Proper warm-up ... what’s that and why would I want to sweat more? Warm-up. We all know we need to do it, so why don’t we? And more importantly – why don’t we do it correctly? 

The simple answers are: many of us look for shortcuts and are sometimes willing to take unnecessary risks, thinking “I’ll just hit around and get warmed up to play” or “Oh, I’ll be ok – it won’t matter this time” (Which is exactly what I thought 10 minutes before I tore cartilage in my left knee “just hitting around”). I believe that we all do, in fact, know better, but sadly enough most of us are guilty of not properly warming up before starting a game or practice. And yes, it is just as important to warm-up before practice as it is before the finals of the U.S. Open! 

Ok, so what exactly is a “proper warm-up”? Well, it does not mean to take a ball into the court and try your hardest to break it. In fact, a proper warm-up should start long before you ever enter the court. Racquetball involves the whole body and thus you need to warm-up the whole body — not just your hitting arm! A proper warm-up should include moderately intense exercise for 8-10 minutes, followed by light stretching and finally hitting/chasing the ball around the court. The 8-10 minutes of exercise can be on a stationary bike, treadmill, or any exercise equipment; however, you can achieve the same goal by jumping rope, running in place or chasing your kids around the facility (haha). 

The easiest way to know if you have exercised enough is that you really should “break a sweat” before you stop. The goal is simple: you need to make the muscles work to produce heat as well as increase heart rate and circulation. The body circulates the blood to move the heat produced by the active muscles to the skin and thus causes you to sweat. You should not try to warm-up in a sauna or steam bath; this simply increases your body temperature and, although it does make you sweat, it does not increase the temperature of your muscles nor get them ready for play. Exercising in a sauna or steam bath is not advised and is actually very dangerous as it can lead to a variety of heat injuries such as heat exhaustion or heat stroke.

Now that you know why you should do what you already knew you should do – please, please, please – practice it! If you do, maybe — just maybe — we can send one less person to the orthopaedic surgeon!