By Justin Ma, 7x US Junior National Badminton Champion.
Last updated December 31, 2020
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3 min read
Badminton involves many quick movements that engages many different parts of your body, particularly different muscles and joints in your legs. If you do not warm up properly, it is extremely easy to get hurt and cause an injury. Lunges, jumps, and different twists and turns of the body are common in every single badminton rally. Here are a list of different exercises I do prior to any training or badminton session I have, to make sure that I don’t hurt myself and feel loose and warmed up.
The ankle is one of the most used joints in badminton. You need it to control your balance during footwork and control your body to absorb any impact from landing from jumps. Ankle rotations (shown in the video below) are a great way to warm up your ankle joint and make sure it is ready for exercise. They will also help with the general mobility and range of motion of your ankle. I generally do this for all lower body exercises, such as running or jumprope – not only for badminton.
The knee is also extremely important, particularly during the change of direction during footwork to move to different corners, as well as absoring impact from your jumps. It is one of the most commonly injured joints from playing badminton, so be sure to properly warm it up prior to playing. I do knee rotations prior to playing to ensure that my knee is ready for the day of playing. A video on how to do it is shown below.
Hip mobility is an aspect of badminton and many other sports that many athletes do not pay attention to. Especially in badminton with all the lunges and back bending, you need to make sure that your hip is flexible and ready to go. Here is a great list of exercises by Overtime Athletes that shows different hip mobility exercises for athletes.
The next set of exercises are great to start moving your body while stretching different muscle groups. After warming up my joints, like above, I start with these dynamic stretches to get my body warmed up and ready for the final part of my warmup. Every player also has a different personal routine, but this video covers most of the exercises that I do.
These exercises are a great way to stretch out your muscles and generally improve your mobility. Depending on your level of intensity or what you plan to train, you may decide to do a different set of stretches as well. Check out more stretches on YouTube to see what works best for you!
The dynamic exercise is the final step of my lower body warmup routine. Many of these exercises are also done in an agility circuit, but the dynamic warmup includes these to make sure we are activating all of our muscle groups, but at a lower speed. I do these exercises for about a distance of 100 meters each, in this order.
If you have any questions on any of these exercises, be sure to check them out in the agility circuit post, or browse YouTube for examples. After finishing this dynamic exercise routine, I am finally warm and ready to get on the court.
Try out this full routine when you get the chance and let me know how it feels! If you’d like to see more drill highlights, training highlights, or more, please check out my YouTube channel and Instagram Highlight Feed, and feel free to reach out with any questions. I have many full videos of 2 on 1 drills on my channel, so please check it out! See you guys in the next one!
