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)
