The warmer temperature of spring has arrived in most parts of the country. For tennis players, it means outdoor courts are finally accessible and the competitive season of league play and tournaments are just around the corner.
Increased levels of tennis activity combined with the lack of play during the winter and holiday season may bring about little tweaks, aches, pains or even more serious injuries. Now is the time to prevent this from happening. Start paying attention to your body and feel what muscles are weaker than they should be and what muscles are tighter than they should be.
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You might notice the left and right sides of your body feel different from each other. Your dominant side is often stronger and tighter, while the non-dominant side is weak or completely dysfunctional. That is bad news for your tennis and life.
The front and back sides can feel disproportionate. Often, the muscles on the backside are much weaker, and the muscles on the front side are much tighter.
Your Goal For Spring
Your major goal for the spring season should be to make your sides and muscle groups as similar as possible. You should pay a lot of attention to strengthening the weaker parts and stretching the tighter parts.
You need to do this pre-season training as much as possible right now, before you increase the hours on the tennis court. When you get injured, it is much harder to get rid of the injury and it takes much longer time as well. You will still need to do all the work above, but it will take longer and will feel more painful.
Stop procrastinating, do the training now, and prevent the inevitable. Even as little as 30 minutes a day will bring fast and impressive results. You can do 20 minutes of strengthening and 10 minutes stretching or myofascial release. You can do this daily. Your body can handle it.
Your primary focus in strengthening should be your hips. Make your glutes (booty) really strong, because it is the powerhouse of the movement on the court. The stronger the glutes are, the more functional the entire kinetic chain will be.