The Badminton Herald

• It predisposes you to more severe injuries on court.The inflammatory process in your body (a result of fighting off viral or bacterial infections) spurn chemicals to ward off toxins. Theoretically a protective and healing strategy of our body, such chemicals also affect your muscles and joints. Inflamed muscle are less flexible, easily strained and do not easily recover from injury. Ligaments are affected the same way, and thus joint stability (which is stabilized by both muscles and ligaments) is compromised during sickness. Imagine loading your, knees, and ankles with huge amount of stress (such as during badminton play) in such states.
• Dehydration comes in unnoticed. During sickness, our body has difficulty balancing electrolytes as a result of a temporary disruption in its chemical balance. Our body then tries to compensate with the "thirst mechanism" and thus the endless water breaks during a game. Drinking pure water without electrolytes during such states will actually "dehydrate" your body
• Sluggish reaction time. Often, you miss a shot that would otherwise be a simple, no fanfare stroke for you. No your not getting dull. The "sluggish" response is a result of an overall delay in brain-muscle coordination, somehow affected by the on going inflammatory process in your body.
• Sore muscles. A painful muscle is difficult to use. and it easily breaks. Worse, it would take time to recover. If your core temperature is off normal limits and you still play, our body starts to 'eat' up muscle protein- a quick first order energy source use by our body in emergencies. Remember, the priority of the body is to ward of infection and then settle down inflammation. Add another stress to that and our body will have to burn other sources of fuel. Play longer and you'll get into so many other problems, like ARF.
• Loss of balance. Maintaining a center of gravity for badminton play is very important. When this is affected by sluggish reaction time, or a delay in brain to muscle coordination( as a result of an inflammation) you fall or get injuries more often.The caveat is, most player doesn't recognize this until they already have major or sever injuries!

Badminton has been the most popular sports nowadays here in my place that even basketball courts here were invaded by intense "shuttle smashers". And they do so with confidence, with much gusto.

What made this sport very popular here in my place?Is it the health benefits that you get or the social interaction that you reap afterwards? Nobody really knows. Probably both. Adding to that is the free use of our city gym's badminton courts up to now. Although there was a council resolution lately that ordered a payment scheme for the city gym's use (for badminton), implementing guidelines has yet to be created. For now, our addiction is still free.

But the increase popularity of badminton also brought with it a number of injuries for the less prepared ones. Simply put, it was the lack of understanding and practice for warming up and cooling down that brought many of these injuries. To top it all, injuries incurred from badminton is often relinquished to a much insignificant bodily injuries that most (if not all) those injured believed they can go back to the sport again with just efficascent oil and massage. Maybe.

But what constitute a warm up and cooling exercise for badminton? I previously wrote an article about this in my other blog, The Orthopedic Logbook. But since many of my playmates repeatedly asked me to re post or re lecture about it. I'm reproducing it here.

Here are my warm up and cooling down regimen for badminton. Most of these you’ll also see in other badminton forum exercise recommendations. Some parallel exercises (same muscle stretched) may be performed, but you must ask your sport physician before doing any of these.

Warm Up:
Jog around for 5-10 minutes. These will increase your heart rate and warm your muscles. Then do dynamic stretching (like lunges, arm windmills) head to toe for 10-15 minutes. I do shadow play and do footwork for badminton for another 10 minutes after this dynamic stretching. The important thing is you do dynamic stretching and gradually increase in the intensity of your shadow play/footwork.

Play:
Use ankle support, apply tapes when needed. Maintain hydration status.

Cool down:
Slow jog/brisk walk for another 5-10 minutes while your muscle is still “warm” or your heart is still beating fast. Then do static stretching (like the calf, hip and trunk flexor stretching) for another 5-10 minutes. When doing static stretching, hold the “stretched” muscle for 30 seconds before releasing it. Breath normally. Rehydrate.

Note: If you sustain any injuries on court or off court during training, SEEK CONSULT of your doctor ASAP. Delay in seeking medical attention will just aggravate your injury and thus decreases your chance of getting back to your game fast. Or better yet SEEK the advice of a sports physician before doing any intense badminton training.

So there it goes shuttle chasers. Lets enjoy our addiction with less injuries!