Chest warmup exercises before playing

[EddieBrock]

I strained a chest muscle on my left side (2 handed backhand)a while ago and this has been a recurring injury so I went to a PT and started doing some stretches for it at home and doing some treatment there. I asked if I can still play and he said yes, but I should make sure to warm up my chest muscles before starting and in general to warm up slowly.

Aside from mini tennis what would be a good way to warm up? I'm playing early Monday morning and wanted to do some exercises before I walk on the court.

 

[movdqa]

I do stretches/exercises mainly for the rotator cuff for upper body (also neck stretches) but some of these do the chest too. My routine:

1) Take arm straight, fold horizontally over chest and pull the elbow with the opposite hand
2) Arm up high, bent 90 degrees over head, gently pull elbow with opposite hand to the side
3) Arm up high, bent at an acute angle downwards, gently pull elbow downward with opposite hand
4) Arms straight out to the sides, twist at the waist 90 degrees to the side and then over to 90 degrees to the other side
5) Arm circles, large and small
6) Arms behind back, straight, hands connected and lift up gently
7) Look up and open mouth as wide as possible
8) Standing up straight, arms straight up, hands connected, tilt to the left and then to the right
9) Calf stretch
10) Hamstring stretch
11) Runner's Stretch

There are some yoga poses that would make for good chest warmups. Offhand, I think that Warrior I and Warrior II would be good. Some of the triangle poses would be good too.

 

[IowaGuy]

I do these as part of warmup and again after a match.