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These exercises are strength training for pickleball, but they are also strength training for human function. As a 47 year old physical therapist myself, I want to remain strong and independent into the next several decades of life. These are exercises I can perform daily without significant levels of muscle soreness.
Cable high row, Straight arm pulldown, Horizontal cable pull apart, Horizontal cable pull together, Cable Push-Pull, Cable Squat Row.
About the author:
Hi, my name is Anthony (Tony) Maritato, PT. I am a licensed physical therapist and owner of Total Therapy Solutions. I have specialized in helping clients recover from total knee replacement surgery since 2002 and have created this video to help YOU. I am new to the world of Pickleball and would love to join you on this journey.
Total Therapy Solutions
5900 Long Meadow Dr
Middletown, OH 45005
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0:00
Good morning guys, Tony Maritato here, licensed physical therapist, and one of
0:03
the common questions we get in the group on Facebook is what are some exercises I
0:09
should be doing in the gym to help improve my performance on the pickleball
0:13
court? So I'm going to go through five, five of my favorites that really affect
0:17
everybody in a positive way whether you're playing pickleball or just looking for general health and conditioning. Some of my preferred methods
0:26
strength training are either free weights which we'll cover in another video or a basic cable
0:31
machine cable machines are great because it allows me to utilize the resistance in a position that's
0:38
comfortable for my body you know a six foot two 180 pound adult male is going to be different than
0:44
a four foot eight 90 pound adult female so let's take a look at this i always say we're strength
0:52
training we're exercising to improve performance. That is going to be a
0:57
different kind of exercise than somebody who is exercising to increase muscle
1:02
mass to produce hypertrophy. That's different than somebody who's exercising to increase you know absolute strength. So we need to understand that
1:12
while there are metrics for I was a strength coach before I became a
1:16
physical therapist I understand muscle physiology and the mechanics of dosing appropriate exercise. For most normal human beings like us, we're just looking to get fit. We're
1:27
looking to feel better. We're looking to move better on the pickleball court and in life. So I
1:32
usually tell my clients, don't obsess about the weight. Find a weight that's comfortable. Find a
1:37
weight that you can do 8 to 12 repetitions with. If 8 to 12 reps is too easy and you could have done
1:42
20, make the weight a little bit heavier for the next set. If 8 to 12 is too heavy that day
1:48
just lighten it. It doesn't matter what the weight is. It's actually doing the exercise that means
1:53
something to us. So first one is a basic high pull. Now we can do every all of these exercises
2:00
single hand or double hand, straight on or cross body. But to keep it simple, a basic high pull
2:06
I come in here, I back up from the machine so that when my arms are fully extended
2:12
when my shoulders are elevated and forward. I have room to initiate the movement from the shoulder
2:19
blades. So this is called setting the shoulder blade. And then as I pull back, I'm bringing my
2:26
thumbs to the front of my shoulder. If you can't reach thumbs to shoulder, you've got some mobility
2:30
issues and we can address that in a different video But effectively all I doing is full range of motion shoulders elevated anterior I pulling them back and depressing them as I pull thumb to shoulder Like I said I could do a
2:47
bilateral pull because I'm standing and because the weight is pulling me up and
2:52
forward. What's also happening is it's forcing me to find my center of gravity
2:58
to adjust my center of gravity, to use my toes, to use my ankles, my hips, my knees
3:03
the entire kinetic chain is involved in an exercise like this. Now can I lift
3:09
maximum load in this position pulling me up and off balance? Absolutely not, but
3:14
that's not why we're here. We're not here to get a new PR. We're here to strengthen
3:19
and improve the way we move. So again I would do anywhere between 8 to 12 reps
3:26
I'd set a weight appropriately. I would do double arm pulls then I would let go
3:31
and I would do a single arm pull. This is one of the exercises we use quite a bit
3:36
with somebody who's had a rotator cuff repair, with somebody who has had
3:40
non-surgical shoulder pain. They're trying to rehab it. Maybe it's a biceps
3:46
tendinopathy. Maybe it's something like an impingement syndrome and we just want
3:50
to get the shoulder moving. This cross-body single arm pull working through the shoulder blade through the scapulothoracic region and the arm
4:00
best way to do it almost impossible do something wrong but it's a great way to
4:05
get their shoulder moving so that's exercise number one exercise number two
4:09
usually we're gonna lighten the weight because we're gonna use a longer lever
4:14
same thing double hand grip still standing but this time what I'm gonna
4:18
do is I'm gonna brace the trunk and I'm gonna pull straight arm down to the
4:23
front of my pockets and when I say brace the trunk what I mean is I want to
4:28
tighten through the midsection you could call it the core I want to tighten
4:33
through that as I bring the hand down to the front of my thigh my lats are
4:39
working my triceps working my abdominals kind of everything in front of me if you
4:44
imagine me laying on my stomach it's kind of like a plank without movement so
4:49
it's an isometric core or trunk exercise that's got everything working I would do
4:55
double hand I would do again cross body single hand or straight on single hand and the whole
5:02
idea here is I'm training not just the the resistance but I'm training the coordination
5:08
of all of the muscles working together this motion where I grab and I pull down I tightening everything through the core without movement it one of the best ways to just improve Think of it like a tug team If everybody on the tug team pulls at the same time
5:27
you're going to beat a bigger, stronger team that doesn't pull at the same time. We're just
5:32
coordinating the motion and the activity of all of the muscles working together. So those are my
5:37
first two. We've got a high row, we've got a straight arm pull down. Then I'll usually adjust
5:41
the waist down. Now in the regular gym you might not have a machine like this but you most likely
5:49
have some version of a cable crossover. You could do the same thing. You can have two high pulleys
5:55
two medium pulleys, two low pulleys. What we're going to do here, we're going to do this a couple
6:00
different ways. I'm going to grab the two handles in an open position, elbows relatively straight
6:06
I'm going to do a criss-cross either wrist over wrist, elbow over elbow
6:11
If my left was on top for the first set, my right's going to be on top for the second set
6:16
I'm going from a comfortable kind of scaption position. Scaption is kind of right in the middle
6:23
I'm pulling across and relaxing. I'm pausing in the middle. Now you've probably seen people do it with their back toward the machine
6:32
way out in front, pushing down. Again, if I want to lift a maximum load, I'm going to go into that position
6:40
My focus is performance, not maximum load. So I would rather use a lighter weight with longer levers in order to achieve the goal
6:51
So I would do a set of 8 to 12, alternating which grip is on top
6:57
Then I would reverse. So now I'm starting in a crisscross position where I was finishing before
7:03
That's where I begin. and now I'm pulling apart. Now because of the nature of the cables, I would have to keep one
7:10
hand on top, but if I'm going to do eight reps, I'll do four with the right on top, then I'll switch
7:16
and I'll do four with the left on top. And my goal is full scapular protraction to full scapular
7:25
retraction. I'm trying not to get a lot of compensation. I can stay in that nice athletic
7:31
position, kind of weight on the balls of the feet, knees are a little flexed, hips are a little flexed
7:37
stomach is tight, I'm pulling apart, and then letting it crisscross back together. You can
7:43
imagine how this might be a backhand stroke, whereas the first one is a forehand stroke
7:49
A variation on this is I go one cable in each hand and I go into a rotational push pattern I would do a set facing one direction without letting go of the handles I would do a set facing the other direction So I getting that reciprocal through the
8:08
trunk, my feet, my knees, my hips, everything is working together to generate that rotational
8:15
force. Again, you can understand how that's going to translate onto the pickleball court
8:20
And then the last in the series is going to be a low either lunge or squat row
8:29
So I'll come down, I'll grab the handles, I'll back up a little bit so I have plenty
8:32
of room. There's going to be an imaginary chair behind me. And all I want to do is I start with my thumbs at my lower ribcage
8:41
As I sit, I reach forward. As I stand, I pull back
8:47
Now I'm a big advocate of full depth squats. So I'll come all the way down sitting on my heels, come all the way up, thumbs to my lower ribcage
9:00
What I am ideally doing is the line of the cable travels through the line of the forearm
9:06
So I'm not in this position, which now this turns more into a rotator cuff exercise, but
9:12
in this position where the pull is coming from the shoulder blade, the
9:18
posterior delt, all the way through the back of the arm. Once I break that line
9:24
of pull, now either I turn it into internal rotation or external rotation. I
9:29
just want a straight arm pull. That's all I'm looking for. So we could do a set of
9:34
8 to 12 squat rows. We can do cross body to get a little rotation. We can turn it
9:40
into a lunge either same side leg or opposite side leg there's a huge variety
9:45
of what you can do with a simple cable unit that's going to impact what we do
9:51
on the pickleball court now everything here is pretty much been posterior chain
9:56
in another video I'll go ahead and work on anterior chain so that we can balance
10:01
the program but the big principle here is understanding the difference between
10:07
conventional strength training, conventional power training, and just general conditioning. I'm a big believer in general conditioning. General conditioning can be done every day
10:18
You don't need to take wet rest breaks. When you're finished, you should feel good. You shouldn't feel
10:22
significant muscle soreness tonight or tomorrow morning. You should be ready to go again
10:29
It's energizing because I believe the more activity we can get in a 24-hour period, the better
10:34
if I come into the gym and I completely wipe myself out
10:38
but then I go lay on a couch for eight hours, that kind of defeats the purpose
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