Tennis and Physical Fitness

Tennis and physical fitness go hand-in-hand. It is a demanding sport exercising different parts of your body. Playing tennis requires joint flexibility, develops and tones your muscles and enhances your cardiovascular system. Your legs, arms, back, lungs and eyes get a work out. It is a marathon comprised of highly demanding skills including hand-eye coordination, balance and agility. Not just a weekend sport Tennis, to some, may be a weekend sport but it is a workout – a workout requiring some advance preparation. To excel, you have to combine tennis and physical fitness in your workout plan. Take heed. The workout should begin long before you are on the court. Perhaps, you could start with strength training. Every time you lob the ball or run after it, your body is absorbing a major shock. In order to withstand the impact, you need to develop body strength. To maintain this as part of your tennis and physical fitness training, you can consider traditional weightlifting. You can turn to standard practices such as lifting dumbbells or barbells. There are also alternatives. Body weight exercises involving push-ups or squats or tossing around medicine balls can build up the necessary strength. But wait, there’s more Yet, strength is not enough. Tennis and physical fitness are only compatible if other elements are taken into consideration. An important requirement in this game is flexibility. Tennis features long stretches to reach those overhead shots and to lobby or serve the ball, lunges to nail those low shots and twists and bends as you bob all over the court. The only way to prepare for these and prevent possible injury is to incorporate stretching as a regular part of your exercise routine. Tennis is a game of repetitive movement. As such, it requires you to build up strong endurance. A system acknowledging that tennis and physical fitness combined produces the best results, will consider this. Actions must require you to use certain muscles repeatedly performing a circuit of exercises, or doing multiple repetitions of the same exercise within a set time. Weight training, for both the upper and lower body, can be incorporated into this section of fitness training. Another target area is the cardiovascular system. You have to reinforce or develop it so your body will be able to respond properly during matches that demand much from your heart and lungs. One suggestion is to alternate bouts of jogging with sprinting sessions. If you add weight lifting or any other form of resistance training to your cardiovascular exercise program, you will increase the amount of lean tissue. Thus, while working on your cardiovascular system, you can improve such elements as strength, power, and speed. Do not forget that tennis and physical fitness are separate but symbiotic components. Each supports the other. In establishing a fitness schedule, make sure you adopt a comprehensive approach. Prepare all parts of your body in a tennis-specific fashion. Moreover, do so in the off -season as well as during the regular season. In addition, do not forget the warm up and cool down. Play gently before each game starts, lobbying the ball around. Stretch your major muscle groups e.g. calves, hamstrings, shoulders, quads, and lower back to promote flexibility and prevent injury. Jog to raise your heartbeat before the game and walk slowly around to cool down afterwards. Combine all the elements correctly and you will not only be prepared to play tennis but will be fit to enjoy whatever else comes your way.