[Badminton Physio] Injury Prevention in racket sports: Part 1/4 - Warm-Up

Our badminton physio Jackie Lu shares part 1 of a 4 part blog series on badminton injury prevention and skills.

Part 1 focuses on how to warm up properly before playing badminton. This information also applies to all other racket sports such as tennis and squash.

We all know warming up is important before playing racket sport, but do you know how to warm up or what are the most effective exercises for warm up?

Warm-up is important because it:

- improves blood flow and efficiency

- leads to faster muscle contraction/ reaction time for muscle activation

- prevents injuries

Heart rate

While you are warming up it's important for you to reach 50-60% of your maximum heart rate (HR). Here's how to calculate your maximum HR:

220 - your age = maximum HR

Once you found your max HR then all you need to do is multiply that number by 0.5 and 0.6 to find your heart rate of 50-60%. An example is found below

So for a 20 year old, your warm-up should be intense enough so that your heart beats around 100-120 beats per minute.

Which warm-up exercises?

Jackie demos a few excellent warm-up exercises designed specifically for badminton and other racket sport players. Aim to do three sets of 6-8 for each exercises, and on each side.

• Hand walks

• Tuck jumps

• Jumping Lunges

• World’s greatest stretch

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/23ac3b_72c200a191114cd8afa78be2b05134c1/480p/mp4/file.mp4

Watch out for Part 2 of the badminton blog series, where we will take you through knee and ankle injuries. If you have any questions about playing badminton, give our practice a call on 3061 7128 or email contact@breathephysio.com and ask for our physio Jackie!

Follow him on Instagram: @badminton_physio