Basic Conditioning Exercises - Improve Your Fitness

Badminton and pickleball are both sports that require you to be quick on your feet, move in explosive spurts, while also maintaining your stamina over a long session. In this post, we will share with you all a few basic conditioning exercises that will help improve your fitness level and keep you moving on the court quicker, for longer.

Running

Running is the most fundamental of all exercises and can be applied to almost every sport, or just general fitness. For most of us, we’ve ran or jogged at some point in our lives, so we already know what to expect. Here, we can share a few variations of runs that you can do to improve your game on the court.

1. General Long Distance Run - a long distance run is very helpful for you to play longer matches without getting tired. We recommend anywhere from 20 minutes to 40 minutes at a light conversational pace to get your blood pumping and your heart racing. Getting used to this speed over long periods of time will help you get used to playing longer matches.
2. Short Full Speed Sprints - rallies can be extremely short in both badminton and pickleball and will require short bursts of speed. Full speed sprints can help you improve your explosiveness and maximum speed. For this, I would pick a short distance, sprint at full speed, give yourself a short 1 minute rest before repeating. Do this until you feel exhausted!
3. Interval Running - in interval running, you are simulating a tough rally with the break in between the rally. Interval running means you are running at a fast pace for a period of time before slowing down to a jog, then repeating. This is the most crucial type of running for any athlete!

Jumprope

Jumprope is another crucial conditioning exercise, particularly for badminton players. This helps you work on every aspect that you need in badminton — endurance, forearm strength, jumping power, and all your lower body muscles.

This is best done in timed sets based on your own fitness level. I would recommend at least 10 sets of 1 minute with no mistakes, but you will need to work your way up to a level that you are comfortable with first. If you feel single skips are too easy, try and take this to the next level with double skips, where the rope will go under your feet 2 times for a single jump.

Agility Work

Having quick footwork for the smaller movements of the sport is also extremely important. These small movements can make or break many rallies as you just might be able to reach the shot, or you might be an inch too far.

Agility work involves a lot of different movements that help you stay on your toes and move quickly. Check out the attached video above for some different examples of agility exercises that you can do!

Make Conditioning Fun!

Most athletes in any discipline despise doing conditioning. It’s tiring, it’s not as fun, and it always leaves you sore! However, it is extremely important to help you gain an edge over other players. Try and paint a picture in your mind that conditioning can be fun to help you get through the session and even schedule more sessions during your week. Give a few of these conditioning exercises a try and let us know if you feel an improvement in your game!