If you want the short version of tendon science for pickleball, watch Dr. Keith Baar. He is a professor of molecular exercise physiology at UC Davis and one of the most-cited researchers on how tendons respond to load, and in the UC Davis Health video below he demonstrates three body-weight isometric holds for stronger tendons and ligaments. None of them need a paddle. All of them point straight at the movements that wear pickleball players down.

This guide highlights what the video shows and adapts each hold to the sport: the lunge and squat for the knee, the push-up hold for the shoulder. It is the body-weight companion to the pickleball paddle isometrics method, which uses the paddle for the elbow and wrist.

Quick answer: Baar demonstrates three isometric holds. The lunge and squat load the knee (patellar and quad tendons, plus the Achilles if you push the front knee forward); the push-up hold loads the shoulders, chest, triceps, and elbows. Hold each position still, build from about 10 to 30 seconds, keep pain at 2 out of 10 or below, and use a chair for support until you are strong enough to drop it. You do not need to load heavy: the hold is what matters.

This is general educational information, not medical advice. If a joint is sharply painful, swollen, or unstable, see a clinician before loading it.

Dr. Keith Baar (UC Davis Health) demonstrates the isometric lunge, squat, and push-up hold. Below, each one is mapped to the pickleball movement it protects.

What the video actually shows

Baar’s core point is that an isometric is “a movement that has no movement.” You hold a position and keep the joint still, and the muscle has to work progressively harder as the tendon relaxes into the hold. That is why a still position starts to burn: the tendon is doing exactly the kind of loading it adapts to, without any of the impact or speed that irritated it in the first place.

Two things from the video matter most for recreational players:

  • You do not need to load heavy. Baar points to a study in rock climbers who loaded their finger tendons at only about 40 percent of body weight, held for 10 seconds, and gained just as much strength as people using much heavier loads. The hold does the work, not the weight.
  • Isometrics build strength with little soreness. Because the muscle is not lengthening under load the way it does in normal lifting, these holds cause far less muscle damage. Baar notes this is especially useful for older players and anyone with metabolic conditions, who tend to get more muscle damage from dynamic lifting. He also reports that a 30-second hold tends to ease joint pain for the next two to three hours, though that effect is variable.

The doses, the 2-out-of-10 pain ceiling, and the next-morning check used throughout this guide are DinkFlow’s synthesis of Baar’s public guidance and the tendinopathy pain-monitoring model (see the references), a practical starting point, not a personalized prescription only a clinician can give you.

Exercise 1: the isometric lunge (your reach)

What Baar does. Step into a long lunge, bend the front knee toward 90 degrees, and lower the back knee, using a chair for as much support as you need. You should feel tension in the patellar and quad tendons on both sides. Progress from two hands on the chair, to one, to none. Hold about 10 seconds, then build to 30. Push the front knee further forward and you shift more load to the Achilles, so you can steer the hold toward whatever is sore.

Why pickleball players need it. The lunge is the shape of the hard reaching movements in pickleball: the reach for a wide ball and the drop into a low volley. Those are the moments that load the patellar tendon and the Achilles, and they are where “pickleball knee” and calf strain tend to show up after a long open-play session. Loading that exact shape as a calm hold builds the capacity those movements demand. The pickleball knee exercises guide takes this further.

Exercise 2: the isometric squat (your ready stance and kitchen defense)

What Baar does. Feet about shoulder-width, toes turned out slightly, sink into a squat with the knees traveling a little over the toes and hold, again with a chair for support until you can go hands-free. Ten seconds when healthy, longer for a strengthening stimulus, then a slow stand at the end.

Why pickleball players need it. The squat is your athletic ready position, your kitchen-line defense, and the two-footed shape your split-step lands in: knees bent, hips loaded, ready to push off. A stronger patellar and quad tendon in that position is what lets you stay low through a long hands battle without your knees complaining the next morning. It pairs with the lunge in the pickleball knee exercises routine.

Exercise 3: the isometric push-up hold (your serve and overhead)

What Baar does. Set up like a push-up against a chair or table, lower to the bottom, and hold there. Make it easier with a taller surface, harder by moving toward the floor and a plank-position hold. It loads the tendons of the shoulders, chest, triceps, and elbows.

Why pickleball players need it. The serve and the overhead are pressing, decelerating shoulder movements, and the punch volley asks the shoulder to stay stable under a quick load. That is the same line the push-up hold trains. Building pressing strength and shoulder-tendon capacity off-court is how you protect the shoulder from the volume of serves and overheads a long session piles up. The pickleball shoulder exercises guide adapts it to the serve and overhead positions directly.

The rule that keeps it safe

Every hold above is governed by one rule with two parts: keep pain at 2 out of 10 or below during the hold, and make sure the joint is no worse the next morning. The next-day check is the real referee, because you can feel fine during a hold and still have done too much.

These holds build healthy tendons and also load a grumpy one back to strength, but they are for ordinary overuse tendon pain, not for a joint that locks, gives way, swelled up suddenly, or started with a specific injury. Stop and talk with a clinician if pain is sharp at rest, wakes you at night, comes with swelling, drops your strength, or radiates down the limb, and get an assessment if a tendon is not improving after two to three weeks of calm, pain-limited loading (or has not settled after six to eight weeks of conservative care).

How this fits the paddle version

The paddle isometrics method and these body-weight holds are the same idea with the right tool for each joint. Upper-body tendons the paddle can load directly: block the paddle with your other hand in the elbow or wrist position that hurts. Lower-body tendons need body weight, because there is nothing to block a paddle against in a split-step or lunge, which is why Baar reaches for the lunge and squat. His push-up hold trains the pressing shoulder — upper-body work that can also use a paddle in the serve position. The paddle isometrics pillar has the full four-phase ladder that both versions climb.

References