Your strength training routine should be designed with one goal in mind: improve your tennis performance.
If your sport was power lifting, your workout would emphasize heavy weights. But your sport is tennis and that means your workout should include exercises that prevent injury, improve your agility and increase your power.
Follow these 13 strength training tips to ensure your program suits your needs and helps you develop your tennis game.
1. Bodyweight First
If you can't stabilize, control and move efficiently with only your body weight, you have no business using heavy external loads. And yet, many tennis players, despite their inability to move their body weight, still are eager to power lift.
Remember, some of the strongest athletes are gymnasts who spend most of their time manipulating their own bodies around the gym.
Before you turn to the bench press, work on stabilizing your shoulder girdle and core by completing push-ups.
A strength program in the beginning stages will likely involve no weights. Don't fret. A body weight-focused program will work better and faster than one that relies primarily on weights and machines because muscle recruitment and control are far more important than maximal strength.
2. Train in a Standing Position
The majority of your training should take place on your feet because you spend most of your time playing in that position.
While there are exceptions to this rule, we always lose something when we go from a standing position to seated or lying down.
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