Do you lift?

A

accidental

Hall of Fame
What kind of lifting do you do?

How often?

How does it affect your tennis?

Do you use any supplements?




Im just trying to get a feel of how many people both lift weights and play tennis regularly.
 
I'm 19. Been lifting seriously 2 years straight..

goto bodybuilding.com or muscleandstrength.com to get info

i started doing rippetoe's Starting Strength, is amazing.

When you're a beginner you need to focus on compound lifts and barbell training. You need to build a solid frame first.


I just lift normally because i'm in college and want to look good especially for females. Plus it helps get aggression out and being strong feels...good.

I've done a number of different routines since i started.. started with straight barbell training focusing on compound lifts, you gotta. Those kids you see going to the gym doing bicep curls all day quit early because they dont know what they're doing.

I don't train for tennis since i'm not playing competitively..but being fit and strong in general definitely helps.


Right now i'm on a 4 day split which hits each muscle group twice a week.

I've done countless different routines and different exercises..i usually switch up my routine every 6-8 weeks.

And i give myself a rest/deload week every 6. Lifting puts good stress on your joints and central nervous system.

I cycled creatine a few times also def helps get your lift #'s up.

But usually everyday consists of:
Multivitamin,
Fish oil tablet or 2 with each meal,
And a Whey shake after every workout.. and some days as a mid morning snack before lunch.

On a bulk right now... one last one before nice weather comes...going to cut in may before i goto myrtle beach for 10 days in june.

gotta be cut for the beach ya know :P
 
accidental said:
What kind of lifting do you do?

How often?

How does it affect your tennis?

Do you use any supplements?




Im just trying to get a feel of how many people both lift weights and play tennis regularly.
Click to expand...

I lift cheeseburgers, pizza, fried chicken,steaks, ribs, fries, chips. I do heavy lifting.

I supplement my lifting with slurping partially melted ice cream.
 
I followed that program Charliefederer posts around here all the time.

Still haven't started my season, but can't wait to see the results :)
 
I lift twice a week. On day 1, I do weighted dips, weighted chinups, and will soon start reintroducing squats. On day 2 I do flat dumbell presses, one arm dumbell rows, and romanian deadlifts.

Once I rebuild my squat strength, I'm gonna start doing powercleans.

I lift heavy, low reps, and two working sets.
 
Extended pushups are not for the meek.
It's been said in some sports fitness books that an AVERAGE of one in a thousand humans can do TWO.
Lay on tummy, nice can comfy. Stretch out nice and long, with your arms as far as you can. COMFORTABLY bring arms towards shoulders until elbow just starts to touch the ground.
Now using your palms, elbows, and toes (not tip, but bottom of toe), push up and clear your butt 24" off the ground, your tummy 14" clear of the ground.
That is an extended pushup. You can do it, because you play tennis, you are young, fit, athletic.
Basically an ab crunch, in conjunction with lats compression and upper thigh compression.
 
Been lifting for many years, it is the best way to stay in the game even as you age. I think free weights+body weight movements are best.

Right now combining trx with free weights, very good combo. Most of my lifting now is centered around injury prevention for tennis.
 
I lift, been doing 3 days a week but slowly starting to add days.

Started with Stronglifts, then moved to Starting Strength, dabbled in 20 rep squats, and now im learning Olympic Lifting

Not sure how it affects my tennis though, mainly because i've gotten so into lifting that it takes massive priority over tennis.

After all, tennis is not a sport you can really pick up in your late teens and reach a top level, but its possible in weightlifting
 
SuperDuy said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIVfe-crHDs
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SuperDuy said:
And this one is even better:
'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZydTPxFdcU&NR=1
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maverick66 said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fJkcsOkRb0
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LeeD said:
Extended pushups are not for the meek.
It's been said in some sports fitness books that an AVERAGE of one in a thousand humans can do TWO.
Lay on tummy, nice can comfy. Stretch out nice and long, with your arms as far as you can. COMFORTABLY bring arms towards shoulders until elbow just starts to touch the ground.
Now using your palms, elbows, and toes (not tip, but bottom of toe), push up and clear your butt 24" off the ground, your tummy 14" clear of the ground.
That is an extended pushup. You can do it, because you play tennis, you are young, fit, athletic.
Basically an ab crunch, in conjunction with lats compression and upper thigh compression.
Click to expand...

Wat.

10chars
 
accidental said:
What kind of lifting do you do?

How often?

How does it affect your tennis?

Do you use any supplements?




Im just trying to get a feel of how many people both lift weights and play tennis regularly.
Click to expand...

Free weights, compound movements.
Twice a week.
I feel it has improved my game.
No, I think supplements are a waste of money.
 
I lift. I'm almost 40 and have a career and family that take up most of my time, so I basically have three evenings a week to work out. During the offseason, 1 night a week was for tennis and 2 for lifting, split into upper body (chest/shoulders) and lower body (legs/back) days. On both days, I do squats and bench press so that I am at least hitting both areas with compound lifts in every workout. In my upper body day, I do light squats (3 sets of 8 work sets) and heavy bench (3 x 5). The supplemental exercises (all 3 x 8) are miitary press, shrugs, and dumbell flys (occassionally curls or tris instead of flys to mix it up). for the lwoer body workout, I do heavy squat (3 x 5) and light bench (3 x 8), along with dead lift (Romanian), rows, and lats (occassionally leg extensions & curls instead of lats).

That heavy lifting cycle combined with a clean bulk diet lasted November-January. February-April is my preseason cycle. I have condensed the lifting to one day, all 3x8 working sets for squat, bench, DL, military, and shrugs or rows. For the other gym workout, I have changed to cardio and plyos. The cardio usually consists of running 20 mins at 8 min mile pace (or slightly faster) followed by 6 interval sprints. Then a set of plyos, another set of sprints, and a set of plyos to finish. This all takes about 45-50 mins and is quite a workout. I have also transitiioned to a cutting diet to lean out again for the season.

In season, which starts in about a month, I will be playing at least 2-3 times a week, and trying to get in the gym for one workout. I'll probably limit lifting to squat, bench, military, and shrugs plus a condensed version of the sprints/plyos workout (the running should be unnecessary at that point). In season, I will be on a maintenance diet.

The is the first winter that I have really had a heavy lifting program (the last couple, I did some lifting with machines, but the free weights are 1000x better), and I have definitely noticed a difference in my game (at least in the results - I am competing with guys that I would get blown off the court before).

EDIT: the only supplement that I take is creatine during the heavy lifting cycle (and protein powder if you consider that a supplement).
 
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I do both..or at least did until my recent injury. In the last year, I would play tennis max 3 times a week for a couple of hours each session, but I would lift 4 to 5 days a week.

In-season (late Spring, Summer, early Fall), I would limit my lifting to what I consider my maintenance weight/reps 50%-70% of my max at 10-12 reps per exercise. 3 sets at max. I also did less cardio (twice a week, 20 minutes max each session). Workouts last around 1.5 hours. I usually have one day where I do on-court work but don't hit any balls. This only last 30 minutes to one hour max.

Off-season (Late Fall through early Spring), I lifted heavier and increased my cardio. 80 to 90% max and reps of 4 to 8, 6 sets max. Up to 4 cardio days of 30 to 45 minutes each. Tennis amounted to twice a week, if I was lucky, due to weather and availability but more times than not I could only get hitting session. Workouts last anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5 hours depending on the what I'm working and the "craziness" of the gym.

As for supplements, whey protein and a multi-vitamin are really the only supplements I take consistently.
 
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It sounds like you have settled into a cycle that will work for you given all your competing time demands. My regimen is similar, although I push to get in at least one more lifting workout/week in the "offseason" and during the season. In the "offseason" I usually hold off on the plyometrics a couple of weeks, to at first concentrate on gaining more strength, then work the plyometrics in later. Just be careful with the barbell military press as it drives the humeral head into the shoulder joint and can predispose to the impingement syndrome. (A dumbell press (where the weight, and therefore humeral head) is perpendicular to barbell press is a little gentler to the shoulder in a throwing/serving athlete.) My running includes more HIIT and agility exercises. But again, good going!
 
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Itagaki said:
I lift, been doing 3 days a week but slowly starting to add days.

Started with Stronglifts, then moved to Starting Strength, dabbled in 20 rep squats, and now im learning Olympic Lifting

Not sure how it affects my tennis though, mainly because i've gotten so into lifting that it takes massive priority over tennis.

After all, tennis is not a sport you can really pick up in your late teens and reach a top level, but its possible in weightlifting
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Agreed. With lifting, I think you can still reach your body's maximum natural potential (or even un-natural if you want to go that route) even if you don't start early on.
 
charliefedererer said:
It sounds like you have settled into a cycle that will work for you given all your competing time demands. My regimen is similar, although I push to get in at least one more lifting workout/week in the "offseason" and during the season. In the "offseason" I usually hold off on the plyometrics a couple of weeks, to at first concentrate on gaining more strength, then work the plyometrics in later. Just be careful with the barbell military press as it drives the humeral head into the shoulder joint and can predispose to the impingement syndrome. (A barbell press (where the weight, and therefore humeral head) is perpendicular to barbell press is a little gentler to the shoulder in a throwing/serving athlete.) My running includes more HIIT and agility exercises. But again, good going!
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I have the HIIT and agility in the form of the sets of interval sprints and plyos on the cardio days. I do 2 sets of 6 sprints and 2 sets of plyos which I include 6 45 second intervals of different exercises in each set (mostly jumping up and down off boxes in various ways, jumping between squares, and lunges). My old body can't really take much more than that.
 
I'm a tall 5'8 ;) 170lbs. Bench 1 rep max is 295, (215 for 10 reps).

I strength train at least 4 days a week and alternate between compound and isolation routines using either split or full body. I alternate every couple of weeks or every month so that my body really never gets into a rhythm and is always getting stronger and maintaining fitness.

I also do High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) at least twice a week with sprints and cycle ergometer. I've been losing fat like crazy with this workout :)

My tennis has steadily been increasing even with all the strength training that I do. I started only 9 months ago and I'm already a high 4.0 player.

I don't take supplements but I do eat a great diet. I do my own cooking so I know what I need pre and post workout. Being a kinesiology college student I am able to test VO2 max, indirect calorimetry, and force platform data pretty often to check that I'm maintaining great fitness.
 
I lift 3x a week and run 3x a week. When I lift I do bench presses, military presses, arm curls, pull-ups and sit-ups. When I run I run 2 miles on the treadmill. Currently I am 5-10, 145 pounds and I can bench 170.

Lifting weights has not helped me hit the tennis ball harder or more effectively. But it has increased my stamina. So, yes, it has helped my tennis game slightly.

- Adam :)
 
I stopped last year due to life getting in the way.

I started doing P90X this winter and have seen really good improvements in my overall physique and strength.

Being almost 39, it's a great workout and it keeps me motivated.
 
Caloi said:
I stopped last year due to life getting in the way.

I started doing P90X this winter and have seen really good improvements in my overall physique and strength.

Being almost 39, it's a great workout and it keeps me motivated.
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P90x is a pretty legit cutting routine. It's actually not too looked down upon in the die-hard fitness world.

it def works.

when your lifting 5-6 times a week, you'll def have some gains.

And if you cut out sweets, sugary drinks/sodas, and just...junk, you'll def lose a lot of fat mass, and gain some good muscle mass.
 
only4theweak187 said:
P90x is a pretty legit cutting routine. It's actually not too looked down upon in the die-hard fitness world.

it def works.

when your lifting 5-6 times a week, you'll def have some gains.

And if you cut out sweets, sugary drinks/sodas, and just...junk, you'll def lose a lot of fat mass, and gain some good muscle mass.
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I can never lift more than 5 times a week. My body needs that recovery time.
 
Gemini said:
I can never lift more than 5 times a week. My body needs that recovery time.
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Well it does mix up the lifts it's designed to give each muscle group time to rest.. generally rule of thumb is 2-3 days of rest per each muscle group is sufficient.

p90x also takes advantage of newb gains as well when the body rapidly gets stronger and is not yet adapted to lifting
 
only4theweak187 said:
Well it does mix up the lifts it's designed to give each muscle group time to rest.. generally rule of thumb is 2-3 days of rest per each muscle group is sufficient.

p90x also takes advantage of newb gains as well when the body rapidly gets stronger and is not yet adapted to lifting
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I disagree with this. I've lifted for many years. P90X takes advantage of the muscle confusion for you instead of having to vary a lifting regimen constantly. I got bored trying to come up with another routine on my own all the time.

Now I just pop in the DVD, do the workout and ***** about how sore I am for the next couple days.

Played tennis yesterday for the first time since last fall and noticed a HUGE overall fitness gain. I felt stronger, faster, and most importantly to ME was that I was WAY more flexible than I've ever been. That alone helped my serves (I've never been considered flexible) and I am not sore at all today.

Granted, P90X uses weights, I feel it utilizes them in a much better way for me than my boring old routines at the gym.
 
Been going for about 6 months now I guess. Started out on a bulk, but did it pretty badly for about the first 4 months and didn't seriously count macros. I busted through the newb gains, but I didn't gain much mass. Got the thing going well these last 2 months and have gone from ~160 to ~170. I'm around 5'10" and my BF hasn't really increased at all throughout this though, so I'm happy for that. If possible, keeping it around 8-10% would be great, but I dunno how I'd manage to keep that up for an entire bulk.

It's basically giving me a faster first step, more endurance, slower time to hit top sprinting speed if you wanna talk about tennis benefits.

But I'm not doing it for tennis.
Actually, I really don't know why I'm doing it... It makes me feel better and doesn't take much time at all I guess. Gets aggression out great, too. Plus, for some reason the people at the gym are way cooler than you'd imagine. You can have a 200 lb guy who's benching 350+ congratulating a random 120 lb kid on his new PR of 135, and asking him if he needs a spot on his next set...

I started out with starting strength too, just like only4. Switched out after about 2 months and am now on a 5 day split, but I'm still doing my compounds so I guess it isn't too isolated of a split.

I like it. Monitoring your progress is fun, and every time you add another plate to a lift you feel like god. Dang, when I got my DL up to 315 I felt like a stud... Just got a plate on the OHP too. (Feelsgoodbro.jpg...)
 
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170 pounds and you are OHP 135? That is pretty nice man, the DL number is good too. You are a college tennis player? This kind of lifting will definitely help you out with injury prevention and speed.
 
Caloi said:
I disagree with this. I've lifted for many years. P90X takes advantage of the muscle confusion for you instead of having to vary a lifting regimen constantly. I got bored trying to come up with another routine on my own all the time.

Now I just pop in the DVD, do the workout and ***** about how sore I am for the next couple days.

Played tennis yesterday for the first time since last fall and noticed a HUGE overall fitness gain. I felt stronger, faster, and most importantly to ME was that I was WAY more flexible than I've ever been. That alone helped my serves (I've never been considered flexible) and I am not sore at all today.

Granted, P90X uses weights, I feel it utilizes them in a much better way for me than my boring old routines at the gym.
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Muscle confusion is not some magical concept that p90x utilizes. Newb gains as only4theweak187 calls it is not an opinion, its science. A body unadapted to lifting weights will make quicker gains (faster adaptation) than one that is experienced.

That's why a beginner weightlifter can put 300lbs on his squat in under a year but a guy that already squats 300lbs cant do the same.

Just because you "lifted for years" doesnt mean anything if there was no structure to it such as linear, weekly, or even monthly progression.

P90x works for you, great. Personally i found it boring after 60 days and enjoyed strength training much more. Lifting more weight than the last workout i did was much more satisfying than doing a different workout every day (and even then, there's a limited selection)
 
maggmaster said:
170 pounds and you are OHP 135? That is pretty nice man, the DL number is good too. You are a college tennis player? This kind of lifting will definitely help you out with injury prevention and speed.
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I'm 16, but I'm actually not too strong at all compared to most of the guys who lift seriously. Tons of guys who've been going for a few years dwarf my stats at less weight... it's kind of depressing actually, haha.
 
I have been lifting since college and am a bit lighter than you. My max dl ever was 425, max squat 415, may bench 295 and max ohp was with 80 lb dumbbells. All of these were when I weighed 190. Still though your lifts are impressive for someone who just started.
 
maggmaster said:
I have been lifting since college and am a bit lighter than you. My max dl ever was 425, max squat 415, may bench 295 and max ohp was with 80 lb dumbbells. All of these were when I weighed 190. Still though your lifts are impressive for someone who just started.
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Wow, how'd you get your squat and DL so close to each other? That's crazy.
Were you just really good at squats?

Those are pretty dang good weights too... Haha every day I get reminded how far I have to go.
 
Just started in Jan working out.... squat I do 180 5x5, BP I do 145 5x5, and DL I do 3x6 150 lbs. Nothing much, I dont max out as it tires my muscles too much.
 
My squat and DL were always close to one another. I think my dl was actually held back by my fear of hurting my back. My squat form was not that great, I went deep enough but my knees moved out over my feet, it was a flexibility issue. I weigh about 160 now and have stopped trying for max lifts, I lift primarily to keep myself from getting hurt playing tennis. Real strength training like what you are doing is very gratifying but to do it right it will consume your day. Not so much the lifting, the hard part is the eating.
 
maggmaster said:
My squat and DL were always close to one another. I think my dl was actually held back by my fear of hurting my back. My squat form was not that great, I went deep enough but my knees moved out over my feet, it was a flexibility issue. I weigh about 160 now and have stopped trying for max lifts, I lift primarily to keep myself from getting hurt playing tennis. Real strength training like what you are doing is very gratifying but to do it right it will consume your day. Not so much the lifting, the hard part is the eating.
Click to expand...

Oh, that makes sense... I have terrible lower body flexibility but somehow I can stretch JUST enough to keep proper squat form.
DLs always scare me. It never hurts, but 3 of the guys on the team this year have messed their backs up terribly going into season soon because of it.

Yeah, the eating takes forever haha. I'm getting a lot better at scarfing my stuff down, and I don't have to count cals anymore. But it still takes more than usual.
 
Started lifting in my early 20s. Did it off and on in my late 20s. I wasnt serious about tennis back then but I did enjoy playing. I felt like lower body training helped my tennis more than upper body training. I noticed right away how it made me explosive off the court.

A few months before I turned 30, I weighed about 185-190, I'm 5' 5", so that's obviously heavy for my height, but i was strong. Did a 300 lb bench, was thrilled about that. I was doing a powerlifting type routine focusing on my bench. I was doing speed benches with 205 lb barbell and 30 lbs of chain, 8 sets of 3, that was my favorite exercise and it helped my bench more than anything. I was doing DB bench with 100 lb DBs for 12 reps. Deadlifted 395, squat 335. Squat should have been better but I was never comfortable doing singles in the squat with the rack I had. Deadlift really should have been better too, but I loved benching so the focus was more on that.

When I turned 30, my interest turned to tennis and its been that way ever since. I still did some weight training up until last year. Now I just run pretty much, that's helped my game a lot even just by keeping my weight down, I'm 140 lbs now at age 38. I did start a deadlifting routine last week too. My apartment complex has a fitness center but they don't have much. Treadmills, ellipticals, bikes, and a weight machine. They do have a skinny little barbell and about 250 lbs of plates though, no locking collars for the bar though so I'm afraid to do anything other than deadlifts. And I'm such a scrawney weakling now! I'm sore from deadlifting 160 lbs for 5 sets of 5! Pathetic! But I can run pretty good.
 
maggmaster said:
You were a monster at 5' 5 190 lbs. That is pretty awesome.
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Thanks, never could quite reach your #s in squats and deads though! It is pretty cool to think back at how strong I was, not that I was the strongest guy around or anything, but just for my own personal goals. I still have occasional urges to lift heavy ass weights, but I'm a lot happier as a scrawney weakling. Where as before if some one messed with me I could pick em up and throw em, now I can do a pretty good job of running away from em. At 190 lbs and my height it was a cardio workout going out to get the mail. The tennis is soooo much better now.
 
accidental said:
What kind of lifting do you do?
How often?
How does it affect your tennis?
Do you use any supplements?
Im just trying to get a feel of how many people both lift weights and play tennis regularly.
Click to expand...

I do a lot of kettebell training. It's excellent for tennis players, as you use the explosive power of your hips, in addition to lots of core and shoulder stabilizers. It's quite intense, and fun! Look at this little kettlebel workout for tennis players video...
 
I do lift but I think I am considerably less motivated then most of you guys.. Once a week is enough during the tennis season..

But this is a pretty motivating thread - I got to stick with it more.

I like to mix it up - rather then do one set routine. This seems to be how all the trainers do it - so it must work to so extent.

Squats, deadlifts and lunges for the legs (single legged variations too). Seated rows and pull ups for the back. Dumbell and Barbell presses (incline and flat) for the chest - as well as all the shoulder movements except overhead presses (as I feel they hurt my shoulder). Planks as well as some other traditonal movements for the "core" as they call it..

I am always looking for more tennis oriented movements to add to my routine but don't have a solid list of those yet. There are all kinds of movements that MIGHT help your tennis like woodchoppers and such..
 
I'm 18 and been lifting for 9 months. I'm 6'1" 162 lbs (was 135 when I started). Max bench is 180 (hurt my shoulder so it's tough for me to bench a lot) squat is 315 and dead lift is 330. It's helped a lot, I have more stamina and can get through matches easier. lower body is definitely where I see a difference on the court, upper not so much. I only take protein after I lift
 
looking forward to tonight's session:

flat dumbell presses - 80 pounds - aiming for 3 sets of 3-4 reps
one arm dumbell rows - 110 pounds - aiming for 2 sets of 8-12 reps
romanian deadlifts - 254 pounds - aiming for 2 sets of 7 reps

Then on friday, will be doing the following:

weighted dips - belt + 90 pounds - 2 sets of 5 reps
weighted chins - belt + 80 pounds - 3 sets of 3-4 reps
 
Over the last year, I've been slowly sort of fazing out lifting and replacing it
with yoga. Initially, I just didn't go to the gym much b/c whatever free
time I had I preferred to use it to play tennis instead.

I went to the gym for the first time in awhile a few days ago and noticed
that I'm much weaker now in specific lifts, but overall, I'd say I'm actually
stronger and have more strength in a wider range of motion and positions.

The only problem is that at the most I have time to go to yoga 1x per week...
 
I do univeristy tennis and do free weight lifting so exercises such as squats, pulls, cleans, jerks, snatches, etc. This is done along with other core work and pull ups. I have found that it has really helped my tennis and although I have put on muscle it has not restricted my movement on the court as many of the gains in the programmes I do have been to do with strength which is not necessarily linked with muscle size. A lot of emphasis has been put on exercises which improve speed.
I'm only 21 and have been training in the gym properly for 3 years now. My 1 rep max on squats is 130kg, on deadlift its 150kg, pull ups 92.5kg (includes my bodyweight), clean pulls 75kg.
 
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