One of the most popular sports for seniors these days is pickle ball. If you are unfamiliar with this game, I can best describe it as a hybrid of ping pong and tennis and wiffle ball. It provides some nice fitness in mobility, balance, coordination and competition as well as providing opportunities to be social.
You don’t have to do a whole lot of running to be skilled at pickle ball, nor be strong. Even better, you don’t even have to like pickles.
I have a few aquatic exercises on how to put more pop into your pickle ball game. If you have access to a swimming pool, that’s all the much better. One huge advantage of performing aquatic exercise is that water reduces stress imposed on your joints while providing a different kind of resistance.
The only caveat I’m going to give is to start out lightly as first with relatively high reps, ten to 15, and then increase your tempo under water as hard and quickly as you can so that you exert the maximum water resistance, or “drag” if you will.
I like to use wooden pickle ball paddles for the workouts. They are cheap, about ten to 15 dollars apiece and they float if you drop them so that you won’t have to get your hair wet retrieving them. Lower your paddle under water to create water resistance, or drag, as many people call it.
In short, you want to mimic your pickle ball strokes—backhand, forehand, underhand, etc. Even if you don’t want to become the Papa or Grand Dame of Pickledom, these exercises will provide variation in your physical regimen and a damn good excuse to go take a dip in the water.
