How to Get More Energy: It Starts Off the Court

How to Troubleshoot Your Energy Without Blaming Age

If you’re an active adult living and playing in Florida, you’ve likely had days where your energy simply flatlines on the court. It’s easy to assume something is wrong, or to throw your hands up and blame it on getting older. But before you write off your stamina, take a step back. Your body is usually sending you clear clues long before you run out of gas.

True energy doesn't start when you tie up your sneakers, it starts off the court. Here is a practical guide to troubleshooting your daily vitality and getting back your competitive edge.

1. Sleep Quality Matters as Much as Sleep Quantity

Getting seven or eight hours of sleep is a good start, but time in bed isn't the same as restorative sleep. If you're waking frequently, sleeping lightly, or waking up tired despite spending enough time in bed, the quality of those hours matters.

One surprisingly simple factor is temperature. Your body naturally cools as it prepares for sleep, and a bedroom that's too warm can interfere with that process—something especially relevant here in Florida. Late-evening intense exercise, alcohol, heavy meals, stress, and an inconsistent sleep schedule can also make restorative sleep harder to achieve.

Quick Fix: Keep your bedroom cool, give yourself a wind-down window, and finish intense workouts early enough for your body to cool down before bed.

2. Fuel for the Day’s Activities

Playing 90 minutes of tennis or pickleball creates very different demands than sitting at a desk. If you're heading onto the court under-fueled—or routinely restricting carbohydrates because you've been told they're “bad”, you may simply not have enough readily available fuel for the activity you're asking your body to perform.

Carbohydrates are stored in your muscles as glycogen, and court sports rely heavily on those stores during repeated bursts of movement. So on longer or more intense days, your carbohydrate needs may be higher than they are on a rest day.

But what you eat your carbohydrates with matters too. Ever eat something, feel energized for a while, and then hit that dreaded afternoon slump? Pairing carbohydrates with protein, fiber and healthy fats can help provide steadier energy during everyday life.

Think fruit with Greek yogurt, an apple with nut butter, or whole-grain toast with eggs. The goal isn't to avoid carbohydrates - it's to match your fuel to what you're actually doing.

Quick Fix: Match your fuel to your day. Eat enough to support your activity, use carbohydrates strategically around harder exercise, and build everyday meals around carbohydrates paired with protein, fiber and healthy fats.

3. Your Stress Bucket Doesn't Distinguish Between Tennis and Tuesday

Your body doesn't experience your tennis match in isolation from the rest of your life. Work deadlines, family responsibilities, travel, emotional stress, poor recovery, and hard workouts can all contribute to your total physiological load.

On top of that, playing in Florida’s heat and humidity adds a major hidden demand. In warm weather, your heart undergoes 'cardiovascular drift,' beating faster at the exact same pace because it has to split its effort between powering your legs and pumping blood to your skin for cooling. That extra climate strain fills your stress bucket even faster.

Quick Fix: When life or weather stress gets unusually high, lower your workout intensity. Always ask yourself: "What am I asking my body to recover from right now?"

4. Listen to the clues

Energy isn't the same every day, and an occasional off day on the court doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. What can be more useful is noticing patterns and changes from what's normal for you.

Are you waking up tired despite getting enough sleep? Starting strong but fading earlier in a match? Hitting the same afternoon slump every day? Feeling noticeably more depleted during weeks when work, travel, heat, and training all pile up?

Those are clues worth paying attention to.

Start with the basics you've just read about: sleep, fuel, and your total stress load. Rather than changing everything at once, choose one area and see what happens. Sometimes a surprisingly small adjustment can make a meaningful difference.

Quick tip: Before you schedule your next match, think about your energy over the past few weeks. What's changed and when do you notice it most? Pick one thing you can change this week and pay attention to how your body responds.