Blog 1: Everything Padel
Part 1: Why Padel Is Hard on Your Body (And Why That's Not a Reason to Stop Playing)
I love padel. It's fast, strategic, social, and addictive. It's also one of the fastest growing sports in the world, and for good reason. The learning curve is gentler than tennis, the rallies are longer, and the community is incredible. But here's the thing: padel is hard on your body.
The sport demands explosive lateral movement, repetitive overhead motion, constant rotation under load, and quick deceleration. Your shoulder, lower back, knees, and ankles are under repetitive stress that accumulates across matches and training sessions. And because padel is so accessible, a lot of players ramp up their volume quickly without building the strength and movement quality their bodies need to handle the load.
I'm Dr. Keirstyn, a chiropractor and endurance coach at Endurance Therapeutics in Oakville. I work with athletes who want to stay in their sport for the long haul, and that means addressing the movement patterns and tissue capacity that determine whether you're still playing at 60 or sitting on the sidelines at 40.
This is Part 1 of a five part series on padel. We're going to break down the most common injuries in the sport, why they happen, and how to fix them. In Part 2, we'll look at shoulder and elbow injuries. In Part 3, we'll cover lower back pain and core stability. In Part 4, we'll tackle knee and ankle injuries. And in Part 5, we'll talk about injury prevention and performance, the strength and mobility work that keeps you on the court.
What Makes Padel Different
Padel sits somewhere between tennis and squash. The court is smaller than a tennis court, the ball is slower, and the walls are in play. That means rallies are longer, the game is more strategic, and the physical demands are different.
Here's what your body is dealing with:
Repetitive Overhead Motion: Every serve, smash, and lob requires your shoulder to move through a full range of motion under load. That's hundreds of repetitions per match, and if your rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers are not strong enough to handle it, you're setting yourself up for impingement and tendinopathy.
Explosive Lateral Movement: Padel is played in a small space, which means you're constantly moving side to side, changing direction, and decelerating hard. Your knees and ankles absorb that force with every step.
Rotational Demands: Every shot requires rotation through your hips and thoracic spine. If your mid back is stiff and your hips are tight, your lower back compensates by rotating more than it should, and that's how you end up with chronic lower back pain.
Quick Deceleration and Direction Changes: The ability to stop, pivot, and explode in a new direction is what separates good padel players from great ones. It's also what breaks down your knees and ankles if you don't have the strength and stability to control those forces.
The Most Common Injuries I See in Padel Players
If you play padel regularly, you've probably dealt with at least one of these:
Shoulder Pain (Rotator Cuff Impingement): That nagging ache at the front of your shoulder that gets worse with overhead shots.
Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylitis): Pain on the outside of your elbow that makes it hard to grip your racket.
Lower Back Pain: A deep ache in your lower back that shows up after a long match or the next morning.
Knee Pain (Patellar Tendinopathy or Meniscus Irritation): Pain at the front of your knee or deep inside the joint that gets worse with lateral movement.
Ankle Sprains: Rolling your ankle during a quick direction change, which leads to chronic instability if not rehabbed properly.
These injuries are not random. They follow predictable patterns, and they're driven by the same underlying issues: weak stabilizers, poor movement mechanics, and load that exceeds your tissue's adaptive capacity.
Why Rest Alone Doesn't Fix the Problem
Here's the frustrating part: most of these injuries get better with a few days or weeks off. The pain goes away, you feel fine, and you go back to playing. But within weeks or months, the pain is back.
That cycle repeats because rest reduces the inflammatory response and makes the pain tolerable, but the weak rotator cuff that was overloading your shoulder is still there. The stiff thoracic spine that was forcing your lower back to compensate is still there. The poor deceleration mechanics that were overloading your knee are still there.
You go back to playing with the same movement patterns, the same loading demands, and the same underlying deficits, and the same structure fails again.
What Actually Fixes Padel Injuries
To stay healthy in padel, you need three things:
Strength in the Right Places: Your rotator cuff, scapular stabilizers, glutes, and core need to be strong enough to handle the repetitive demands of the sport.
Mobility Where It Matters: Your hips and thoracic spine need to move well so your lower back and shoulders don't compensate.
Movement Quality Under Load: Your body needs to know how to decelerate, rotate, and stabilize under the specific demands of padel.
That's what we're going to build in this series.
What's Coming Next
In Part 2, we'll dive into shoulder and elbow injuries, the two most common upper body complaints in padel players. We'll break down what's actually happening in your shoulder when it hurts, why tennis elbow shows up even when your elbow feels fine most of the time, and how to build the strength and stability you need to keep playing pain free.
Want to stay in padel for the long haul? Book an assessment with me, Dr. Keirstyn, at Endurance Therapeutics. We'll find the root cause of your pain and build a plan to keep you on the court.
📍 Endurance Therapeutics | Oakville, Ontario
📞 905-288-7161