In the final part of our special series at the start of 2026, Dr Coach Kelli looks at what you need to know to ensure you’re giving yourself the best chance to stay fit for pickleball.
We asked her: What are your tips on how to best warm up for pickleball?
Great question. My biggest warm-up rule is simple: use the muscles and movements you’re about to use in the game.
What drives me nuts is when people show up, dink at the kitchen line for three minutes, say “okay let’s play,” and then immediately serve, sprint forward, stop hard, and change direction—without having run, sprinted, or stopped even once in their warm-up. That’s a mismatch, and that’s where injuries live.
When I get to the court 5–10 minutes early, you’ll see me warming up with intention: jumping jacks, short sprints up and down the line, quick starts and stops, lateral shuffles, hopping, reaching overhead, and touching my toes. I’ll backpedal too—but only because I’ve trained it. I don’t recommend that unless someone knows how to do it safely.
All of this does two things: it tells my brain and muscles what they’re about to be asked to do—basically putting the train on the tracks.
It increases my heart rate, which sends blood to the tissues I’m about to use. Blood means nutrition, hydration, and tissues that are far less likely to get injured.
Yes, pickleball is less demanding than tennis or badminton—but it’s still way more demanding than sitting around. If more players took five to ten minutes to warm up with the movements they’re going to do anyway, we’d see a whole lot fewer pickleball injuries (and PT clinics and orthopedists wouldn’t be quite so busy because of it).
You don’t need anything fancy. You just need to do the movements in a prepared and predictable way before you ask your body to do them fast, hard, and unpredictably in the game.
What I Wish More People Knew About Their Bodies Before Exercising
I use this analogy a lot. The tissues in your body—skin, muscles, bones, nerves, ligaments, cartilage, blood vessels, tendons—are like the structures in your house. You’ve got walls, floors, windows, doors, appliances, ceilings, and a roof. You wouldn’t put nails in the windows, paint the floor, or carpet the walls. Each material has a specific job and needs to be treated accordingly.
Your body works the same way.
In the average healthy person—no major metabolic disease, no significant hormonal or thyroid issues—your body adapts really well to the demands you put on it. Good demands or bad demands. If you don’t use it, you lose it. If you use it, you get better at it. Your body is excellent at adapting—and also very good at conserving energy, which is why the couch is so convincing.
This idea comes from Dan Lieberman, a Harvard evolutionary biologist, who says we evolved to move when it was necessary or when it was fun. Pickleball is fun. Keep doing it. Just understand that your body will respond to the demand you put on it—and that response takes time.
Different tissues adapt at different speeds. Blood vessels adapt in seconds. Muscles may take days to weeks. Tendons and the nervous system can take weeks. Bones take months to years – just like paint dries faster than cement, and fixing a screw is different than replacing a roof.
Where people get into trouble is when they stop listening. They put earmuffs on and say, “My knee doesn’t hurt—I’ll just play another four hours.” Or worse, they take Advil because they know it’s going to hurt, then go play anyway. And then two weeks later they’re in my office saying, “Yeah… I’ve been taking Advil for two weeks and still playing.”
Best case? It was only two weeks, not two years.
Your body is incredibly capable. It will adapt. But you have to respect what tissue you’re loading and how long it takes to change. Listen to it early, not after you’ve muted the warning signs.
That’s what I wish more people knew.
