3 Things I Heard From Pickleball Players That We Need to Stop Accepting as Normal

Recently, while screening injuries and talking with pickleball players, I heard a few comments that really stuck with me:

“I can’t stand on one leg because I’m 67.”

“I’ve gotten gel shots and a couple rounds of cortisone, but it didn’t last.”

“I had physical therapy years ago and it worked, but the pain came back. I’ll probably need surgery someday.”

These are real comments from real people.

And what struck me wasn’t just the pain they were experiencing. It was the belief that these things were simply something they had to accept.

I think we need to change that conversation.

Myth #1: “I can’t stand on one leg because I’m 67.”

Age is not a reason to stop training your body.

Balance, strength, mobility and power are all things that can change as we age — but they are also things we can train.

If you don’t challenge your balance, you can’t expect it to stay the same.

If you don’t progressively strengthen your muscles, you can’t expect them to remain strong.

If you stop moving through certain ranges of motion, your body gets less comfortable moving through them.

That doesn’t mean aging is the problem.

It means we need to be more intentional about what we are asking our bodies to do as we age.

The goal shouldn’t be to do less because you’re getting older.

The goal should be to build a body that continues to support the life you want to live.

Myth #2: “I’ve had gel shots and cortisone, but the pain came back.”

Injections can absolutely have a place.

There are times when pain is significant enough that someone cannot tolerate exercise or rehabilitation, and reducing that pain may help them move forward.

But an injection alone doesn’t necessarily address why the problem developed in the first place.

If there is weakness, limited mobility, poor load tolerance or an area of the body that simply isn’t prepared for the demands being placed on it, those things still need to be addressed.

Pain relief and healing are not always the same thing.

If we only quiet the symptom without changing the environment that contributed to it, it shouldn’t surprise us when the pain eventually returns.

The question needs to become: What does your body need so that it can better tolerate what you’re asking it to do?

That’s where strength, mobility, recovery and progressive loading come in.

Myth #3: “PT worked before, but the pain came back. I’ll probably need surgery someday.”

This one really bothers me because it assumes that recurring pain automatically means your body is eventually going to fail.

Maybe physical therapy didn’t fail.

Maybe there wasn’t a progression plan.

Traditional rehab often has an endpoint: your pain decreases, you finish your visits, and you’re discharged.

But what happens next?

If the exercises stop, strength stops progressing and you return to the exact same demands that irritated the area in the first place, we haven’t necessarily created long-term change.

This is something we think about differently at Restore.

We want to help someone get out of pain — but that is only the beginning.

From there, we continue building strength, mobility, resilience and confidence so that the person has a stronger foundation moving forward.

Your plan shouldn’t end when your pain ends. It should evolve.

Maybe We Need to Raise the Standard

What I heard during those conversations wasn’t a group of people whose bodies were failing them.

I heard people who had started accepting limitations because they had never been given another option.

“It’s my age.”

“The shot wore off.”

“PT worked for a while.”

“Eventually I’ll need surgery.”

What if instead we taught people how adaptable the human body actually is?

What if we encouraged people to seek help at the first whisper of a problem instead of waiting until they can no longer do the things they love?

What if physical therapy wasn’t simply something you did after an injury — but a resource to help you understand your body, improve how it moves, build strength and stay active for decades?

That is the direction I believe healthcare needs to move.

At Restore Physical Therapy, our goal isn’t simply to move people from pain to no pain. We want to help people move from PAIN → POWER.

To understand their bodies. To build capacity. To become stronger. And ultimately, to have the confidence that their body can continue supporting the life they want to live.

Your age isn’t your plan.

Your diagnosis isn’t your plan.

Your past experience isn’t your plan.

Let’s build a better one.