Basketball warm ups are essential if you want to perform your best on the court. Since basketball is a physical activity, whether or not you play it recreationally or professionally, you will need to prepare your body so that you don't increase the risk of injuring yourself. Warm ups and pre-game exercises are essential at accomplishing this, and you want to do ones that promote the improvement of your stamina, strength, jumping abilities, running abilities and quickness. Before you try any of these basketball warm ups and pre-game exercises, though, check with your doctor to ensure that you are physically capable.

The first basketball warm up is simply a warm up jog. Jogging is a widely known and used warm up method for a lot of athletes across a whole range of different sports. For instance, track and field athletes may want to jog just a little bit before their event, just to get their blood pumping. Likewise with basketball, jogging is an ideal means of preparing your body for the physical exertion that is to come during a game of basketball. To get in a bit of a warm up jog before your game, just jog around the perimeter of the gym for approximately five minutes; you want to increase your temperature a little bit. If you're outdoors, simply jog around the perimeter of whatever basketball court you're going to be playing on. The idea with a basketball warm up jog is to break a subtle sweat, but not more.

"Pointed toes" is the next basketball warm up that you should try if you want to improve your performance during the game. Pointed Toes involves nothing more than keeping your front shin muscles tight as you walk on your heels, making sure the whole time to have your toes pointing upward. The duration that you perform this exercise should be brief, because it is meant to warm you up only. Do approximately four repetitions of walking for 10 yards at a pace which you are comfortable with, not pushing yourself too much. The goal of this drill is just to loosen up your shin muscles, something that will help in your basketball game.

Skipping is not just for the playground and elementary schools anymore. It represents a basketball warm up that is aimed at both creating as well as improving the all-important bouncing talents you require on the basketball court. An approximate investment of 3 to 4 minutes devoted entirely to skipping just before your basketball game is ideal. Skipping trains your feet to get off the ground fast, and it goes without saying that this is essential in basketball. Your rebounding, jumping, running and pivoting skills should all be helped by some skipping practice.