Saturday, January 18, 2014

Fitness for 2014

2014 is a good time to start a fitness regimen. We talked about it all week at SHP clinics this week—at the end of the day, the fitter person is stronger, healthier, faster, and more confident than their opponent on the tennis court, no matter what level you are playing at.

We’ve begun to incorporate different types of fitness into our clinics, and it is important that you stay on top of fitness on your own time as well. I had a lesson of my own in this just this holiday break. As an avid runner (amongst other things, like Pilates and yoga), I jogged around my neighborhood Publix, a perfect circle that is about 3.5 miles. 

Let’s preface this with I haven’t jogged in a while—I almost died. Okay, maybe not literally, but after the jog I had the worst headache, my legs were wobbly, my face tomato-red, and, of course, I was hyperventilating, for a lack of a better metaphor, like a moose (Do moose even hyperventilate? And what is the plural of moose? Mooses? Moosi? Ah, the entertainment of some good ol’ English language humor) I grudgingly ran again the next day, knowing, or at least hoping, that it would be better. It wasn’t better. Same tomato face, same hyperventilation, same headache (it’s normal, by the way, to have an exercise induced headache if you haven’t worked out in a while), and a feeling of regret. Some say I am a glutton for punishment—the next day, I ran another 3.5 miles. All of a sudden, my face still tomato red, I came home feeling a tad bit better. I could draw the story out a bit longer, but all in all, it took me about six days of running to get back into running shape. I was able to run on the seventh day without so much hyperventilation, red face, ect.

Guess how long it took to get back out of shape? Two days. Two days off and I was back running the third day huffing and puffing. Moral of the story—it’s not so easy to stay in shape as you think. The good thing about you kiddos is that you are young and usually much more active—playing tennis is, after all, good exercise. Now, fitness on the other hand, makes tennis a lot easier to handle, and through a long day of a tournament or a weekend of high school matches, you definitely need it. It also helps you stay powerful through your strokes. Some bigger and taller kids wonder why they can’t hit a serve as hard as some other (shorter) kids do, but when I ask them to do twenty crunches; they barely make it without being in pain. Core muscles are huge in all strokes to gain power. Leg muscles help explosiveness—aka, being able to get to the ball. Arm muscles help build technique. Yup, that’s right. The stronger, say, your wrist is, the less likely you’ll drop your wrist on a volley. Stronger triceps? Yes, you got it, stronger overhead technique. Overall body training is important, so take what you learn at clinics and utilize it once a day for ten to twenty minutes to build strength in your body. There are so many exercises that are simple and necessitate only body weight or light dumbbells that can help build your game up. Here are some examples of quick, ten minute power builders! Get to it!

Monday- 20 lunges each leg, 40 squats, 15 frog jumps (try to do this twice through)

Tuesday- 1 minute plank, 30 second side plank on each side, 40 supermans (back), 40 fast bicycles, 20 slow-mo bicycles

Wednesday- 25 bench (or sofa) dips, 25 wrist weights in each direction (up and down with your palms down, up and down with your palms sideways, side to side, usually with a 2 to 5 pound weight), 25 bicep curls (8-25 pound weight)
         
Thursday- 40 suitcases (or 80 crunches), 40 alternating supermans (lift left arm, right leg, and vice versa), 40 Russian twists (legs up, can add optional weight), twice through


Friday- 25 lunge jumps each leg, 500 jump rope, 25-100 double jumps (not in a row)

No comments:

Post a Comment