During a long gap of not playing tennis, I became somewhat of a weightlifting nut. After getting back into the game and taking it seriously (playing nearly every day), I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the heavy lifting in addition to the tennis - even lifting only 2x per week.
I have a few of the popular tennis fitness books, and for the most part, their weightlifting recommendations seemed to be straight from a body building book including the poor advice that typically leads to overtraining. This left me feeling like it was impossible for someone my age (30) with a full time job to balance the physical demands of weightlifting (as I knew it) and tennis. It also left me wondering what the pros really do in the gym.
My last resort was buying Pat Etcheberry's "Etcheberry Experience" DVD set. It turned out to be basically an encyclopedia of various exercises with not much direction on how to structure a total tennis fitness program. In addition, there was virtually no use of free weights and many of the body weight exercises became pretty easy after a few weeks with no simple way of adding more resistance. Basically, I think he was holding back.
If you follow NoBadMojo's posts, you'll occasionally see him mentioning a friend that is a trainer for some of the pros. Well, one day he posted his web site and I quickly went to check it out. His name is Paul Pisani and his website is www.pisanitraining.com . He trained Ginepri during his big run last summer, is currently training Gimelstob along with a few other pros, and offers his services to mortals as well.
After a few emails with him, I decided to give it a try. He works with you through email (I assume maybe phone and/or fax as well), provides specific workouts for you to do each week, and makes adjustments based on your feedback. It may not be for everyone, but for me it is great. Working with a trainer in person is expensive and I have enough fitness knowledge to be fine working out without guidance.
It's only been a week and a half since I started, but it's clear to me already that the training I am doing will improve my overall fitness AND it won't be too much in combination with tennis like the heavy lifting was. In fact, several of my workouts have been after tough tennis matches and I was fine the next day.
Without giving away too much detail about his workouts, they combine both weightlifting and interval training. For anyone who likes working out and/or wants improve their game through fitness, I highly recommend you talk to Paul. He's giving me the direction I've lacked ever since getting back into tennis and I'm very excited about getting more fit than virtually all of my opponents.
He's a great guy and is very easy and encouraging to work with.
I have a few of the popular tennis fitness books, and for the most part, their weightlifting recommendations seemed to be straight from a body building book including the poor advice that typically leads to overtraining. This left me feeling like it was impossible for someone my age (30) with a full time job to balance the physical demands of weightlifting (as I knew it) and tennis. It also left me wondering what the pros really do in the gym.
My last resort was buying Pat Etcheberry's "Etcheberry Experience" DVD set. It turned out to be basically an encyclopedia of various exercises with not much direction on how to structure a total tennis fitness program. In addition, there was virtually no use of free weights and many of the body weight exercises became pretty easy after a few weeks with no simple way of adding more resistance. Basically, I think he was holding back.
If you follow NoBadMojo's posts, you'll occasionally see him mentioning a friend that is a trainer for some of the pros. Well, one day he posted his web site and I quickly went to check it out. His name is Paul Pisani and his website is www.pisanitraining.com . He trained Ginepri during his big run last summer, is currently training Gimelstob along with a few other pros, and offers his services to mortals as well.
After a few emails with him, I decided to give it a try. He works with you through email (I assume maybe phone and/or fax as well), provides specific workouts for you to do each week, and makes adjustments based on your feedback. It may not be for everyone, but for me it is great. Working with a trainer in person is expensive and I have enough fitness knowledge to be fine working out without guidance.
It's only been a week and a half since I started, but it's clear to me already that the training I am doing will improve my overall fitness AND it won't be too much in combination with tennis like the heavy lifting was. In fact, several of my workouts have been after tough tennis matches and I was fine the next day.
Without giving away too much detail about his workouts, they combine both weightlifting and interval training. For anyone who likes working out and/or wants improve their game through fitness, I highly recommend you talk to Paul. He's giving me the direction I've lacked ever since getting back into tennis and I'm very excited about getting more fit than virtually all of my opponents.
He's a great guy and is very easy and encouraging to work with.
