shown in picture
3. Slowly try to touch knee of lunging leg on ground making lower leg horizontal

Standing knee rotation

Stand with both of your feet together slightly band on your knees and make circle clockwise and anticlockwise ( 10 rep each )

Quad and knee exercise

Procedure

1. Using your hand try to touch your feet onto the hip as shown in picture

Pro tip:- Always drink water or any other liquid while sitting or crouching position and not while standing, Reason?

When you drink water standing up, the water which goes in passes through the system with a straight gush, not really reaching the organs where it is supposed to do the job. Hence, the impurities which are supposed to go out get deposited in the kidneys and the bladder.

This, in turn, can also put bones and joints at risk as the water gushes down the body. You can also experience joint pain, bone degeneration, and weakness. Thus, the speed of chugging water down and how you drink it has an important role to play.

Ankle

With the tip of your toe firmly attached to the court( one at a time) make circles clockwise and anticlockwise with your heel ( 10 rep).

Skipping

The reason, why I would suggest you to skips before playing, is because in badminton most of the movement is on the toes so it is beneficial to warm up these muscles before start playing.

If you know how to skip I will suggest you to at least 200-300 skips but if you are a beginner go with jumping jacks

Badminton specific Warmup exercise

Shadow

In this drill you are doing footwork by yourself without shuttle

Shadow/Wall practice

The whole premise in this exercise is to hit shuttle with racket onto the wall continuously as long as you can.

Benefits

• Improve hand eye coordination
• Shots quality also improves
• Wrist gets strengthen
• Reaction time decreases

Thank you for reading