Tennis Exercises, Fitness and Conditioning - Beware Bad Training Advice
If you’re looking for an exercise program to improve your tennis game, and if you’re serious about your game you should be, one of the worst things you can do is blindly follow the strength training advice given in general fitness magazines.
General fitness magazines have to cater to a wide range of fitness enthusiasts. Tennis players have specific needs when it comes to strength exercises, aerobic conditioning, stretching and proper warm-up exercises before your tennis matches. General fitness magazines are filled with great content and exercise plans and resources. They are just not necessarily designed for the special workout needs of tennis. Some of the advice is perfectly safe and beneficial. But some of it can be very harmful.
Here’s one example of a common exercise that is recommended by many fitness magazines and fitness experts that can cause some serious damage for those who suffer from tennis elbow. The exercise is called the “Upright Row”. Here’s a brief explanation…
The Upright Row Exercise
The “Upright Row” is performed with a pair of dumbbells or barbell. You grab the bar with your hands placed about 5 inches apart and lift it straight up to your body stopping just below the chin. You normally repeat this for 5 - 10 reps. If you’ve been performing this exercise at your local gym and you play a lot of tennis you may have noticed that you have started getting more pain in your elbow. If you already are suffering from tennis elbow, you’ll probably notice that it is getting worse. This exercise could very well be the reason.
The long and short of it is that you should avoid the “Upright Row as part of your strength training workout. For exercises specific to tennis players this tennis exercise and conditioning program is a much better choice.
Tennis Exercises and Conditioning for Physical and Mental Toughness
Did you know that tennis is one of a handful of sports where the mental conditioning and toughness of the players, particularly for ranked professional players, plays as big or sometimes even bigger role in their success? It’s true. Being physically ready for the challenges of your tennis matches through proper exercises, both tennis exercises and conditioning, and general exercises like strength training and aerobic training is a given.
- Tennis Mental Toughness
But preparing yourself for the mental challenges of the game is not something that most players do. The biggest reason is that your average tennis enthusiast is just out there to have fun and socialize with friends, business partners, or whomever. The next level of tennis enthusiast are the ones who put more effort in their tennis training, physical exercises and development of a more complete tennis game through endless repetition of practice drills.
If you want to bring your game to the next level, first of all make sure that you have a physical exercise regime in place and that you stick to it. This will greatly increase your odds of not losing matches simply because of physical exhaustion or injury. Next, work on preparing yourself for the mental challenge. Tennis is a sport where you have a lot of time to think in between the action. This thinking can easily start going in a negative direction if you miss easy shots or are getting overwhelmed by an opponent who is just having an “on” day.
When you need to, pause and regroup mentally. The point you just lost is over and done with. You’re nit getting it back. try to put yourself in the best possible frame of mind to win the next point. Don’t obsess with the current score or start projecting what you need to accomplish in order to win. Treat each point as an individual event. Your ONLY goal is to win that point. Once that goal is accomplished, your new goal is to when the next point.
Compartmentalizing points this way can help you from becoming overwhelmed, particularly if the score is not in your favor.
So there you have it. Proper tennis exercises and conditioning plus an emphasis on your mental preparedness can bring your game to a whole new level.
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Improve Your Game!!
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