Archive for the ‘Balance’ Category
Lunges to Improve Tennis Fitness
…and your overall fitness. Lunges are great exercise that will improve the strength of your entire lower body, balance, coordination, and your tennis fitness. You don’t need any equipment or gym to do your lunges, and to make it more entertaining, there is a variety of different versions of lunges. You will never get bored!
Split-step Lunges
Step a big step far back with your right leg, and sink low. Make sure that your left knee is above your left foot, with pressure toward the heel. Feel how your left glute is working. Keep your right foot pretty relaxed, pointing straight forward, heel lifted. Make sure not to twist it sideways, just because you feel like it will give you better balance. Keep your upper body erect and vertical, with your chest and chin up. Sink low, then push yourself up, feel the glutes working. Repeat 10-20 repetitions and then switch leg. You can have weight in your hands or on the shoulders.
Lunges Back
Just like in the previous version, you step back with your right leg, keep nice erect upper body, sink low, and then push yourself up to standing on your left leg. You can lift the right knee high up in the front, to add difficulty. Do all the repetitions on the same side and then switch legs, or alternate after each lunge.
Lunges Forward
Instead of stepping backward, you will step forward with your right leg, sink low (make sure your knee won’t pass the foot) and then connect with your glute and push yourself back to standing. To add difficulty, lift the right knee high up. Keep your posture erect at all times. Again, you can do all the repetitions on one side and then switch, or alternate between left and right.
Lunges Sideways
Just like stepping forward, you can step to the side, or 45 degrees to the left or right. Make sure to sink low by bending your leg, not your hip and losing your posture. Always stay nicely erect.
Walking Lunges
Step forward with your right leg like in the forward lunge and then instead of returning back to original position, you bring your back leg forward. To add difficulty, you can lift the left knee high up before you step forward. Lunge-walk forward for 20-30 repetitions.
Walking Lunges with Twist
Each time you step forward and sink low, twist your entire upper body to the side of the front leg. You can keep your arms in front of you for better stretch during the twist, or you can hold a medicine ball in front of you.
Walking Lunges with Kettlebell Over Head
You can use a dumbbell or any other weight. Kettlebells are just more intense because of the balance. Hold one kettlebell in one arm above your head. Keep your arm straight during the entire movement and keep doing 20-30 walking lunges forward while keeping the arm up. Pay attention how the muscles in your back are working to stabilize the weight over your head. On the way back, switch your arms. If you don’t have enough space for walking lunges, you can do front or backward lunges with the kettlebell over the head.
Jump Lunges
Get into a deep lunge position and instead of stepping back or forward to the start position, explode from both feet high up in the air, switch the legs in the air and land smoothly (like a big cat) down into a deep lunge again. This is intense and great for improving your explosiveness and tennis fitness.
Kettlebells are great for your off-court tennis fitness training. They will improve your explosive strength, balance, stamina and coordination. The basic kettlebell swing improves your endurance and hip strength, and is very easy to learn. In addition, you will burn a lot of calories and get nicely lean.
When you want to focus more on your hamstrings, you can add a stiff-legged deadlift into your training routine. Make sure to
- keep your lower back straight and bend in the hips rather than rounding your back.
- Focus on pushing your heel up to the sky behind you, and that will bring your upper body down, hinging in the hip.
- Keep your standing leg as straight as possible, but don’t lock or overextend your knee.
- Connect with your hamstrings and glutes on your standing leg when performing the movement.
To add variation, you can use one hand only and switch the hands on the top of each movement.
More articles on kettlebells for better tennis fitness
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The legendary tennis coach Oscar Wegner (modern tennis methodology) has interviewed me about my book “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it.” We were chatting about the importance of fitness and stretching for maximum tennis performance and life. Watch, listen and enjoy!
You can find more of Oscar’s teachings at www.tennisteacher.com
Click to buy on Amazon.com
To make sure that you are completely satisfied with your decision to buy “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it”, you can view sample material from the book in the resources below. Enjoy the viewing.
Amazon’s Search Inside Feature
Sample Chapter 13 — Calf Myofascial Relase
Tags: tennis fitness
I am glad to announce, that the book “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it. A Mindful Approach to Fitness for Injury-free Tennis” that many have been so impatiently waiting for, is available on Amazon.com for $14.95. Get your copy here now! For bulk orders, please contact me.
To all the tennis players of any age and skill level, who always strive for improvement and who never stop believing that the impossible is possible, and who know that there are no limits to growth and performance other than the human mind.
It is Never Too Late to Become Functional, Fit and Healthy
It is possible to play pain-free tennis for the rest of your life. One of the prerequisites is improving your fitness. However, it is not just any fitness. It needs to be mindful, purposeful, and perfectly suited for you. Nobody can tell you what is perfectly suited for you, only your body can. Listen to it because it will ask for what it needs. In your pursuit for maximum fitness and tennis performance, you need to be aware, patient, and disciplined.
Carry this little book with you always and reread the chapters often. Each time you will discover something new. Learn to understand your body. Every exercise you do should be performed with the goal of increasing awareness of your body, and gradually building a new relationship with it. Learn how to free up the tightness and how to balance your strengths. The less pain you experience, the healthier and more functional you are, and the more your energy will increase. Treat the moments of stretching and myofascial release as time for meditation, relaxation, and introspection.
Create daily routines that fit your lifestyle and treat them as essential for your fitness, well-being, and tennis performance. Think of your health and fitness in the long term. Be patient and disciplined in applying the new ways of exercising and treating your body. Remember that even modest effort applied over the long term will bring excellent results. Therefore, do not postpone your fitness until tomorrow and start today, even if it is just a little bit. Treat your body with respect and love. Treat the fitness as one of the necessary elements of your tennis game. Become fit for tennis and you will become fit for life, and tennis will be in your life forever. Practice your tennis fitness, for the love of it.
When you perform athletic movements, your central nervous system gets information about the muscular activity, your body posture and the range of motion of your joints through the visual, balancing and proprioceptive subsystems. Proprioception means that your body senses the position and movement of your joints. Proprioception deficits increase risk of injuries. Proprioceptive training improves your strength, muscular balance and coordination, and reduces risk of injury.
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To become a great tennis player doesn’t mean that you only play and practice tennis. You have to give at least the same amount of time and attention to your fitness. The better your tennis fitness, the more success you will have on the court. You want to have strong legs and core, good balance, coordination and explosive power. You might find it difficult to fit in all the fitness training on a top of playing tennis, and at the same time go to school or work. If you decide to devote yourself to fitness, you could start easy, but be persistent with it. Just a little workout after each tennis practice, maybe 20-30 minutes and another 10-20 minutes for stretching, and over a period of one week it adds on to 3-5 hours of tennis fitness training. Pretty amazing, isn’t it?
Leg strength, core strength, balance, coordination and flexibility – that’s what you need to work on to become sufficiently fit to play good tennis. Most of the players realize how important role the fitness plays in tennis, and they visit the gym on a regular basis. In Los Angeles where the weather is sunny almost the entire year, a tough grass or beach workout makes a nice change in your routines. Try this extremely effective 30 minute workout directly after your tennis practice. It will work your legs, core and foot work.
If you could have one exercise that will train simultaneously your strength, balance, coordination, flexibility and mental toughness, would you do it? Such exercise does exist – it is called one-leg squat (or ‘pistol’ in some other athletic areas). You don’t need any fancy equipment or location, only a serious focus and strong will. As a result, your tennis fitness will improve tremendously. In the one-leg squat you exercise power through the full range of motion while balancing on one leg. Your legs will get extremely strong and with strong legs your movement on the court will be faster, more explosive and more graceful. One-leg squat is one of the most important and useful exercises that you can find. It is very easy to describe, but so much more difficult to execute. But with practice you can master it soon.
Tennis players at all levels and ages are regularly participating in strength training, which is very important for maximizing performance and preventing injuries. But ultimately, speed and explosiveness of the movement determines who is stronger, faster and quicker on the tennis court. Plyometric exercises help to develop these qualities. During plyometric movements the muscles become loaded, coiled, compressed and then released while you are propelled forward, upward or sideways. This explosive strength is very important for your tennis game to start, stop and change the directions, or when you load to hit a stroke and then unload the muscles to generate force and power to create the movement.
