Strength Training for Padel: A Simple Gym Plan for Bangkok

Published October 29, 20266 min readBy the Bangkok Padel Community team

Why padel players need the gym

Quick take. Two short strength sessions a week (legs, hips and trunk, shoulders, and slow lowering work for the calves and forearms) make padel more fun and help keep you on court. Start light, add load slowly, and don't ramp up your playing hours at the same time.

Most of us in Bangkok fit padel around work, traffic and the heat, so the gym can feel like one more thing. But padel asks a lot of the body in short bursts. A 2023 review of 13 studies of padel players found that points in pro matches last roughly 9 to 17 seconds on average, with about 8 to 12 shots per point, and that heart rate sits around 70 to 80 percent of maximum during play. The physical qualities it names are endurance, strength, speed and range of movement.

That is a lot of sprinting, braking, twisting and reaching overhead. Strength work is how you prepare for it, and the World Health Organization already recommends that adults do muscle-strengthening activity for the major muscle groups on two or more days a week. For a padel player, that is a simple target.

What the research says about injuries

A 2023 article on preventing padel injuries in the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal (a sports medicine journal from Qatar) brings the main problem areas together:

Area	What goes wrong	What the article suggests
Legs (about 41% of injuries)	Calf strains ("tennis leg"), Achilles and plantar fascia pain	Better ankle mobility and slow, controlled (eccentric) calf work
Elbow (over 20% of injuries)	Lateral elbow tendinopathy ("tennis elbow")	Gradually loaded tendon exercises, built up over weeks
Shoulder	Strain from repeated overhead shots	Shoulder-blade control exercises and a "sleeper" stretch for the back of the shoulder

The author's conclusion is that slow, loaded work for tendons and muscles is "the key point", along with choosing the right racket weight, grip size and shoes. The article also warns amateurs against rapid increases in weekly playing hours, which is easy to do when you fall in love with the game. For a wider look at the injury research, see our post on common padel injuries.

Does gym work actually improve your padel?

One small study, published in the journal Kinesiology in 2023, gave 24 male padel players eight weeks of neuromuscular training. Half did it on court mixed with padel shots, half did the same exercises off court in separate sessions. Both groups got better at jumping, upper-body strength, stroke speed, endurance and changing direction. The on-court group improved its stroke speed more, and it was the only group to get quicker at changing direction off the weaker leg.

The lesson for club players: any sensible strength training helps, and it helps even more when you link it to padel movements, for example by doing lunges and split-step drills with a racket in hand.

A simple twice-a-week plan

This is a starting point for healthy adults, built from the exercises the sources above recommend. Do it on days you are not playing hard, or after a light session. Choose a weight you can lift with good form, two or three sets of 8 to 12 slow repetitions, and add load only when it feels easy.

Legs and hips

Split squats or Bulgarian split squats for single-leg strength when you lunge for a ball.
Lateral lunges for the side-to-side movement padel is built on.
Single-leg Romanian deadlifts for balance and the muscles that control the knee and hip.

Trunk and rotation

Cable rotations or medicine ball rotational throws to turn from the hips, not just the arm.

Shoulders and arms

Push press or overhead press with light dumbbells for smashes and lobs.
Shoulder-blade exercises with a band (rows and pull-aparts), as the Aspetar article suggests.

Tendon work (the "prehab" part)

Slow calf raises: up on two feet, lower slowly on one. Add a step for more range once it is easy.
Wrist extensor work: hold a light dumbbell, palm down, and lower it slowly. Start very light.

Power, once you are comfortable

Box jumps or kettlebell swings, a few sets of low reps, for first-step speed.

If you already have pain in an elbow, calf or shoulder, see a physiotherapist before starting. Tendon problems need a plan that builds over weeks, not a gym session guessed from a blog.

Making it work in Bangkok

Train in the air-conditioning, play in the cool. Many condos and offices here have a small gym, and that is all this plan needs. Keep outdoor padel for the early morning or evening, and read our guide to playing padel in the heat.
Warm up before matches as well. Strength training does not replace a proper warm-up; our 10-minute warm-up is quick to do at the court.
Ask a coach. Ask whether they can add footwork and movement drills to your lessons. Our coaching directory lists which clubs offer coaching.
Rest counts too. Strength comes from recovery between sessions. If you like the ice bath and sauna route, we wrote about padel recovery in Bangkok.

The bottom line

You don't need to live in the gym. Two 30-minute sessions a week of legs, trunk, shoulders and slow tendon work will make you steadier on court and more likely to keep playing for years. Then put it to use: find a court on our list of Bangkok clubs and join the Bangkok Padel Community on Facebook to find games at your level.

Sources

Frequently asked questions

How often should padel players do strength training?

Twice a week is a good target. The World Health Organization recommends muscle-strengthening activity for the major muscle groups on two or more days a week, and short sessions of legs, trunk, shoulders and slow tendon work are enough for most club players.

Which exercises help prevent padel injuries?

Slow, controlled (eccentric) calf raises and wrist extensor work for the tendons, shoulder-blade control exercises, and single-leg strength such as split squats and single-leg Romanian deadlifts. A 2023 article in the Aspetar Sports Medicine Journal calls eccentric work for tendons and muscles the key point.

Does gym training make you a better padel player?

A 2023 study of 24 male padel players found that eight weeks of neuromuscular training improved jumping, strength, stroke speed, endurance and changing direction, with bigger gains in stroke speed when the exercises were done on court together with padel shots.