Padel injuries cluster in the first game. Your calf goes on a ball you misjudged. Your elbow twinges on a mis-hit you didn’t see coming. Your lower back stiffens up after sprinting into the back-glass corner when your hips haven’t moved properly in eight hours.
The pattern is consistent: players arrive, step on court, and treat the first few games as the warm-up. The body doesn’t work that way. Padel demands explosive short sprints, rapid direction changes, low-retrieval stretches, and rotational force through the shoulder and forearm. None of those movements are things you want to introduce cold.
The good news is that 10 minutes before you step on court handles the problem. This is a practical routine – not a gym session, not a lecture on exercise science. It’s what to do in the car park, the clubhouse corridor, or the space beside the court.
Why padel needs its own warm-up
Tennis warm-ups don’t translate. Tennis involves more linear movement and a swing path that’s completely different from the compact, wrist-heavy shots padel requires. Running warm-ups don’t translate either – they prime you for straight-line movement and do nothing for the lateral cuts and rotational load that define padel rallies.
Padel’s specific movement demands are:
- Lateral footwork – side-to-side cuts to cover the width of a short court
- Low retrieval – deep hip and groin flexion to get under balls off the back glass
- Rotational shots – forearm rotation for bandejas, viboras, and volleys at pace
- Explosive short sprints – 2-4 metres at maximum effort, repeated
Your warm-up needs to address all four before the first point.
The 10-minute court-side routine
This routine requires no equipment and can be done in any space next to the court. Times are approximate – move at a pace that warms you up, not a pace that tires you out.
Minutes 1–3: mobility and joint prep
Start with hip circles – 10 in each direction for each hip, standing on one leg. These open up the hip flexors and activate the glutes you’ll need for court movement. Follow with leg swings: hold a wall for balance, swing each leg forward and back 10 times, then across the body 10 times. You should feel the inside of your hip loosening.
Next: thoracic rotation. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, hands on hips, and rotate your upper body left and right as far as comfortable. 10 slow rotations. This primes the same movement pattern as your forehand and backhand drives. Finish with wrist circles – 10 in each direction – and claw your hand open and closed five times to activate the forearm extensors most likely to cause problems.
Minutes 3–6: dynamic movement
Now you want to raise your heart rate and get your legs firing. The sequence:
High knees (30 seconds) – knees to hip height, arms pumping, moderate pace. Gets blood moving.
Lateral shuffles (4 sets of 6 metres) – stay low, weight on the balls of your feet, don’t cross your legs. This is the exact movement pattern for court coverage. The padel footwork guide covers the underlying mechanics if you want to understand why the low, wide stance matters for your game.
Carioca (2 sets of 6 metres each direction) – cross-stepping laterally with hip rotation. Activates the hip flexors and glutes in the lateral plane.
Split-step jumps (10 reps) – stand in an athletic stance and do small, quick two-footed hops, landing softly each time. This trains the explosive reaction that comes off a split step at the net.
Minutes 6–9: progressive ball work
Get on court or use the space near it. Start feeding slow balls to each other – no pace, just contact. Rally for a minute or two, letting your eye-hand timing calibrate.
Then bring in some pace: a minute of moderate groundstrokes, staying away from the full swing. Then work a few volleys at the net – not smashes, just hand-speed volleys to get your wrist extension moving.
The principle here is progressive loading: go from zero pace to match pace over three minutes, not in three shots.
Minute 10: serve and first shots
Take three or four serves each at 70% pace. A rushed first serve is one of the most common ways to tweak a shoulder at the start of a session. Serve at a pace that feels controlled, not maximum.
If you have time, play a few points cross-court before the match starts properly. These first points shouldn’t count – they’re finishing the warm-up.
Common mistakes that cost you the first game
Skipping the warm-up entirely. The first game is then your warm-up, which means you’re playing at 60% while your body catches up. You’ll make errors you wouldn’t make at game five.
Static stretching before play. Holding a calf stretch for 30 seconds before a match has been shown in multiple studies to reduce explosive output in that muscle group. Static stretching is for cooling down, not warming up. Dynamic movement is what you want pre-match.
Warming up too hard. If you’re sweating heavily before the match starts, you’ve overdone it. The goal is to prime, not to pre-fatigue. The routine above should leave you feeling loose and ready, not tired.
Only warming up your hitting arm. Players who play regularly often do some arm swings before stepping on court and consider themselves warmed up. The legs, hips, and thoracic spine are just as important – and they’re where the injuries happen.
The partner warm-up
A structured warm-up doesn’t mean disappearing into a corner for nine minutes while your partner waits. Do the first phase (mobility and joint prep) simultaneously. Move through the dynamic section side by side. Then pick up balls together for the progressive hitting phase.
The full routine takes two minutes longer if you’re doing it with a partner, not fifteen. The social awkwardness is entirely in your head – anyone who plays regularly enough to care about good warm-up habits will appreciate you doing it.
If your partner is the type to roll their eyes, do the mobility work at home before you leave. It still counts.
The 5-minute minimum
Sometimes you’re running late. Here’s the minimum effective routine if you have five minutes:
- Hip circles and leg swings (90 seconds)
- Lateral shuffles, 4 sets (60 seconds)
- Split-step jumps, 10 reps (30 seconds)
- Progressive ball work – slow feeds to moderate pace (2 minutes)
This won’t replace the full routine, but it dramatically reduces injury risk compared to stepping straight onto court from the car. Prioritise the hip and leg prep over everything else – that’s where the acute injuries happen.
The cool-down
Five minutes after the match reduces next-day stiffness noticeably. While your heart rate drops, do:
- Calf stretches, 30 seconds each leg
- Hip flexor stretch (low lunge), 30 seconds each side
- Chest opener – hands clasped behind your back, open the chest forward
- Wrist flexor and extensor stretches for the forearm
These are the static stretches that have no place before a match but are exactly what you want after one. You’re lengthening muscles that have been working hard for the past hour.
If you’re playing twice a week or more, the off-court fitness guide covers what to do between sessions to build the lateral strength and core rotation that compound over time. And if you want a clear picture of what you’re trying to avoid, the common padel injuries guide explains exactly why the first game is where elbow and calf problems start.
The warm-up is not a formality. Ten minutes of it means you start the first point in the same condition you’d otherwise reach by game three.