Tennis Fitness Training

Archive for the ‘Performance’ Category

This is The One-And-Only tool that EVERY tennis player HAS TO own.

It will get you out of trouble when pains and overuse injuries could take over.

Trigger points are small, extremely painful spots in your muscles. If you push on such spot, you feel agonizing pain and you want to pull away. Trigger points can develop as a result of muscular injuries or trauma, improper body mechanics or structural imbalances, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stress, overtraining, and more. Trigger points inhibit proper function of the muscle fibers and therefore create more problems. Generally, once the trigger point is created, it doesn’t want to relax on its own and it needs to be helped. Trigger points can exist in the muscle bellies or tendons that attach to the bone. Often trigger points create a referred pain (pain that is somewhere else than the trigger point itself). For example you push on a trigger point in your hip and you might feel pain in your knee.

This 6 inch, high density foam ball will assist you in a self-massage of your overused muscles. The deep pressure will help the muscles to relax, and the special techniques of self-myofascial release will get rid of the adhesions and scar tissue in the muscles. Your flexibility, function and tennis performance will improve, while the risks of overuse injuries will decrease.

Use the ball daily, preferably after your tennis practice. In the beginning, it will be a painful experience, but the more you use it, the better you will feel and the less amount of time you will need to spend with the ball.

Buy now at power-systems.com or on Amazon.com

Through my training years, I’ve tried protein powders of all different brands and flavors. The last few years I’ve been using plain, no flavor whey protein isolate by NOW and was very happy with it. Until I got my hands on ProteinPlus by PowerBar. Oh, yum yum! Besides being super yummy, it contains three different kinds of proteins for different speed of digestion: whey protein for fast digestion, soy protein for medium digestion and casein for slow digestion. Blended together, the ProteinPlus digestion rate is sustained over prolonged periods and your muscles get valuable nutrients during and after your training. ProteinPlus protein drink comes in two delicious flavors, chocolate and vanilla.

One 33-gram scoop contains 20 grams of protein, 5 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fat and 130 calories. It mixes easily in 8 oz water. The drink is nicely thick and I have discovered that if I use less water, the texture is almost like melted ice cream. Mmmmm, yum. And with even less water, it’s like a pudding.

I am not sure if I like chocolate or vanilla better. Both are delicious. Sometimes I blend some frozen fruit into the vanilla powder, use a bit less water to make it thicker and it tastes like a real ice cream.

ProteinPlus Drink is my new favorite now!

Delicious Chocolate and Vanilla Flavor

Ingredients:
TRISOURCE™ PROTEIN BLEND (ISOLATED SOY PROTEIN, WHEY PROTEIN CONCENTRATE [FROM MILK], CALCIUM CASEINATE), FRUCTOSE, COCOA POWDER (PROCESSED WITH ALKALI), CALCIUM PHOSPHATE, NATURAL CHOCOLATE FLAVOR, HIGH OLEIC SAFFLOWER OIL, SALT, SOY LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, XANTHAN GUM, ACESULFAME POTASSIUM, SUCRALOSE. MADE ON EQUIPMENT THAT PROCESSES EGG.

David Ranney (www.maxtennis.com) is the expert on playing the mental game of tennis. He has been studying the mental game for over 25 years. I have recently met David and participated in his mental seminars (read about his free offer here) and he has a lot of great information and knowledge to offer. If you live in California, Washington or Oregon, you should check out what David has to offer. See some of his irresistible offers and contact him for more information. David wrote a book called “Tennis: Play the Mental Game” , a great practical guide how to improve your mental fitness (and thus your tennis game).

Just as much as I work on applying David’s ideas into my tennis game, David is applying the fitness and health advice outlined in my “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it” book to his  body… (I trust he does!!! ) He has kindly reviewed my book and shared the following with his students and readers.

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Tennis Mini Lessons by David Ranney

From my way of thinking, there are 4 major areas that you need to be proficient in to play tennis well. They are, in no particular order.

1. Physical Stroke Production
2. Physical Fitness
3. Mental Fitness
4. Strategy

As you know, I deal with your Mental Fitness and now you can get your physical fitness in order.

When I was in California in November, I met an outstanding tennis fitness guru. Her name is Suzanna McGee. She has just recently written a book on tennis fitness that I believe all of you should have, read, and then do.

The name of her book is:

“Tennis Fitness for the Love of it”
A Mindful Approach to Fitness for Injury-free Tennis

This 178 page book with over 80 photographs will teach you how to listen to your body and how to understand what your body is telling you. Take care of the imbalances that have been created by the uneven nature of tennis and your lifestyle, and correct them before they will cause a more serious overuse injury. The book will teach you the simple techniques how to take care of your body, so you can play injury-free tennis for the rest of your life.

You can order her book by going to this web site. http://www.tennisfitnesslove.com/store/

Suzanna has generously offered to give you a 20% discount not only on her book but on any of “Her Stuff!” Just use the Discount Code: DAVID20OFF

Check out her “Static Stretching For Injury Prevention” e-Book (39 pages) for only only $2.99. You can use the Discount code: DAVID20OFF for this also.

This discount will only be available for the month of February so check out Suzanna’s stuff and order it now. You won’t be sorry.

Her web site: http://www.tennisfitnesslove.com/ is the best site to discover how to improve your tennis fitness to become a better tennis player and how to play injury free for the rest of your life.

The tennis fitness articles on her web site are not just an instruction of different exercises. They are educational. They are meant to help you to develop an awareness of your body and mind. You will master how to hear what your body is telling you, and as a result you will be able to prevent injuries before they even happen. You will be able to improve what your body needs the most at the moment. Start reading with an open mind, start learning and become a master of your tennis fitness.

Want to learn more about Suzanna? Read on.

Suzanna McGee

As an experienced athletic trainer, fitness expert, tennis teacher and competitive tennis player, Suzanna possesses the tremendous ability to inspire you with her teaching and writings to be the best that you can be. Her passion for writing and educating people has resulted in a book on tennis fitness, which is currently being published. Suzanna speaks six languages and has two master’s degrees in computer science.

Suzanna has been an athlete since age of eleven. She has been a skier for twenty years in Czechoslovakia and Sweden, and a drug-free bodybuilder for seven years, earning the title Ms. Natural Olympia. Currently she has been fully committed and passionate about tennis, trying to find the “magic potion” for ageless competitive tennis through tennis fitness.

Suzanna’s special training style that combines many different techniques of training, healing, and injury prevention, brings a lot of success and great results to anybody who learns how to master it. Suzanna is residing in Venice Beach, California.

Now that you know all about Suzanna, go here http://www.tennisfitnesslove.com/store/ and buy her book. Be sure to use the Discount Code: DAVID20OFF. You won’t be sorry and you will be doing your body a big favor.

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

The table below shows calories burned per 30 minute activity for people of 125, 155 and 185 lbs. Approximate your calorie expenditure if your weight is in between. The activities are from the least to the most vigorous.

(This table was printed in the July 2004 issue of the Harvard Heart Letter. For more information or to order, please go to http://www.health.harvard.edu/heart.)

Workout trends come and go, and the 2010 has been the trend of kettlebells, a centuries old piece of cast iron ball with a handle. Kettlebell training is intense, fun and fat burning. Increasing popularity of kettlebell training across the country and world motivated the American Council on Exercise (ACE) to look into the science behind this workout trend. They analyzed the energy cost and exercise intensity by studying 10  male and female volunteers at ages 29 to 46 years. They wanted to look and see how much of an aerobic workout you do get and how many calories you really burn. The entire study is below:

http://www.acefitness.org/getfit/studies/kettlebells012010.pdf

The Results of the study:

During the 20-minute workout, the average calorie burn was 272 calories, not counting additional calorie burn due to the substantial anaerobic effort. The researches estimated oxygen consumption and how many calories the trainees were burning aerobically, and it was 13.6 calories per minute. They also measured the blood lactate, and the trainees were burning another 6.6 calories per minute anaerobically. Which means that they were burning at least 20.2 calories per minute, which was off the charts — an equivalent to running a 6-minute mile pace or crosscountry skiing up hill at a fast pace!

The average heart rate was between 86 percent and 99 percent of the kettlebell maximum heart rate, which means that the kettlebell workout is extremely vigorous and much higher intensity than regular weightlifting workout. In addition, it will improve your aerobic capacity as well, which is great for people and athletes who don’t have much extra time.

Keep swinging and get fit fast. Kettlebells are great for tennis as well: improving your explosive power of the hips, strength of your core and legs and shoulder stabilizing muscles. See more articles on kettlebells here:

1. Kettlebell training for tennis players
2. Kettlebell training for beginners
3. Advanced kettlebell training
4. Extreme kettlebell

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

Google Books Preview Feature

Table of Contents

Introduction

About the Author

Sample Chapter 13 — Calf Myofascial Relase

Sample Chapter 28 — External Hip Stretch

Epilogue

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.

A lot of tennis players play tennis to be fit. However, if you play tennis on a higher level, you have to become fit first to play great tennis. You will need to improve your strength, power and endurance, in addition to flexibility, agility, quickness, coordination and balance. Kettlebells are an effective tool to improve all the elements above. You will notice the benefits almost instantly.

A kettlebell looks like an iron cast cannon ball with a handle. They are an ancient tool originating in Russia, where it was a popular training tool among military and strength athletes. In competitive kettlebell lifting, the athletes perform Olympic moves such as snatches and clean-and-jerks, but they do maximum repetition and with one arm only.

Read more…

The kettlebell is an old Russian exercise tool that resembles an iron cannon ball with a handle. Compared to a dumbbell, the kettlebell’s center of mass is beyond the hand, and allows for swinging movements that are not possible with a dumbbell. Kettlebell training is effective for improving strength, endurance, flexibility and coordination simultaneously. After mastering the basic swings, a variety of advanced moves combined into series of exercises characterize extreme kettlebell training.

Read more…

(Suzanna@Livestrong.com)