Archive for the ‘Training Routines’ Category
All high-level athletes are pushing their limits to the extreme. For a tennis player, the uneven nature of the sport where one side is used more than the other in addition to training every day for hours, and frequently on hard surfaces, the body gets a lot of beating. If you want to remain healthy, you need to spend a lot of time on recreating balance and health in your body. I dare to say that you need almost more time than on playing tennis, especially as you are getting older. You need to stretch after each practice (try this great stretching routine), pay good attention to your body, and listen to its subtle signs signaling you what is happening. You need to be aware of your posture, balance, flexibility, and “evenness” of your both sides, where the right and left side of your body should be equally strong and flexible.
The pro tennis players spend enormous amounts of time on rejuvenating their bodies with massage, physical therapy, and myofascial release therapy. You may not have the monetary means to do that on a daily basis, but you still need to take equally good care of your body in the same way as the professional tennis player does. The self-myofascial release techniques come to your help and they will do almost as good job as a massage, with the difference being that you have to be active.
Myofascial Release Technique
Myofascial release is a technique where you “massage” and stretch the fascia, so it will return to its original soft and subtle texture. Fascia is a specialized, tough layer of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, bones, and joints and gives support and protection to the body from head to toe. Fascia is extremely strong and usually transmits mechanical tension generated by muscle activity and external forces. When there is a chronic tension, the fascia hardens, thickens, and restricts the free muscle movement and that leads to even more dysfunctions. Micro-tears of the tendons can develop.
Trigger Points
Muscular injuries and trauma, improper body mechanics or structural imbalances, poor nutrition, lack of sleep, stress, or overtraining can cause development of trigger points, which are small, extremely painful spots in your muscles. If you push on these spots, you will feel agonizing pain and will want to pull away. Trigger points inhibit proper function of the muscle fibers and therefore create more problems. Generally, once the trigger point exists, it does not want to relax on its own and you have to help to release it. It is difficult to diagnose and treat trigger points, as they often refer pain to other parts of the body. Therefore, it is very important for you to be in touch with your body by always looking for trigger points and releasing them before they can create more problems in the future.
The following myofascial routine will help you to find and release the annoying trigger points. Perform the routine regularly and you will learn how to be smooth in getting into the positions on the ball, how much pressure you need to apply, and where are the spots that you need to address. The more intense your training is, the more frequently you need to perform the myofascial release routine.
Myofascial Release Tools
You can use the traditional foam roller for your myofascial release, but I think you will outgrow it fast, and the release will not be deep enough. I have two favorite tools for myofascial release: 1) the 6-inch foam ball, which has been my absolute favorite until the rumble roller came out, 2) 31 inches long Rumble Roller, which is very firm and penetrating. Each tool serves different purpose, so I do recommend owning both. The foam ball is easily portable and you can have it in your tennis bag or purse all the time. The rumble roller is quite big, not as portable, but it reaches spots in your body just as human fingers would. I get my foam ball on powersystems.com and the rumble roller on amazon.com. Powersystems offer free shipping until October 21, with the code C55005, and rumble roller has a free shipping always.
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Self-myofascial Release Routine
Always give attention to your entire body. However, if you find some specific areas that are more out of balance or more painful, spend extra time on those. The painful trigger points in your body will move around, and you need to pay attention and correct the small problems before they create more serious issues and injuries.
1. Quadriceps. Start your routine with lying on your stomach and rolling your quadriceps. Observe if the right and left side feel different. Make sure to roll the front, inner and outer parts of the quadriceps. Then pull one leg to the side…
2. Adductors. Place the ball on the inner thigh of the away leg. Roll the entire way from the knee toward your groin. Make sure to reach both front and backside of your adductors. When done, transition to the hip flexors, rolling your ball high up into the hip area…
3. Hip flexors. Make sure to relax and let the ball sink deep into the hip area. Pay attention to make both sides even. Then roll over to the side…
4. IT Band, or illiotibial band. Spend a good amount of time on the entire length of the IT band, addressing also the front and backside. Then roll the ball high up on your hip…
5. TFL, or tensor fasciae latae. TFL is very thick and you need to work it deeply. Roll on the ball with both straight and bent leg. Pay attention if both sides feel the same. Then roll over on your back…
6. Piriformis and gluteus. If you neglect it, you can experience nagging lower back problems or “sciatica” issues. Take your time to find all the trigger points. Then slide the ball under your hamstrings…
7. Hamstrings. They are more difficult to roll, because it is hard to put full body weight on the ball, especially if you have limited flexibility. Try to get as much of your body weight on the ball as possible. Then move the ball to the bottom of your spine…
8. Spine feels very good to roll on. Roll from the bottom up toward your neck and down again. Repeat a few times and feel how rejuvenated your spine will become. Move the ball to the upper back area…
9. Upper back. Initially, rest on the ball and relax. Let your shoulders and arms sink. Then roll around the entire upper back area and look for tightness, especially in your dominant side. When done, roll over on your stomach with the ball under your chest…
10. Chest. Roll the entire chest area from the sternum, around the clavicle, and outward to your arm. Continue on your biceps. Then get up on your knees with the ball under your lower leg…
11. Lower leg muscles. It feels very good to massage the outside part of the lower leg—an area seldom addressed. Roll from the ankle toward your knee and back. Then turn around to move on the calves…
12. Calves. They are hard to roll on the ball, because they need deeper penetration. Start on the ball first, and then use your opposite knee to reach deeper.
The routine takes 20 to 40 minutes to finish, depending on how long you stay on different areas. You will find myofascial release quite painful, initially. As you muscles get healthier and more functional, you will enjoy the myofascial work much more, because it won’t hurt as much. Eventually, you reach the point that you enjoy doing myofascial release as much as you enjoy a good massage.
Keep learning how to treat yourself, especially if you have issues with chronic injuries. Finding and massaging away the trigger points with the myofascial release regularly will prolong your athletic career, increase the functionality of your muscles, and decrease the injuries that you suffer. Keep rolling and play injury-free tennis for the rest of your life. Your performance and tennis game will improve dramatically, too!
Another good exercise to prevent future injuries is to rebalance your hips with this simple exercise described in the past article here. Also, remember to take a good care of your core and keep it strong with these variations of planks.
If you like to have all the fitness tips close to you at all times, you can find a paper or Kindle book on Amazon.com. It is small enough to fit your tennis bag and you can work on your health any time.
Work on your tennis fitness and play great tennis!
The US Open has started and it is absolutely beautiful to watch the male and female tennis players move around the court with grace, power, prowess and precision. How motivating it is for us to try to be at least a little bit like them. If you watch carefully, you will notice smooth and quick footwork, strong lower body and core, and many big forehands. The players try to hit each ball with their forehands as much as possible. Rafael Nadal is often hitting his forehands from the doubles alley on his backhand side. This requires tremendous footwork and belief in your forehand. If you don’t have a big forehand, you will get in trouble hitting weak shots from that position.
Any shot you hit, always make sure that you are on balance — before your shot, during your shot and after the shot… this can be easy to do if the opponent hits the balls back to you at a comfortable pace, spin and depth. Nevertheless, as you know, such a “nice” opponent does not happen that often. His or her goal is to make it very uncomfortable for you, and if your strokes have some problems, they will when you have to move around the court in a hurry, such as on the wide ball, deep ball or short ball.
In your off-court training, you want to focus on the leg and core strength, explosiveness and good balance during the dynamic movement. The more you practice it off the court, the easier it will get on the court. You will move fast to the ball and with a good dynamic balance, and the strong legs and core will help you to ground yourself and hit powerful shots from any position on the court. A good balance is absolutely necessary.
Strong Lower Body
To improve your lower body strength and explosiveness, include squats and jump squats into your training regimen. During squat, make sure that you engage the glutes by sticking it out behind you (like there is a chair far back and you want to sit on it) and keeping your lower back neutral or slightly arched. Always keep your chest up, imagining a wire connected from the sky to your chest in any stage of the movement. During jumping squats, lower your glutes as low as your body’s flexibility allows (ultimately, you want get really deep without any strains or aches) and with a powerful muscle contraction explode and jump as high as possible. Land smoothly and slow down the movement with your leg muscles rather than “stomp” hard on the surface. You want to feel and sound quiet like a big cat.
Jump squats variations:
- Jumping forward, aka “froggie” jumps.
- Jumping from side to side with both feet together (like a downhill skier).
- Jump high up, open the legs at the peak, and close them before you land on the ground again.
- Jump high up and rotate 180 degrees at the peak. Land smoothly. Rotate opposite direction the next jump so you don’t get dizzy.
- Jump up on the bench or box. Land smoothly. You can step down, or if you feel are well conditioned, you can jump down as well.
- Split squat jump — one leg is forward, one is back. The landing looks like a lunge position. Explode into the air off both legs, switch them in the air before you land.
- Split squat jump from side to side.
Perform 30 to 40 seconds of each jump exercise. As you get fitter and stronger, work yourself up to 1 minute. Repeat for 2 to 3 sets for each exercise. As a variation, you can do each exercise just once, and then repeat the entire circle 2 to 3 times.
Strong Core
The plank and its variations are one of the better exercises for your core. They strengthen the abs, obliques and lower back, in addition to the shoulders and hips, and other stabilizing muscles. When performing plank, always make sure that your shoulders are directly above your hands (or elbows if you choose to support yourself on the elbows), the body is straight like a plank with your hips not sinking or pushing up too high. Keep your core always engaged, and breathe deeply during the entire exercise. One-minute plank is a good start, but eventually you want to work yourself up to 2 minutes or more.
Plank variations
- Plank with arm lifts. Lift the arm straight and forward, hold for a moment, and then gently place it down again. Alternate the sides.
- Plank with alternating leg lifts.
- Plank with arm and leg lift. Lift opposite arm and leg at the same time. Hold the top position for a second and gently place your limbs down. Alternate the sides. Make sure to make the movement slow and control, or you will lose your balance.
- Plank with hip twists. Twist your hips from side to side; gently touch the ground.
- Side plank. Support yourself on one hand (elbow) only and keep your body straight. Lift the upper leg slowly up and down to add difficulty.
- Plank with knee-to-elbow touch. You can touch across, or the same side.
- Plank with elevated feet. This will add more difficulty. You can elevate your feet on any of the above planks.
Perform 1 minute for each plank. Repeat the entire cycle 2 to 3 times, depending how much time you have to spend on your core routine. You can combine the leg and core routine into a full body workout. Do one lower body exercise, followed by one core exercise, and go through all exercises. Repeat the entire cycle.
Big Forehand
As you do your off-court training to create a strong, powerful and flexible body that will make you a great athlete, you also have to take care of your stroke technique — especially the forehand, if you want to dominate your opponent. Make sure that you have a good grip and good finish when you hit your forehands. If you are always on balance at the finish, the chance is that you are on balance during the entire shot as well. Keep your hand relaxed and you will be surprised how much more effortless power you will have.
If you have done all the physical training and yet, your forehand is not where you want it to be, I would recommend to look at the Tennis Forehand Solution program, created by Jeff Salzenstein — one of the best high-performance tennis coaches in the country. Top-100 player once, Jeff practiced with Sampras, Chang, Courier, Rios, Federer, Roddick, Blake, Fish, and many more. He realized how important it is to have a powerful and dominating forehand, and now he teaches students around the world, how to get great forehand. His Tennis Forehand Solutions is full of excellent information, broken down into easy steps, focusing on targets, technique, and footwork in such manner, that it is almost impossible not to improve your forehand. Check out Jeff’s program, learn about the critical mistakes that you may do on your forehand and correct them to get an unstoppable forehand.
If you want to know more about Jeff, you can watch this YouTube interview by Cosmin Miholka at www.webtennis24.com. Jeff talks about his struggle through the junior and college years, gives good advice to parents, talks about the difference between the top 10 and top 100 pro player, and more insights on how a great forehand ground stroke should be developed and what Jeff learned from different coaches in his past.
Because I really like Jeff’s Tennis Forehand Solution, I am confident that you will like it too, and that you will benefit from his videos and advice. Therefore, I would like to offer you a gift of “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it” book if you purchase Jeff’s program, so you can become strong and injury-free athlete with an unstoppable forehand. Just send me an email with a receipt of your purchase, and I will email you the digital version of “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it.”
Feel free to forward this newsletter on your friends and tennis partners… you never know, they may be in need of a great forehand or fitness.
==> Get your Tennis Forehand Solution Program Here <==
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In today’s tennis game the player’s fitness and conditioning are more and more important. For the player who strives for improvement, the off-court tennis fitness training should be as crucial as the tennis play itself, with the focus on strength, explosive power, balance, agility, coordination, endurance, and injury prevention. In tennis, the key element is great movement—if you move well, you get to the ball fast and on balance and your shots are going to be more powerful.
Strong and powerful legs are not just beautiful but also extremely useful in tennis. Bending your knees will achieve a low base, giving you better balance and better transfer of forces from the ground, through the kinetic chain and upward to your arm, racket and to the ball. As a result, your shots will be more powerful. However, to bend your legs deeply in each shot is highly energy demanding. The tennis players with better fitness and stronger legs will have an advantage.
Having a strong core is extremely important in tennis. It gives stability to your hips and shoulders, which are essential for your stroke production, and it permits a smooth transfer of power from the core to the limbs with perfect balance, strength, and flexibility. A strong core allows your limbs to move more efficiently and independently from each other, and as a result, you will run faster and still execute your shots with precision and power.
In this e-book you will learn how to train your legs, core and shoulder stabilizers efficiently. You don’t need any equipment, and all exercises can be done outdoors – on the tennis court or in the park. A few short routines are outlined as well, you can perform them after your tennis practice. For maximum performance, you should be stretching regularly and perform myofascial release with a foam ball for future injury prevention.
Content
1. Triangle Lift, aka Windmill
2. Walking Lunges
3. Jumping Lunges
4. Functional Crossover Lunges
5. Jump Squats
6. Jump Squats with Open Legs
7. One-leg Squat: The Master Exercise
8. Glute Bridge
9. Hip Flexor Strengthening
10. Burpee: The Ultimate Conditioning Exercise
11. Plank with Knee-To-Elbow Touch
12. Plank with Arm and Leg Lifts
13. Plank with Hip Twists
14. Side Plank with Leg Lifts
15. Upper Back Row with Resistance Band
16. Shoulder External Rotation with Resistance Band
17. Mini-Workout: Legs, Core, and Shoulders
18. Mini-Workout: Legs, Core, and Agility
19. Mini-Workout: Core and Upper Body Stabilizers
Price: $2.99
Trigger points are small, extremely painful spots in your muscles. If you push on these spots, you will feel agonizing pain and will 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, over-training, and more. Trigger points inhibit proper function of the muscle fibers and therefore create more problems. Generally, once the trigger point is created, it does not 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. The level of pain depends on the level of irritability of the trigger point. Sometimes a trigger point in the tiniest muscle can cause the most extreme pain. Even tension headaches, migraines or stiff neck can be expression of referred pain. A lot of chronic injuries are caused by trigger points. It is very difficult to diagnose and treat trigger points, as they often refer pain to other parts of the body. Therefore, it is very important for you to be in touch with your body by always looking for trigger points and releasing them before they can create more problems in the future.
Myofascial release will help to get rid of the pesky trigger points. Muscles (myo) and organs in the body are connected or separated by a band of a connective tissue that is called fascia. Fascia is a specialized, tough layer of connective tissue that surrounds muscles, bones and joints and gives support and protection to the body from head to toe. Fascia is extremely strong and usually transmits mechanical tension generated by muscle activity and external forces. When there is a chronic tension, the fascia hardens, thickens, and restricts the free muscle movement and that leads to even more dysfunctions. Micro-tears of the tendons can develop. Myofascial release is a technique where you “massage” and stretch the fascia, so it will return to its original soft and subtle texture. As a result, the stress on the surrounding tissues will decrease and your injury will go away. You can seek a professional who specializes in myofascial release or you can use this technique on yourself with help of a foam ball.
This myofascial release booklet will teach you how to help yourself, especially if you have issues with chronic injuries. Finding and massaging away the trigger points, and performing myofascial release regularly will prolong your athletic career, increase the functionality of your muscles and decrease the injuries that you suffer. Your performance and tennis game will improve dramatically.
Content
1. Trigger Points and Chronic Pain
2. Foot Myofascial Release for Plantar Fasciitis
3. Lower Leg Myofascial Release for Shin Splints
4. Calf Myofascial Release
5. Quadriceps Myofascial Release for Knee Pain
6. Hip Flexor Myofascial Release for Lower Back Pain
7. TFL Muscle Myofascial Release for Hip Pain
8. IT Band Myofascial Release for Knee Pain
9. Piriformis Myofascial Release for Sciatica Pain
10. Hamstrings Myofascial Release for Lower Back Pain
11. Upper Back Myofascial Release for Neck Pain
12. Chest Myofascial Release for Shoulder Pain
13. Myofascial Release Recovery Routine
Price: $2.99
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.
The shoulders are involved in nearly all your daily movements. You lift things, carry bags, drive cars, write on the computer and play sports. Your lifestyle might cause you to experience tight shoulders from too much sitting with your head forward. There are exercises you can do to strengthen your shoulders.
Read More…
(Suzanna @livestrong.com)
Every athlete can benefit from strong hip flexors. However, hip flexor strengthening is very seldom included in the training regimen. For a tennis player, strong hip flexors, hamstrings and glutes will improve performance dramatically. The stronger the hip flexors, the faster you are going to be, because you will have more powerful and faster forward movement. Lateral movement in tennis is important, but you have to move forward as well, because every “first step” that you make is a “movement forward” that you want to have very explosive.
Good vision is important not just for tennis but for everything that you do in life. Just like the muscles in the body, the small muscles in the eyes would benefit from some training. There are special clinics for vision therapy for athletes and obviously, they are great. But if you cannot do a vision therapy under the doctor’s supervision, you still can do some home exercises for your eyes, and it will be beneficial for you and your tennis game as well.
Every high level athlete is pushing his or her body to the extreme – training every day for hours and often on hard surfaces (the concrete courts of Los Angeles are very unfriendly to the tennis player’s body!). Additionally, the uneven nature of tennis where one side is always used more than the other, makes it even worse for your body. You need to spend as much time and effort – if not more – to recreating balance and health in your body as you do playing tennis. You need to 1) stretch after each practice, 2) pay good attention to your body and listen to its even subtle signs signaling you what is happening, and 3) be aware of your posture, balance, flexibility and “evenness” of your both sides – the right and left side of your body should be equally strong and flexible.
