Successful professional and recreational tennis players don't play to get fit; they get fit to play.
Proper fitness, which will reduce your risk of injury, requires a little extra training in addition to matches, lessons and hitting sessions. It might seem like a lot. But it's possible to get fit without making a huge time commitment or even joining a gym.
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Circuit training, an exercise format that uses between six and 10 exercises completed in straight sucession, will help you improve speed, strength and endurance — all attributes of a fit tennis player.
The best part? Circuit training doesn't require equipment to be effective. It can even be done on the tennis court.
The basics
Each exercises in the circuit is separated by brief timed rest intervals.
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Once you complete the circuit, you'll rest again for a longer period of time.
The total number of circuits performed during a training session may vary from two to six, depending on your fitness level (beginner, intermediate, or advanced) and your training objective.
Planning a Session
First, consider where and when you plan to complete your circuit training. The exercises you pick should fit into your time and space constraints.
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To save on time and in order to ensure that no two consecutive exercises stress the same muscle group, you want to set up the circuit as follows: Total-body, Upper-body, Lower-body, Core/Trunk.
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It's also important to warm up and perform some dynamic stretching exercises at the beginning of the session and to repeat this as a cool down afterwards.
Circuit Training Session
Duration: 20 seconds for each exercise, followed by a 30-second recovery. Complete two to three circuit sets. Rest between three to five minutes between each circuit.