Tennis Fitness Tips

jigar

jigar

Professional
There is no such thing as injury free tennis unless you stop playing it.
You can surely avoid some injuries using fitness routines and better mechanics.
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
jigar said:
There is no such thing as injury free tennis unless you stop playing it.
You can surely avoid some injuries using fitness routines and better mechanics.
Click to expand...

Just found this topic. I am the author of the book. BTW, thank you, Beststringer, for your kind words.... Jigar, you indeed can play injury-free tennis if you pay attention to your body. It's the fitness routine (including stretching and myofascial release) to reverse the imbalances that tennis creates. It's never too late, only it can take longer time to get more balanced if you are really messed up. But it's completely doable.
 
maverick66

maverick66

Hall of Fame
sixftlion said:
Just found this topic. I am the author of the book. BTW, thank you, Beststringer, for your kind words.... Jigar, you indeed can play injury-free tennis if you pay attention to your body. It's the fitness routine (including stretching and myofascial release) to reverse the imbalances that tennis creates. It's never too late, only it can take longer time to get more balanced if you are really messed up. But it's completely doable.
Click to expand...

In a sport with as much impact on the knees and hips plus the hard rotaion of the torso with the constant use of the shoulder no you cant play injury free. You can only hope to prevent nagging injuries and put yourself in a position not to be hurt. But seriously the most well conditioned people will get over use injuries.

I wont count things like broken ankles because that has nothing to do with conditioning as much as just bad luck.
 
dozu

dozu

Banned
if a $10.76 book can lead to injury free tennis, the ATP trainers will be out of a job.

there are certainly ways to reduce the chance of injury, but after 20+ years of tennis, let me say that it's just a matter of time before every joint involved in tennis gets injured.
 
B

Bacterio

Rookie
I'm in my early 20s and been playing for about 4yrs. I've only had two serious injuries and both of them were from muscle imbalances. That's something most gym rats would know about but info that's very rare for your typical rec player to know since you don't usually hear about weekend warriors taking their fitness too seriously.

My muscle imbalances were in my hams and traps. I'm talking about almost 20lbs difference in what I could lift on one side vs the other. It wasn't until I started getting serious about my weight routines and my fitness that I realized I had those imbalances and that they caused my injuries which I thought were all tennis related on account of bad technique.

If the book covers that issue, which it seems it does, that alone would make it worth it in my opinion. And as far as injury free tennis, I'm of the belief that it's entirely possible if you maintain a good fitness level and aren't stubborn about listening to your body. So many times people try to play through minor pain and don't realize that they might have turned an injury that might have sidelined them for a week to an injury that's now going to take a few weeks to nurse back to health.
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
dozu said:
if a $10.76 book can lead to injury free tennis, the ATP trainers will be out of a job.

there are certainly ways to reduce the chance of injury, but after 20+ years of tennis, let me say that it's just a matter of time before every joint involved in tennis gets injured.
Click to expand...

It's not the book itself... you still gotta do the stuff that's in it. The pros have trainers, massage therapist, etc who are experts and who do all that to them and the pros are working hard off court.

The book is for people who don't know what to do... teach them the basic awareness and what to do. And yes, it's true that if you just play tennis and then sit around and don't do any recovery (strength, stretch, myo), of course you will get hurt. If you do all that stuff, you won't. It's not a miracle, but discipline and work.
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
maverick66 said:
In a sport with as much impact on the knees and hips plus the hard rotaion of the torso with the constant use of the shoulder no you cant play injury free. You can only hope to prevent nagging injuries and put yourself in a position not to be hurt. But seriously the most well conditioned people will get over use injuries.

I wont count things like broken ankles because that has nothing to do with conditioning as much as just bad luck.
Click to expand...

Well conditioned is the point. A fit and quick tennis player is not necessarily well conditioned in a sense of fully functional and balanced body. I know of many great Open level players (and teaching pros) who look tremendously fit, yet their bodies are complete mess, without them knowing... weak hamstrings (compared to quads), tight right hip and right shoulder (for the righthanders), weak left gluteus medius (and not triggering), etc... Of course, sooner or later they will get hurt... The goal of a serious tennis player should be to get rid of the imbalances. But you gotta find them first.
 
B

Bacterio

Rookie
sixftlion said:
Well conditioned is the point. A fit and quick tennis player is not necessarily well conditioned in a sense of fully functional and balanced body. I know of many great Open level players (and teaching pros) who look tremendously fit, yet their bodies are complete mess, without them knowing... weak hamstrings (compared to quads), tight right hip and right shoulder (for the righthanders), weak left gluteus medius (and not triggering), etc... Of course, sooner or later they will get hurt... The goal of a serious tennis player should be to get rid of the imbalances. But you gotta find them first.
Click to expand...

You seriously just sold me on buying this book. Every thing you're pointing out is stuff I ran across when I decided to start taking my fitness more seriously. Being young, athletic, and quite flexible, I didn't think there was anything wrong with my body that would be causing injuries, which is why I first associated it with bad technique.

My quad to hamstring ratio was way off. So many players underestimate how much strength they naturally build on their dominant side and how a sport like tennis will emphasize those imbalances. I feel like it's just information that they have yet to come across. Kind of like people with back problems that think it's their back when in reality it ends up being something like lack of flexibility in their hamstrings pulling on their back.

I'm glad the OP brought up the book, because it seems like it's very informative.
 
maverick66

maverick66

Hall of Fame
sixftlion said:
Well conditioned is the point. A fit and quick tennis player is not necessarily well conditioned in a sense of fully functional and balanced body. I know of many great Open level players (and teaching pros) who look tremendously fit, yet their bodies are complete mess, without them knowing... weak hamstrings (compared to quads), tight right hip and right shoulder (for the righthanders), weak left gluteus medius (and not triggering), etc... Of course, sooner or later they will get hurt... The goal of a serious tennis player should be to get rid of the imbalances. But you gotta find them first.
Click to expand...

Even well balanced people will get hurt. Its a sport that involves a lot of punding in the hips on down. Especially seems most of these posters play on hard courts. They will get injuries. Maybe minor ones which I seriously hope that is all they get but they will happen. Even if I fix your imbalances that doesnt make you immune.

That is my only issue with what you said. To say injury free in this sport is just a very irresponsible thing to say. If you had said it will help in the prevention of injury that would be another thing. However to say this book will make you injury free is just wrong.
 
G

GuyClinch

Legend
You are being too hard on the author. It's possible for someone who plays a limited amount on say clay to be pretty injury free I think.

I looked through the book on amazon and I got to say it looks pretty good.. I might get it.
 
G

GuyClinch

Legend
^^^Heh. Sad thing is my lunch at Chipolte here in NYC cost 10 bucks. So I ordered it. Even though generally I hate tennis books this is an exercise one so I will give it a shot.

My feeling is that this book is well targetted - if you look at the forum here like 90% of the fitness section is - my shoulder hurts, my knee hurts, my foot hurts etc etc. You see very few posters interested in increasing actual athletic performance because if you are hurt that doesn't even really cross your mind.
 
C

crystal_clear

Professional
It sounds a good book to me. I do some stretching which I copy from Yoga DVD after match to help me recovery and they are very effective. I recently bought a book Stretching Anatomy (Highly recommend) explains certain stretching work on certain muscle groups and improper stretching might cause injury. I am not sure which stretching is more suitable for tennis players or I need to do more to target certain areas which I am missing. Besides, the reviews are good. I want to get one for sure.

May I have a question for the author？ Does it have a lots of pictures and does it include a DVD?

Too bad Amazon.ca costs 14.81 CAN though Canadian dollar is stronger than US$. :((
 
J

jdubbs

Hall of Fame
Right now, my foot, shoulder, hip and glutes are all in various amounts of minor pain.

Tournament coming up on Saturday. If I do well, it means 3 matches in 2 days. Know I'll be out for a week afterwards. I seriously don't know how the pro's do it. Of course, I'm not 23 anymore (more like almost 40) but still...
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
maverick66 said:
Even well balanced people will get hurt. Its a sport that involves a lot of punding in the hips on down. Especially seems most of these posters play on hard courts. They will get injuries. Maybe minor ones which I seriously hope that is all they get but they will happen. Even if I fix your imbalances that doesnt make you immune.

That is my only issue with what you said. To say injury free in this sport is just a very irresponsible thing to say. If you had said it will help in the prevention of injury that would be another thing. However to say this book will make you injury free is just wrong.
Click to expand...

Maverick66, that would be quite long title if I used your description ;-) And I still believe we do the things correctly, you can play injury-free. I am a pretty good example, 46 years old (i.e. don't recover as well as the youngsters), play every day, on the hard courts, mostly singles. I understand what you are saying about the beating of your joints on the concrete, yet again, if you after each session find what is getting messed up in your body and correct it immediately, you'll be in good shape. That's the awareness that the book teaches... for example a current knee pain started maybe 3-4 months earlier with your gluteus medius not triggering and your IT band getting overloaded and tight. It was not hurting then, so you may not known that something was wrong. If you can find that problem immediately and correct it, you won't have that knee issue several months later.
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
crystal_clear said:
It sounds a good book to me. I do some stretching which I copy from Yoga DVD after match to help me recovery and they are very effective. I recently bought a book Stretching Anatomy (Highly recommend) explains certain stretching work on certain muscle groups and improper stretching might cause injury. I am not sure which stretching is more suitable for tennis players or I need to do more to target certain areas which I am missing. Besides, the reviews are good. I want to get one for sure.

May I have a question for the author？ Does it have a lots of pictures and does it include a DVD?

Too bad Amazon.ca costs 14.81 CAN though Canadian dollar is stronger than US$. :((
Click to expand...

The book has about 80 pictures. 60 short chapters (2-3 pages) so we can keep the attention span. You don't need to read cover to cover, just find your problems and start there. I made the book small so it would fit in the tennis bag, and all the routines can be done outdoors after the tennis practice (i.e. no gym necessary). I believe that if we do even a little (10-15 minutes), it will make a huge difference over time. No DVD yet, but I plan to have some eventually.
 
sixftlion

sixftlion

Rookie
jdubbs said:
Right now, my foot, shoulder, hip and glutes are all in various amounts of minor pain.

Tournament coming up on Saturday. If I do well, it means 3 matches in 2 days. Know I'll be out for a week afterwards. I seriously don't know how the pro's do it. Of course, I'm not 23 anymore (more like almost 40) but still...
Click to expand...

Jdubbs, try to do this piriformis myofascial release, that can help you a lot over the weekend. You can use a softball or lacrosse ball if you don't have the foam myoball. Also roll your IT band and quads. It's pretty painful, but when it gets less painful, you know you your muscles are getting better. For the shoulder, roll the chest and do some (50) of these elbow curls a few times per day. See how it goes...
 
N

NinjaKiwi

Banned
How to Handle Rejection From Women

maverick66 said:
Even well balanced people will get hurt. Its a sport that involves a lot of punding in the hips on down. Especially seems most of these posters play on hard courts. They will get injuries. Maybe minor ones which I seriously hope that is all they get but they will happen. Even if I fix your imbalances that doesnt make you immune.

That is my only issue with what you said. To say injury free in this sport is just a very irresponsible thing to say. If you had said it will help in the prevention of injury that would be another thing. However to say this book will make you injury free is just wrong.
Click to expand...


How to Handle Rejection From Women!

Rejection is a part of everyday life. People are turned down for raises, refused promotions, declined for loans, and passed over for recognition. Rejection is not final. Rejection is not ruin. Indeed, rejection can be the precursor to eventual success.

When you do face rejection, and you will, accept it with good cheer. Bounce back and try again (presumably with a different woman). Continued life experience will desensitize you to the trauma of having doors slammed in your face. You learn to survive. You learn to go on. You learn to keep trying to let of it.

http://www.getgirls.com/tips119.htm
 
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