​Hey Reader,​
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I had a visit with my cardiologist last week. Lymphoma treatment can have some side effects (have you seen commercials for medicines on TV? Which of them doesn't?) , and part of managing that has meant more conversations with doctors than I'm used to.

At one point I expected the visit to be primarily about my heart. Instead, he spent a good portion of our time talking about something I wasn't anticipating: flexibility, strength training, and cardiovascular fitness as predictors of how well we age. Not just how long. How well.

I've been thinking about that conversation ever since, and I wanted to share it with you. Because I think it maps almost perfectly onto what we do as pickleball players, and what we could be doing a lot more of.

Here's what he laid out.

Flexibility is the foundation.

Most people think of flexibility as an athletic "nice to have." It's useful if you're a gymnast, optional if you're not. My cardiologist framed it differently. Flexibility, he said, is one of the earliest markers of how a body is aging. Stiff joints and shortened muscles aren't just uncomfortable. They change how you move, how you load your joints, and how much energy you burn doing everyday things. A stiff body is an inefficient body, and an inefficient body fatigues faster, recovers slower, and is much more prone to injury.

On the pickleball court, this shows up in ways most players attribute to other things. The reach you can't quite make. The low ball that costs you a split second because your hips won't get you there. The shoulder that tightens up by the third game. The lower back that talks to you the morning after a long session.

None of that is inevitable. But it does require intentional work off the court.

Strength training is what keeps you on the court.

My cardiologist was direct about this: muscle mass declines naturally with age, and the players who maintain it are the ones who actively work to build and preserve it. Not for looks. For function. Muscle is what stabilizes your joints, absorbs impact, and generates the power that lets you play without compensating in ways that eventually lead to injury.

For pickleball players specifically, the muscles that matter most are often the ones we never think about: the hip stabilizers, the rotator cuff, the deep core. The muscles you don't see in the mirror but feel the absence of every time you push off for a wide ball or absorb a hard-hit volley at your body.

Two sessions a week of intentional strength work is not a lot to ask. The players who are still competing sharp at 70 and beyond almost always have some form of it in their routine.

Cardio keeps the engine running.

This one most of us already know, and pickleball itself provides a good base. But my cardiologist made a point worth remembering: cardiovascular fitness isn't just about endurance. It's about recovery speed. How fast your heart rate comes down between points. How quickly your lungs reset after a long rally. How much of your focus is available for the game versus how much is occupied by just catching your breath.

The players who can stay mentally sharp in deep into a long match are almost always the ones with better cardiovascular conditioning, not just better technique.

The thing that connects all three.

What was intersting about this conversation was how my cardiologist described the relationship between these three things. He said flexibility, strength, and cardio aren't separate boxes to check. They're a system. Flexibility allows you to move safely through a full range of motion. Strength lets you generate force through that range without breaking down. Cardio gives you the engine to sustain it all across time.

Take one away and the other two become less effective. Ignore all three and the court gets smaller, the game gets shorter, and the recovery takes longer.

We play a sport that rewards all three. The question is whether we're investing in them off the court, not just on it.

I'm paying more attention to this now than I ever have. I hope this gives you a reason to as well.
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Go play well,
​
Trey

P.S. If you're not sure where to start, the simplest version is this: stretch after every session while your muscles are still warm, add two short strength sessions per week focused on hips, core, and shoulders, and let pickleball itself cover the cardio base (for now...more on this later). That's not a complicated program. It's just a decision to be intentional about staying on the court as long as possible.

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