Fitnessology, Inc.
That's a pretty straight forward and accurate title. Tennis, like any sport, is played for the enjoyment and rush we get from competition. If you play any sport (especially one as dynamic and loaded with repetitive motions and stressful impacts as tennis) as your only form of exercise, you're not only missing out on performing at your best potential, but also setting yourself up for reoccurring aches and pains or, even worse, an injury that could keep you from playing all together.
There are three main reasons you should be doing specific stretching and strengthening exercises if you play tennis:
1. Get the most out of your tennis lessons!
A tennis coach will watch your movements during all components of your game and work with you to make changes to improve your mechanics. They'll pick up on the smallest details or flaws with your technique and explain how you should be moving to better your performance. Many times, however, there are physical restrictions in the range of motion and/or strength of the knees, hips, shoulders, etc. that will limit the ability to perform properly. Exercising to improve muscular imbalances and joint range of motions will assure that you're able to have proper mechanics and enhance your tennis coaches' ability to improve your game.
2. Play to your full potential!
Every elite athlete does some form of strength training and flexibility training...here's a list of reasons why:
- Increased force production due to overall strength and range of motion improvement
- Quicker reaction time from speed and stability strengthening
- Improved accuracy due to rotator cuff strength/endurance improvement
- Improved ability to perform proper mechanics due to decreased muscular imbalances
3. Reduce the risk of injury!
As I've already mentioned, following an individualized workout routine will help to reduce the risk of injury mainly by improving muscular imbalances and joint range of motions. The majority of tennis injuries occur in the knees or shoulders. Knee injuries can many times be attributed to a weakness or instability of the hips and/or ankle, whereas shoulder injuries can often be the result of compensations from limited range of motion due to postural weaknesses. Strengthening and flexibility exercises emphasizing the correction of poor posture and postural weaknesses will greatly reduce the likelihood of an injury occurring.
So how should you go about learning what you need to be doing and how to do it??? While there are a core group of exercises and areas that every athlete needs to emphasize strength and/or flexibility with, each individual presents their own unique postural imbalances. Therefore, the first thing that anyone should do when starting a new workout program is to consult a fitness expert. Here are the steps that I recommend you take:
1st - Have a goals/needs and movement assessment performed by a Level 3 or 4 wellness trainer...the higher level trainers are skilled in determining individual strengths and weaknesses.
2nd - After your assessment, you'll receive an "action plan" which will outline what was learned during the assessment and what needs to be done to reach your goals.
3rd - Work with the appropriate level trainer as detailed in your action plan to learn your specific stretching and strengthening program...whether or not you continue to work with the trainer on a regular basis or just meet occasionally for "check-ups" will be discussed with your trainer.
(*there is no cost for having an assessment performed if you are a member of Western Racquet!)
Tennis is an extremely fun and competitive sport...make sure you take the necessary steps so that you can enjoy it for a lifetime!
