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10 Effective Ways To Warm-Up Before Playing Badminton

badminton warm up exercises

If you want to prepare yourself to get on the badminton court and play at your best, then the first thing you need to do is warm-up.

Warm-up is a must before practicing or playing any competitive tournaments.

It helps you obtain your goals and makes your session more effective.

It also helps in improving your flexibility, agility, and coordination.

A good warm-up prepares you mentally and physically.

Also, it helps stretch and heat your muscles and even prevents injuries during the game.

So, according to an expert, you need to warm up around 15-20 minutes before practicing and 30-40 minutes before playing a match.

Now let’s discuss some of the effective ways to warm up:


10 Effective Ways to Warm-up before Playing Badminton

After some research, I found an effective way of performing warm-ups.

These practical ways are introduced by David Boycott-Brown, a strength and conditioning coach at EIS (English Institute of Sport).

It will help you to understand the rules of warming up more clearly.

He divided the warm-up part into four phases.

Let me explain you with the help of a diagram:

ramp phase


Raise

It is the first step that helps you raise your body temperature and heart rate.

It also helps to heat your body and prevent muscle injuries.

This phase includes low-intensity exercises like:


Jogging and Running

jogging and running running

After putting on your full badminton attire, you must go jogging or running.

Or you can jog or run around the court.

But if you are a beginner, you can also go for brisk walking and later progress to jogging or running.

You must do jogging or running for approx 10 minutes in summers and can raise the time duration to approx 20 minutes in winters.

It is because your body takes more time to heat up in winter than summer.

Remember: You must perform jogging and running to heat your body and muscles, not tire them.

Merits of Jogging and Running

  • Reduces fat.
  • Burn extra calories.
  • Helps to maintain body weight.
  • Strengthen your bones and muscles.
  • Keeps your body in shape.
  • Also, it helps to improve cardiovascular fitness.

Activate

After warming up your body, you must activate your body muscles, which you will use while playing.

And to do so, you need to perform:


Walking Lunges

walking lunges

Walking lunges are one of the best options if you want to activate your lower body.

It also helps in improving your body balance and heart rate.

It is a strengthening exercise for your core muscles

This exercise is somewhat similar to traditional stationary lunges.

How to perform walking Lunges
  • Stand straight with your feet wide open.
  • Keep your torso upright, chin lifted, and core engaged.
  • Place your hands on your hips or waist.
  • Step with your right foot wide enough to lift your left heel.
  • Please take a deep breath, bend both your knees, and don; ‘t stop until your left knee is about to touch the ground.
  • Now exhale your breath and hold your right leg against the ground, straighten your right knee and lift the left foot from the ground.
  • And now, do the same with the help of your left leg.
  • You can take a break if you think you are losing your body balance.
Merits of walking lunges
  • Helps to lose weight.
  • Improves body balance and strength.
  • Strengthen your core muscles.
  • Improves flexibility.
  • Helps to prevent muscle damage.

Half Squats

half squats

Half-squat is one of the best muscle activation exercises.

This exercise is performed to strengthen your core and lower body muscles.

Half-squat is slightly similar to squats, but its range is smaller.

It also helps to improve your body balance and strength.

You can use this exercise in your daily routine rather than including it in your warm-up exercises.

How to perform half squats
  • Firstly bend your knees and hold your butt at a 45-degree angle.
  • But try not to sit completely.
  • Keep your arms straight in front of you.
  • Hold on to this stance for a few seconds.
  • Then raise your body back to the normal position.
  • Now repeat the same steps.
Merits of half squats
  • Improves the strength of your lower body.
  • Prepare yourself for big lifts.
  • Enhance your confidence.
  • Improves your jumps and performance.
  • Burns extra fat and calories.

Arm and Wrist Rotation

wrist and hand rotation

Rather than your lower body, your upper body also needs to be activated.

So arm and wrist rotation exercises can be a good start.

This exercise will help warm up your arm and shoulder muscles.

All you need to do is extend your arm and rotate it parallel to your body.

Also, this rotation can be forward and backward.

It also helps you to prevent injuries and enhance your game.

How to perform arm and wrist rotation
  • Stretch out your arms to the front.
  • Slowly point your fingers down and use your other hand to raise your fingers towards the body.
  • Keep doing it until you feel a stretch.
  • Repeat these steps.
Merits of arm and wrist rotation
  • Improves your wrist flexibility.
  • Strengthen your wrist and hand muscles.
  • Prevents injuries.
  • Reduces pressure while playing.
  • Helps you to change grips easily.

Mobilize

After raising your heart rate and body temperature to activate your muscles, you need to mobilize them.

So you have to perform some dynamic flexibility exercises.

But you must start with some slow moves and speed them up afterward.

For which you have to perform these exercises:


Zig-Zag

zig zag

If you do not find a ground, you can also perform this zig-zag drill on the court.

While performing this exercise, you need to keep the center of gravity low and move like you perform proper footwork on the court but in a zig-zag form.

This exercise will help you increase your strength, speed, and flexibility while playing badminton.

How to perform zig-zag drills
  • Slightly bend your knees ad jump forward diagonally to the second one.
  • Then use an upward swing of the arm for momentum.
  • Land softly at the second cone, bend your knees, and prepare for the next jump.
  • Then jump diagonally to the third cone.
  • Continue your jumps till you reach the last one.
  • Then at the end, turn around and return to the starting position.
Merits of zig-zag
  • Improves core and lower body muscles.
  • It Improves your jumps.
  • Strengthen your bones and muscles.
  • Prevent injuries.
  • Improves your speed, power, and strength.

Squats

squats

After performing half squats, you can also go for full squats.

It helps in increasing your lower body and core strength.

But remember that squats are performed correctly by keeping your knees in line with your toes and not going beyond them.

So let me inform you how these squats are performed ideally:

How to perform squats
  • Stand straight with your feet wide apart.
  • Tighten your stomach muscles.
  • Lower down and feel like you are sitting on a chair.
  • Stay in that position for a few seconds.
  • Then straighten your legs.
  • And repeat the same steps.
Merits of squats
  • Improves your core muscles.
  • Burn calories.
  • Prevents injuries.
  • Boost your strength and power.
  • Strengthen your bones and lower body.

Side Lunges

side lunges

If you want to improve your body balance, stability, and strength, then side lunges are one of the best options.

This exercise works for your inner and outer thighs.

And even helps to reduce the appearance of cellulite.

In addition, it trains your body to move side-by-side on the court.

Also, it helps to improve your normal forward to twisting movements.

How to perform side lunges
  • Take a comprehensive step out with your left leg to the side.
  • Point your boh toes in the same direction and keep your feet flat.
  • Now bend your knees and keep your hips back.
  • It feels like sitting on a chair with one side of the body.
  • Then release the position by pushing off your left foot to return to the starting position.
  • Then switch from your left leg to your right leg.
  • Repeat the same.
Merits of side lunges
  • Strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and inner thigh muscles.
  • Prevents muscle injuries.
  • Improves flexibility.
  • Improves body balance.
  • Provides excellent strength to your inner and outer thighs.

Butt Kick

butt jumps

Butt-kicks are usually performed to strengthen your knees and quad muscles.

So if you face problems with your knees and quads while playing near the net, it is one of the foremost exercises you must perform.

This exercise also helps you to increase your knee’s flexibility and endurance.

It must be performed in the correct order, which I have mentioned below:

How to perform butt kick
  • Stand still with your butts apart, and keep your arms aside.
  • Slowly bring your right heel to your buttocks by contacting your hamstring muscles.
  • Place the ball of your right foot back on the ground, and slowly bring your left heel to your buttocks.
  • Repeat this motion a few more times.
  • Perform this drill for 30 seconds.
  • And switch to the left leg.
  • Also, you can increase the duration of this drill according to your accordance.
Merits of a butt kick
  • Boost your stamina.
  • Strengthen your glutes and hamstring muscles.
  • Improves your flexibility.
  • Boost your speed.
  • Prevents injuries.

Potentiate

Here comes the last phase, Potentiate.

In this phase, you will practice the badminton moves you need to perform during the match.

This phase includes performing high-intensity and explosive moves, which include:


High Knee Jumps

high knee jumps

High-knee jumps are good exercises for warming up your body and muscles.

This exercise is performed with the help of jumps, where you try to bring your feet as high as possible.

And after landing, you have to bounce back and perform the jumps again.

So you need to perform this exercise for approx 20-30 seconds.

How to perform high knee jumps
  • Stand still with your shoulders and feet apart.
  • Keep your hands straight by your sides.
  • Look straight, open your chest and engage your core muscles.
  • Now bring your right knee towards your chest and keep your left hand in a pumping motion.
  • Then quickly lower down your right leg and left hand.
  • Then repeat the same movement with the help of your left leg and right hand.
Merits of high knee jumps
  • Strengthen your hamstrings, glutes, and core muscles.
  • Strengthen your calves.
  • Maintains heart rate.
  • Improves body balance and flexibility.
  • Burn extra calories.

Shadow Drills

shadow drills

Here we end up with the last warm-up exercises you must perform before practicing or entering a match.

These drills are performed with high intensity.

And here, you must be focused on enhancing your muscles so that you can perform some frequent moves after you start playing.

Shadow drills include:

Serving

Grab a shuttle and a racket.

Try to perform some accurate shots on the court.

You can go for low, high, backhand, and forehand serve.

It will help you to handle real situations very comfortably.

Clear Rally

In this particular exercise, you need a partner and stay back on the court so tha you can perform clear at each other.

Smash

While standing at the backcourt, try to hit the shuttle directly to the opponent’s court with high speed and power.

Drop

Here you need to practice some typical badminton shots while moving around the court.


Final Words

You must know why the warm-up is essential and how it is effective.

So if you want to play more effectively during a badminton match or enhance your skills, you must perform a warm-up according to the steps I have mentioned above.

And in case you have any queries or questions going on in your mind regarding this post, then feel free to ask us or pin up your questions in the comment section below.

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