weightlifting

Bluefan75 said:

Good for you for keeping it up for 2 years, but why would you have all this complexity? Why not squat, deadlift, press, with pullups and dips added in? That's a lot of stuff to keep track of, and for what benefit over a simple plan?

Like I say, good for you, but that seems highly inefficient.

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I'm not training specifically for tennis. My first love is body building/sculpting and I'm doing what I feel is necessary for overall strength and symmetry. I can see the value in simplifying with more basic exercises but that's not going to satisfy me. It seems like a lot of "stuff" and it is, but I am rarely in the gym for more than 75 minutes. I don't mess around and just get things done.

I will agree that it takes motivation and it can be mentally and physically taxing, especially on the night where I play singles for 90 minutes before going to the gym.

Thanks for the input from everyone. It makes me think.

IA-SteveB said:

I'm not training specifically for tennis. My first love is body building/sculpting and I'm doing what I feel is necessary for overall strength and symmetry. I can see the value in simplifying with more basic exercises but that's not going to satisfy me. It seems like a lot of "stuff" and it is, but I am rarely in the gym for more than 75 minutes. I don't mess around and just get things done.

I will agree that it takes motivation and it can be mentally and physically taxing, especially on the night where I play singles for 90 minutes before going to the gym.

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If you're body building, then yes, absolutely, what you are doing lines up. My first thought was "those are body building exercises, not strength training." Makes sense now!

Your last sentence is my problem. If I'm playing tennis I seem to "find" an excuse to not get under the bar that day. I'm only lifting three days a week at most, so usually I have a bit of wiggle room, but....

I hear you. It isn't easy to stay motivated with so many fun distractions.

Bluefan75 said:

If you're body building, then yes, absolutely, what you are doing lines up. My first thought was "those are body building exercises, not strength training." Makes sense now!

Your last sentence is my problem. If I'm playing tennis I seem to "find" an excuse to not get under the bar that day. I'm only lifting three days a week at most, so usually I have a bit of wiggle room, but....

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Yeah you need to stop finding excuses. There are times I’m playing tennis on Saturday morning. After a rough 2 sets my friend asks me if I want to play a 3rd. I usually tell him to play a tiebreaker because I’m going to the gym later for weight training. He can’t believe I’m going! I actually feel more motivated when I’m going 5-6 times a week rather than 2-3. I do bro splits so I can recover. I don’t know if my schedule will allow me to do that during the next few months, but I’ll see what I can do.


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Complete Conditioning for Tennis
Kovacs, Roetert and Ellenbecker
http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/Com...k_Second_Edition/descpageKINETIC-BCCDVD2.html

This book has tennis specific exercises and stretches. Performance and preventing injury goals.

I believe that tennis normally gives you some minor injuries sooner or later. Toughing it out and doing heavy weightlifting may give you a chronic injury, say, for example if you have a small tendon tear. Study the injuries that you want to stop immediately for and how long recovery is so that you don't make decisions with false beliefs. You may not use that information for years but then avoid a chronic injury (as in permanent). See thread - Tendon Injury Nuthouse

I once overheard two serious sounding tennis players talking in the gym. One was telling the other how tennis and gym was a lot for him. He quit tennis.

Not young, I began using the gym and continued for several years. Most noticed was that the strength increase in my legs and gave me obviously better balance and my speed went up. 'Drop shot the old guy' did not work that well any longer. My regular opponents were surprised, noticed my speed increase and commented on it. ....

gaussian said:

Is basic weightlifting helpful to a tennis player or is it training in the wrong way?

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Taking tennis lessons and drilling like the pros is helpful to a tennis player.

I have been thinking about picking up the TB12 book by Tom Brady. It seems to have a lot of good things to do to keep yourself pliable in the second half of life. What's keeping me from buying it is the Tom Cruise/Scientology vibe I get from it.

For the last few years, I have been down to about 1x a week or less at the gym due to scheduling and time limitations and travel.

As a result I have been doing a whole body workout. something like this:

barbell bench press
squat
chinups
standing shoulder press with dumbells.
lunges while holding dumbells
deadlift
dips
rotator cuff work

Going 1x a week or less, I have found that it is hard to increase much strength, but I have also been getting very little sleep and not eating a ton.

Considering I am mostly inactive (not much tennis either), once a week has been enabled me to maintain strength and make tasks that require strength easier.
(e.g. climbing on the roof to fix something, carrying heavy luggage and other stuff, picking up 4-limbed being that can squirm and cry and continuously gains weight over time)

Ramon said:

I wonder how many of these Yoga guys have enough flexibility and balance to perform an overhead squat? I'm not even talking ridiculous amounts of weight, just try a regular barbell with no weights at all so we take strength out of the equation. This is a move that Olympic style weight lifters do routinely.

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The ones that are good at inversions can probably do an overhead squat. Some of the yoga moves that involve handstands-type moves and dynamic inversions require a lot of strength-to-weight plus balance and core stability.

2good4U said:

Sorry, but muscles don't wear on your joints, they help support them,
adding stability, and acting as a shock absorber.

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There are some gym guys that only work their upper body and have chicken legs. Probably not so good for their knees.

onehandbh said:

There are some gym guys that only work their upper body and have chicken legs. Probably not so good for their knees.

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No, but c'mon bro, Abzzz and Gunzzzzz!

Quick selfie first, though.

Bluefan75 said:

No, but c'mon bro, Abzzz and Gunzzzzz!

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AB-solutely. More curlz 4 the gurlz.

IA-SteveB said:

Quick selfie first, though.

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no.
gotta Facebook live the flex session at the gym.

Remember to first pump up with 27 sets of barbell curls, preacher curls, iso dumbell curls, tricep extensions, and then of course the full body swing max 1 rep barbell curl with primal grunt.

and OIL. must apply oil to the gunz.

NRA will be knocking on your door soon to sign you up.

Weight training can help your tennis game and longevity in the sport. It depends how you do it. The stronger your muscles are, the less chance you have of sustaining an injury. Generally you want to have a strength phase and then a power phase in your workouts which is tennis specific. This way you basically convert your strength gains into explosive power. If you body build to gain muscles/weight and don't do any power training, then of course you may get slower. I've got a workout guide, podcasts, and some articles on the subject (no links because I don't want to get in trouble, but see my sig ). Best of luck!

tennisfiles said:

Weight training can help your tennis game and longevity in the sport. It depends how you do it. The stronger your muscles are, the less chance you have of sustaining an injury. If you body build to gain muscles/weight and don't do any power training, then of course you may get slower.

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Sorry, but the bigger your muscles are, the less chance you have of sustaining an injury.

You can't develop larger muscles without building strength as well.
(big muscles are made up of fast-twitch fibers)

Serena is massive by Tennis pro standards, and she sure ain't slow!

2good4U said:

Sorry, but the bigger your muscles are, the less chance you have of sustaining an injury.

You can't develop larger muscles without building strength as well.
(big muscles are made up of fast-twitch fibers)

Serena is massive by Tennis pro standards, and she sure ain't slow!

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Dude. You have a way of misinterpreting people and telling them they're wrong when they never said it at all!!