Olympic Lifting Part 2

It’s time to wrap up our earlier conversation about Olympic lifting and how we can incorporate it’s elements into our tennis fitness regiment. Today we’ll look at one of the most complex lifts and break it down into smaller elements that we can more easily apply to our own routines.

Why Learn the Clean and Jerk?

The clean and jerk is a two part lift where the bar rests on the ground and the lifter brings it up to shoulder height in the first part, then extends the weight overhead to complete the lift. To be properly learned, the lift needs to be broken down to its base components, and this is where we as tennis players can make use of these smaller, less complex lifts. Olympic lifters train for years to perfect this lift and attempt to raise as much weight as possible using the strictest of forms. These athletes are not only immensely strong, but also extremely flexible and powerful. It is important to note the distinction between strength and power. Raw strength is just the ability to move something heavy while power allows the weight to be moved quickly.

In tennis, we want to be powerful athletes, unencumbered by large percentage of muscle/body mass, but still able to produce power in short amounts of distance. Power in tennis comes  from the ground up, so developing the body in a manner that will allow the maximal transfer of power from the legs to the torso, then the arms, is critical if we want to be able to hit the ball harder or impart more spin on the ball.

Breakdown of the Movement

Let’s look at the small movements that make up the whole exercise. There is the ‘clean’, in which the weight is rapidly lifted from the floor to shoulder height, then the lifter squats with the weight and then explodes up to a standing position with the bar at chest height. The ‘jerk’ starts with the knees bending slightly to create momentum, then the bar being thrust overhead and the feet splitting with one gong forward slightly and one falling back to resemble a lunge position. The lift is completed by surging the weight upward using the hips and drawing the feet back under the shoulders. This is perhaps difficult to envision, so the whole movement can be seen here: http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/CleanAndJerk.html

Our goal is not necessarily to be able to complete the entire movement, but to glean strength and power gains from the smaller elements that make up the whole exercise. So what are these smaller elements and how do we go about performing them? Complete instructions can be found by following the following link, so I will only give a cursory overview of  the steps and look into what results we can expect from performing them.

Learning and Breakdown into smaller elements: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_3_16/ai_54037011/

The Clean

This element is great in and of itself, and can even be broken down into smaller parts such as the hang clean and the front squat. Performing the clean is an excellent compound movement that recruits the back, arms, shoulders, quadriceps, calves, and hips.  Compound movements such as the clean enable more muscle groups to be worked at one time, and increase balance, power, and speed, as well as cardiovascular endurance. This is a lot of benefit just from one lift! It is best to start out with very light weight, say not over half of your body weight. We want to focus on form here, and developing the proper form will work the muscles more efficiently and increase the level of balance needed to master the lift with heavier weights.

The clean will develop the ability to generate power from the legs and hips and transfer that power into the upper body. The legs and back are strengthened, creating a solid base from which to swing at a tennis ball. Conditioning the body to create upward momentum from the leg and hip area is crucial to generate the forces needed to impart topspin and drive on the ball. When performed with lighter weights in the higher rep range, the clean is an excellent cardiovascular exercise as well, challenging the body to produce power when fatigued. This will assist in being able maintain the ability to hit hard even deep into long rallies.

The Jerk

Learning this part of the lift can really add some stability to the shoulder and back, and will develop lower body balance while the upper body is under the stress of a load. The exercise of lifting the weight overhead in an explosive manner create not only strength in the shoulder and arm areas, but challenge the balance and stability of the hip area as well. This is a great way to learn to keep the hips and legs in balance while the upper body is exerting force, similar to what is involved in hitting an overhead or making a forceful groundstroke.

Like I mentioned previously, the intent in looking at the Clean and Jerk is not to turn us into Olymipic behemoths, but to develop strength and power so that we can be faster and perform better on the tennis court. If you’re serious about your tennis and health in general, you should be taking steps off of the court to offset the beating that your body takes on the court. Modern tennis can take a toll on almost the entire body, and I’m sure that we all want to be able to play this great sport as long as possible. Hopefully incorporating some of these time proven exercises into your fitness regimen will make you a more capable tennis player. If you put in the work on the back side, you’ll build the proper foundation on which Ian or your local pros can set their tennis instruction on. I guarantee you’ll be the stronger, fitter player if you master some of these elements, and today, that is half the battle.

Olympic Weightlifting and You – How, and More Importantly, Why?

What are some images that come to mind when you hear the words “Olympic Weightlifting”? Big, barrel chested men in unitards, chalk flying everywhere, meaty guys in the gym lifting dangerous amounts of weight, or maybe just thoughts of that time in high-school when you tried to squat a heavy load and the plate fell off the end of the bar? Ok, that last one was from personal experience. Today I want to give you loyal readers a taste of what Olympic weightlifting is and how it can benefit you on the tennis court. Impossible you say? Well strap into your favorite unitard and read on!

The Queensland Weightlifting Association (www.qwa.org) describes Olympic lifting as “a contest between an athlete and his or her belief in themselves” and “a pure test of flesh and blood against iron and gravity.” While that is a rather romantic way of putting it, I think it would benefit us to understand the principles behind the many elements that make up the sport as a whole and how they can be used for us mortal, non-tights-wearing tennis players. Being a tennis player makes you an athlete! Surprised? I know that we may not all look like top level beach bodies, but in reality the rigors of tennis, even at the recreational level, can be quite demanding on the body. As we’ve discussed in past articles, we need to be limber and strong in order to play at the level we desire. I trust that you do at least a little training off-court, right? Anyone……anyone…….Bueller? In all seriousness, we need to take our fitness seriously regardless of our athletic endeavors. You don’t want to be one of those bent over, stumbling elders you see in the grocery store now do you?

So you’re working out maybe a few times a week, doing some cardio and strength training, and maintaining your flexibility by stretching out before and after you exert yourself. Good on ya mate! Let’s see how we can incorporate some of these seemingly intimidating exercises in order to gain some performance on the court!

Ok, finally we get to the heart of the matter, the exercises. The main lifts that we will be discussing are the “snatch” and the “clean and jerk”. Sorry if your IP filter just booted you off – we aren’t talking about anything ‘R’ rated! These two lifts are comprised of multiple elements that can be broken down and used by themselves, but when combined, they are truly complex and challenging.

Snatch What?

Want to work most of your major muscle groups, involve your core, and develop your fast-twitch muscle fibers all at once? The snatch is for you. This lift starts with a loaded barbell on the ground and the lifter with a wide grip on it. The lifter lowers his hips and then explodes upward with a straight back, and while keeping the bar close to the chest drives it overhead while again lowering the hips to a squat position. The lift is completed when the lifter stands up with the bar balanced overhead with arms locked. The legs, shoulders, abs, forearms, and back are all involved. This lift is done one way at the top level: fast. It generally takes under one second for a top level lifter to jack over 300 pounds overhead! I won’t go into all the details, but this site gives you all the basics you need to complete the lift: http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/Snatch.html

As with any new exercise, you should start off slow and low in order to get form down perfect and learn to move your body correctly. Injury prevention is key.

So now that we are somewhat familiar with this lift, you are probably wondering why you would want to do it in the first place, right? Well, aside from developing strength, this lift is at the pinnacle for developing the power transfer from the lower to the upper body. Anyone know any sports that require this skill? Everything we do on the tennis court starts with the legs and ends with the hands, right? Practicing the snatch will build this skill in spades while adding endurance, balance, and power to your tennis game. Who can say they don’t need more of all that? It’s fun to do some sets of these with low weight and in the higher rep range – you will get an unbelievable burn and your endurance will really be increased.

To Be Continued…

Well, I hate to leave you hanging, but the Clean and Jerk is a very complex exercise that will require an entire article to cover and I want to give it all the attention it deserves. Do some research on the Snatch, start slow, and work on your form to reap the multitide of benefits both in the gym and on the court.

Pushing the Push-Up Envelope

The lowly push-up, long regarded as simply an exercise for guys that just received a high-and-tight haircut and now have to call everyone “sir”, or a simple, P.T. type movement that doesn’t really do much. I want to revisit the push-up and hopefully give you some different looks at this old, dusty standby that will endear it to you again in your workout regimen.

Basic Training

Let’s start with the basics, grunts, and that would be what does a proper push-up look like? There are many iterations of this relic, but we need to start at the bottom before we go deeper. The standard push up should be started with hands shoulder width apart, back straight, and up on your toes. Your body should basically be in a straight line from your heels to the back of your head. Begin the motion by lowering the chest to within an inch of the floor, and then after the briefest pause, push downward at the floor until the arms are fully extended. That is the base from which we’ll build some variations and have fun with this old dog.
The main thing to remember about push-ups is that like most exercises, strict form is the key. You shouldn’t be wildly flailing up and down; momentum should be kept to a minimum to correctly tax the correct muscle groups. Speaking of which, we should probably get an idea just what muscles the standard push-up will work. First and foremost, the muscles of the chest take the brunt of the load. The chest is comprised of the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor, two fan-shaped muscles that connect the humerus (near the shoulder) to the breastbone. These muscles make a wide variety of pushing and pulling activities possible, as well as controlling the motion of the deltoids (shoulder muscles). Also involved to a great degree, as with most pushing moves, are the triceps (muscles on the back of the upper arms). The shoulder muscles also get in the game; mostly the front and side deltoids. Of course the abdominals are tightened, and the muscles of the back, the latissimus and trapezius, come into play as well. As we can see, most of the upper body and core are involved in your standard push-up – not too shabby for only one exercise, huh?

Variations

Now that we know the how and why, let’s look at some variations from the basic push-up that can really diversify the muscle groups focused on. Something as simple as varying the width of your hands can engage different portions of the chest muscles. Wider hands will stress the inner pectorals more and even draw in some biceps too. Hands closer together will stress the deltoids and triceps more. I actually like a variation where the hands are on top of one another to really get some triceps burn.

Elevating the feet is also a great way to make the standard push-up more difficult. Once you work your way up to knocking out 30-50 normal push-ups in a single set, you can try doing them with your feet elevated on a bench, chair, or couch. If you really want a challenge, try moving your hands closer to your waist. This will destabilize the body further and will cause new groups of muscles to fire in order to maintain balance and complete the work.

Use Your Imagination

If you really want to think outside the box, you can use some dumbbells or step boxes to the mix, placing them past shoulder width, doing a push-up with hands on the floor, then on the up motion, exploding up and placing your hands on the elevated platform, doing another rep and then pushing up explosively to place your hands back on the floor (remember plyometrics?). I like using some medium sized medicine balls under my hands sometimes to really bring in the ancillary muscle groups and work on balance.

As you can see, the variety of push-ups is only limited by your imagination. Try as many variations as you can – redundancy is the enemy of muscle and strength gains! Work your way into a high rep range as well. Start with as many as you can do with strict form, rest a few minutes, and then complete one or two more sets. Once you can get to doing fifty in a single set, start moving from the standard push-up to a different variety. The push-up can truly build a solid base of strength when applied properly, and the best part is that you don’t need specialized equipment or even a gym member ship to reap the rewards! Now drop and give me a hundred!

Stretching Redux

We’ve been having some good discussion on the forum about stretching, so I wanted to write a follow up article about some stretches you can incorporate into your on-court warm-up before the serious hitting starts. You can thank John in Real Life for this supplement, as he recommended I put up some pre and post tennis stretches for you. Here we go.

Warm Up – Please!!!

As I mentioned in the previous article, the importance of warming up cannot be overstated. You do not want to start pulling cold muscles into uncomfortable positions. Run in place, jump rope, do some laps around the court, whatever it takes to break a sweat and get some blood flowing to your muscles. A great way to warm up the core muscles (see blog post “The Core of the Matter”), is to do some crunches or other ab exercise. Seriously, warm up until you are WARM. This will go a long way towards getting you limbered up enough for the coming stretches and your tennis!

No Pain, No Gain?

Ok, I don’t want everyone taking this too much to heart, as stretching can be uncomfortable when done properly. There is no need to put yourself in agony when performing the following stretches, but they should be uncomfortable. Remember in my last post where we talked about the stretch reflex? This reflex actually causes the muscles under tension to try and contract back to their original state. This is a protective mechanism that the body uses, but it can be overcome and conditioned through disciplined stretching. Hold the stretches at a level of minimum discomfort for a few seconds, then go a LITTLE further. By gradually extending the stretch in this manner, and keeping the entire stretch interval from twenty to thirty seconds, you will condition your stretch reflex to allow more range of motion, increasing your ‘stretch threshold’. Stretching should be a little uncomfortable, but it shouldn’t put make you scream. We don’t want to sideline ourselves before we even get started!

Basic Stretches

Here are a few recommended stretches that should loosen you up and get more blood in those muscles and fluid in those joints. Go as far as you can without too much pain, but remember, if it’s too easy, you may not be pushing it far enough. Don’t fear a little discomfort.

The Plow

1) Lie flat on the floor
2) Place your arms at your side
3) Slowly raise your legs over you head
4) Continue to raise your legs until your toes touch the floor behind your head
5) Hold the position for 15 seconds
6) Repeat 3 times

The Cobra

1) Lie flat on your stomach
2) Push up with both arms bending backwards
3) Continue until your arms are straight
4) Hold the position for 15 seconds
5) Repeat 3 times

The Hammy

1) Sit on the floor with your legs straight out in front of you
2) Reach forward toward your toes
3) Continue until a gentle stretch is felt behind your knees
4) Hold the position for 15 seconds
5) Repeat 3 times

(Credit to http://physicaltherapy.about.com/od/flexibilityexercises/tp/3morningstretches.htm for these)

These are good to get the lower body and core up to speed, but what about the shoulders? Below are some really good stretches to loosen up the chest, shoulder girdle,and arms.  Tip: use a tennis racquet instead of the towel pictured below.

Make sure that you do these for each side of the body – we don’t want to be unbalanced.

This should get you thoroughly limbered up from head to toe and will have you ready for any athletic endeavor. That’s a lot of stretches and will take a long time, you say? Well, yes, it might cost yo a few minutes playing time, so  show up early! The time you invest in properly getting your body ready for serious play will more than make up for any time you would spend down with an injury! I stretch before each workout or tennis event, and I’ve had exactly one sports injury in the last eighteen or so years – I attribute that to good warm up and stretching. I play as hard as anyone, and I want to be able to keep playing for many years to come!

Cool it Down, Mon!

John also wanted to know about post tennis stretching. WHen I’m in the gym, I will often stretch between sets and after my routine, and this is equally important after we play tennis. The back takes an unbelievable amount of punishment on the tennis court. From vertebrae compression to the twisting of the spine,  the constant running and swinging of the racquet can really create some wear and tear on the core, upper back, and shoulders. I would recommend incorporating some combination of the above stretches into a five minute post tennis cool down. You obviously don’t need to hold these for as long as you do in the warm up because the muscles are already fatigued, pulled, and amply worked. Holding a few of these just enough to realign the muscle fibers is adequate and can prevent some of the muscle soreness you might feel the next day. Remember, muscles hurt because they’ve been stressed and microtears of the fibers have occurred. Anything we can do to help the body’s natural healing process will go a long way toward keeping us injury free and allow us more play time, and that’s what it’s really all about!

Stretch for Success

How important is stretching to you? Probably ranks right up there with going to the dentist or cleaning out your gutters, right? I have to admit that the idea of stretching, putting my body into uncomfortable positions and producing pain for myself is not my idea of fun. Now, how important is flexibility and preventing injury? When we think about these goals, especially as tennis players, they probably rank a little higher on the priority list – and if not, they should. I’d like to look at how important flexibility is, how to incorporate stretching into our exercise regimens, and what benefits it has to overall body fitness.

Stretching Physiology

Let’s look at what stretching actually does first. Muscles are composed of long, elastic fibers called fascicles, and like any elastic material, they work better when warm and flexible, Proper stretching takes the muscle into it’s full, extended state, aligning the individual muscle cells (called sarcomeres) and can serve to realign any cells that have become disorganized. The more fibers that are stretched, the longer the muscle becomes. The longer you hold a stretch, the more the proprioceptors (nerves that convey information to the central nervous system) allow the muscle to ‘remember’ the stretched length and become accustomed to the new length – we’ll refer to this as the ‘stretch reflex’ going forward.

Static Stretching

Our muscles have two types of intrafusal muscle fibers. The first are ‘chain’ fibers which are long and thin. When the muscle is stretched slowly, the stretch reflex nerves increase their signal rate to the nervous system, telling it to contract as the muscle nears it’s preset limit. Holding of static stretches (no movement) overcomes the stretch reflex to a point and reprograms the stretch reflex threshold, increasing the range of motion that the stimulated muscle fibers can lengthen in.

Dynamic Stretching

The second type of fibers are the ‘bag’ fibers. These fibers fire rapidly when a quick muscle stretch is initiated, sending a strong contraction signal in order to protect the fibers from tearing. This stretch reflex protects our muscles from injury caused by sudden movements. This signal decreases as the rate of change in the muscle length decreases.

Because of the differing reaction of the two ‘stretch fibers’ above, both static and dynamic stretching are important to incorporate into any stretching routine, and are beneficial in increasing the length of the muscle through bot fast and slow ranges of motion.

Warm Up First

Many times, we erringly think of stretching as our warm up before physical activity. Consider this – would you take long piece of taffy out of the freezer and attempt to pull it? It would probably break due to the inflexibility of the fibers in the taffy, right? The same is true in muscles. When we attempt to stretch a ‘cold’ muscle, we are placing demands on that group of fibers that they are not prepared to handle yet. A simple increase of a few degrees and some increased blood flow will go a long way to maximizing the stretch potential and decrease the likelihood of an injury. Running in place for a few minutes, jumping rope, or riding a bike at low exertion will accomplish the needed ‘loosening up’ of the muscle fibers that will adequately prepare them for the stress of the stretching to come.

Stretching Benefits

So, what do we hope to gain by stretching properly? Stretching can do a number of things, it increases flexibility as we just learned. It improves the range of motion of our joints by stimulating the nerve receptors located near the end of the muscle fibers. It improves circulation, increasing the flow of blood into the muscles, which increases performance and can speed recovery. Stretching can also decrease stress by causing the surrounding muscles to lengthen and then relax in a uniform manner.

We didn’t discuss any particular stretches in detail because there are a multitude of resources out there and if we keep in mind what our body actually does when it stretches, we can use some common sense to find the right ones for us. We all know how important flexibility is as a tennis player, and hopefully you’ll give it some more thought now that you know what it’s all about.

Drink!

Fluids and You

Well, it’s Australian Open time and that means watching the top men and women players in the world playing tennis down under in Melbourne, Australia. With the south Pacific being on the other side of the globe from us, they are now experiencing summer, which can be notoriously hot in Australia. While we’re still in the process of thawing out here in the US and other places, proper hydration while playing tennis or other activities may not have the front of mind awareness that it does in the blistering summer heat. Even when the sun is not beating down on us, we need the proper amount of fluids in our body to maintain optimal performance, and now is a good a time as any to start developing proper hydration habits in preparation for the hot weather to come. Our focus today will be on what proper hydration is, why it’s important, and how to do it.

Body Composition

The average human adult’s body is composed of 60% fluid, and these body fluids are essential for proper day to day function and health. You may have heard that you need to drink up to eight eight-ounce glasses of water daily. That’s 64 ounces, or half a gallon, and while that may seem like a lot, when we become active that amount is not near sufficient to replenish our fluid levels. Let’s take a look at what the body does with water and why it cannot function without it.

Bodily Fluid – Content and Role

The human brain is 75% water, blood plasma is 92% water, the bones are22% water, and our muscles are 75% water. There is fluid constantly flowing across the cells of our bodies, delivering electrolytes, proteins, and amino acids that are crucial for cellular health. Waste gases such as carbon-dioxide and nitrogen are eliminated, and the filtering and delivery systems are also made effective through the body’s internal irrigation system. Internal fluid movement also serves to regulate our internal temperature, without which we could not function properly on a daily basis. The human body gains and loses approximately two and a half quarts of fluid daily, through the intake of food and beverages and the expelling of body fluids through the bowels, lungs and skin. The body’s evaporative cooling mechanism serves to maintain the narrow range of internal temperature necessary for normal operation, and it is vital that we maintain a steady intake of fluids so that our machine doesn’t overheat. We can lose up to a quart an hour on a hot day with even moderate activity, and if not replaced that loss can have adverse effects on our body’s performance and health.

Drink Early and Often

A critical element that is often overlooked when we think about hydrating is pre-hydration, which is simply drinking before you exercise. When you go on a long road trip, one of the first things you do is to fill your car up with gas, right? How often do you just hop in without looking at the fuel gauge? Never right? We always want to fill up before we head out on the road, and the court too. It is often recommended that we drink 16-32 ounces within the hour before exercise, depending on the expected intensity level. Professional athletes often will begin hydrating the night prior to a big game day, consuming a mix of electrolyte drink and water to ensure their bodies have a sufficient level of fluid. Heavy exertion or a long day on the court can lead to up to 5 to 8 pounds of body weight from fluids! It’s important to drink a 6-8 ounces of water every 15 minutes of exercise, as well as incorporating an a few ounces of an electrolyte drink during that exercise as well. The minerals in the electrolyte drink not only replaces those lost due to exertion, but the sodium encourages the continued consumption of more water.

After your exercise period, it is equally important to keep drinking fluids to ensure you replenish the fluids and minerals lost. Electrolyte beverages can greatly help in replacing these minerals, and should be incorporated in proper rehydration. Simply using water for or other beverages lacking in electrolytes in a short period of time can cause dilution of the blood and other fluids, causing increased urination and the further loss of fluids. This does not mean that we should discount water after exercise, but after prolonged periods of exercise where levels of electrolytes have been severely depleted, an electrolyte and mineral containing fluid should be incorporated, especially when rapid rehydration is called for.

Hopefully this has brought to light how important drinking fluids before, during, and after exercise is. Make sure you are aware of your hydration levels so that you can have a nice, long trip on the tennis court!

The Core of the Matter

Let’s have a little chat today about the core – what it is, the role it plays in exercise, and how we strengthen it. Recently in the fitness world, “Core Training”  has been a new an popular phenomenon. Entire workout programs have been developed, countless exercise videos and devices have been fashioned, and the American public has seemingly devoured all of it. Unfortunately, we have also continued to devour our McDonalds, Burger King, and Krispy Kreme, to the detriment of our midsections. Core training can mean many things to many people, and it can certainly be over as well as under-emphasized, depending on the individual. I want us to have an understanding of what core fitness is and how it can benefit us on the tennis court.

What is the Core?

Effectively Working the Core

As you can see from the multitude of things we demand of our core, it will take more than some simple crunches and sit-ups to get it into the shape we want. We don’t need to strive for the level of an elite Olympic gymnast to have a strong core, but we do need to consider all of those supporting muscles when we train. As you can probably surmise, core training is best covered across several different training intervals and different training days because of the multitude of different muscle groups affected. The good thing is, if you are already doing some degree of strength training, you are already working most of the core muscles! Squats and leg presses engage the hip flexors and adductors, as well as the gluteal muscles, and the abdominals to some degree. Chest exercises such as bench presses, flyes, push-ups, all engage the most of the abdominals and the erector spinae. Deadlifts and other Olympic powerlifts draw in the erector spinae, multifidus, and all the hip muscles.

I personally don’t do many crunches or sit-ups, because like Alton Brown, I don’t like ‘single-taskers’. My time in the gym is precious, and I like to get the most return for time spent working out. You won’t see many elite gymnasts doing these simple exercises, yet they probably have the most powerful core muscles on the planet. This is a result of their strength and agility training, and the focus on the transition of power from the lower to the upper body. Gymnasts develop tremendous leg and upper body strength,and maintain unheard of degrees of flexibility. They also involve their core muscles by performing tension and body weight bearing exercises such as hollows, arches, levers, and handstand drills. All of these elements force the core to tighten in order to maintain control of the bodyweight when placed in precarious positions, and produce degrees of core strength that has few equals.

So let’s back up and look at the big picture. We know that we want a strong core, and now we know that we need to involve all of the muscle groups of the core to achieve that. We have discussed in past articles the important role that the core plays in producing power and now understand that it can aid in preventing injury as well. I would encourage you to increase your focus on core training in your fitness regimen. We want to have total body fitness to be at the top of our game on the tennis court – that includes upper and lower body strength, flexibility, and core strength as well. Below are some resources to core training that you can incorporate into your workouts – mix some of these in and you will be adding fitness elements that will pay huge dividends on the tennis court. Don’t ignore the core!

There are multitudes of core workouts out there on the internet, these are only a sample – do a search and try some new stuff yourself. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box with your core training.

http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/core-strength-training.html

http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/36/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pY5BtDBqNpE&feature=fvw (don’t try this at home!)

Plyometrics and Tennis

I want to have some discourse today on the topic of plyometrics. You’ve probably heard the word before and may even know that it involves exercise, but may not know any details past that. I am in the gym at least three days a week and I can tell you that I rarely if ever see someone in the gym performing these exercises (besides me in the mirror). Most folks go in an get some work done on the vanity muscles: pectorals and arms for men, glutes and legs for women. This is all well and good if you want to look pretty (who doesn’t?), but if you are training for performance in a sport, you’ll need to work on other aspects of your fitness. This is where plyometrics can add some spring to your step – literally.

Before we get off and running and add the effectiveness of plyometrics into our fitness routine, we need to understand what plyometrics is, how to properly perform some of the exercises, and how it can benefit our tennis game. Let’s take a look into this mysterious body of exercises and answer some questions.

What is Plyometrics?

I’ll try and explain as simply as I can – plyometrics is a term used to describe exercises that use the muscles natural elasticity to create explosive reactive power through contractions of the muscle fiber. Sounds complicated, right? Not at all. Imagine your muscles as rubber bands – when you stretch a rubber band, you create stored energy. In plyometric exercises, the storing of energy in the muscles is known as the eccentric phase, and the rapid release of that stored energy is known as the concentric phase. Imagine yourself trying to jump and reach something well over your head; you would first bend your knees and your waist and then explode upwards – plyometrics at work. You first store the energy by creating tension in the muscles of the legs and then releasing that energy upwards as you jump. You can reach higher as a result of first storing the energy (lengthening the leg muscles) and then releasing it (contraction of the leg muscles). Plyometrics simply uses these properties of the muscle fibers by conditioning them to release the maximum amount of stored energy in the shortest distance.

Plyometric Training

Sounds great you say? Where do I sign up? Let’s take a look at some of this training and how it can benefit your on court performance. As we know from previous articles, tennis is very much an upper and lower body sport. It involves sprinting, jumping, rotating the core, loading and release of power in the shoulders and arms, and quick changes in direction. Can you see how being able to increase the amount of power you are able to produce in a shorter distance could benefit your tennis yet? It is important to note that there are both low and high intensity plyometric exercises, and you should have or develop a significant base of strength before attempting any of the higher intensity training with any weight approaching that of your body weight.

Lower Body Training

Tennis is a game of getting to the ball quickly- if you don’t execute that part of the game, the most perfect forehand form in the world won’t do you any good. Squat jumps, jumps to and from boxes, lateral box jumps, and ring/ladder drills are all excellent ways to improve your foot quickness. These exercises and more can be found here: http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometricexercises.html. As noted in the linked article, these exercises will be more effective when paired with a good strength training program. The more muscle fibers that you have to make the contractions, the more power and speed you will be able to generate.

Upper Body Training

This is where we will need to really exercise caution in the intensity of training that we are performing. If you are not sufficiently strong, you can do more harm than good by using too heavy a weight or working at too high an intensity level. Please consult a qualified trainer or just start low and slow in order to avoid injury. That being said, for those who have developed a good base of strength, some of these challenging drills will be just what you need to reach the next level. The upper body work found here http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/plyometric-drills.html will make a great supplement to your fitness routine. The overhead and side throws will serve to increase racquet-head speed and stability through the impact zone. Squat throws and plyometric push ups will enable you to transfer power more easily from your legs and core to your chest, shoulders, and arms.

I hope that this article has served to enlighten you to the benefits of plyometric training as well as getting you excited about increasing your performance on the tennis court! I have been incorporating these types of exercises as well as some Olympic weight lifting into my training for the past few years, and I can tell you that I feel faster and stronger than I ever have. This type of training was built for sports like tennis, and studies have shown that even one or two types of low intensity plyometric training done one to three times a week can significantly improve motor performance. Talk about more bang for your workout buck. Now get out there and try some new training! Keeping your workout routine fresh and exciting is half the battle, and I hope I’ve given you some new ideas about what to do with your gym time.

Body Types Part 3

This week we’ll attempt to cover the remaining two body types, the endomorph and the mesomorph. We’ll look at each type’s training goals and how to reach better on court performance.

The Endomorph

On the opposite end of the spectrum from the ectomorph, we’ll find the endomorph. Generally larger boned with a higher relative percentage of body fat, the endomorph can be a naturally strong individual with a generous amount of muscle and a sturdy frame. The advantages of this body type are obvious: natural strength and power, better fast-twitch muscle capability, and strong joints. The main struggle of the endomorph will be weight management. If you look at most modern tennis players, you’ll see that there are not many endomorphs out there; Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serena Williams come to mind on the women’s side. While you may think the endomorph to be slow, these two prove that natural predisposition can be overcome through hard training.

The endomorph will need to manage body fat levels by participating in more cardiovascular activity as well as managing the fat and caloric intake. Activities such as cycling, elliptical training, or other low impact cardio should be a part of the normal training regimen. Strength training should be overlooked, as muscle supports a higher metabolic rate which in turn burns more calories. Care should be taken to temper the amount of high impact activity, including tennis, as the higher weight level of the endomorph can put more strain on the joints of the knees, hips, and ankles. Endurance training should be emphasized to increase metabolism and create longer cardiovascular performance.

The Mesomorph

Probably the most aptly structured body type for tennis, the mesomorph seemingly has the best attributes of the other two types: the natural muscle and athletic ability of the endomorph coupled with the higher metabolism and endurance of the ectomorph. The mesomorph will be naturally muscular with a blend of fast and slow twitch muscle fibers, which predisposes this type to the constant stop and go action on the tennis court. There should be a good blend of cardiovascular and strength based exercises to maximize the potential of this body type. Diet should never be neglected, though the mesomorph has a little more leeway than the ectomorph and endomorph in this aspect of fitness. Smaller , protein rich meals eaten 5-6 times daily will supplement muscle growth just fine.

Mesomorphs need to maintain a healthy body weight in order to stay at top on court performance levels. Andy Roddick recently changed his fitness regimen in order to be able to compete at tennis’ top level, dropping some 15 pounds of body weight. The modern game of tennis, at the elite level, is as much about mobility as it is power these days, and the sports top athletes are breaking new ground physically in order to remain competitive.

Does this have any application for you and me? Obviously we won’t find ourselves on Center Court at the US Open anytime soon, but we still want to be at our personal best when we step on the court, right? I believe that we need to identify where we are starting in order to design and take steps toward where our bodies will allow us to go. Every body type that we have discussed has attributes that will allow then to excel naturally, but we need to shore up those areas where each of us is lacking. Tennis, fortunately is a great sport for any body type, and with some effort on your part, you can play the game better than you ever have before. Get out there and challenge yourself, get in the gym or begin a good home workout plan, eat right, and you will find that you will have a lot more fun playing the game if you are in maximum ‘tennis shape’. Now get to work!

Body Types Part 2

Today we want to begin looking at the specific body types that we defined in last week’s article and address the strengths and weaknesses of each one and how it relates to on court performance. If you’ll recall, we discussed three distinct body types: the ectom0rph, the endomorph, and the mesomorph. As noted, most people may not be clearly segregated in to only one category, but may bear characteristics of several. We can still generalize, and as we discuss how to improve fitness levels of each you’ll have to determine which category fits you best. Since we are addressing each from the perspective of playing tennis and improving athletic attributes toward that end, keep in mind that we need to start with the assumption of a general level of fitness, i.e. decent cardiovascular and muscular conditioning and a relatively low percentage of bodyfat. The average man today carries between 13-17%, while the average woman carries 20-27%. Very low bodyfat levels are 7-10% for men and 14-17% for women.

The Ectomorph

As you’ll recall, the ectomorph is slim with low muscle mass and bodyfat levels and has a higher percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers. The disadvantages that the  ectomorph faces come from the high demand in tennis for fast changes of direction, quick powerful movements, and the blend of aerobic and anaerobic nature of the game (more on this later). Basically, the mesomorph is suited more to endurance based exercises such as long distance running. The challenge is developing the musculature required and quick cutting ability required to play today’s tennis. In our modern game, we need strong shoulders to be able to move the racquet with stability and quickness through the ball. The shoulder also needs to compensate for the tremendous forces that a serve or huge forehand place on the joint. We need strong legs that are conditioned not only for endurance but for quick changes in direction and explosive movement to the ball.

So how does the ectomorph supplement his program to account for these additional needs? Sprints are great for developing the fast twitch fibers in the legs, and also delve into the anaerobic (oxygen exhausting) realm that we find ourselves in late in matches. Jumping rope is a fantastic way to improve calf strength and footwork. General strength training exercises such as shoulder presses, lunges, deadlifts, bench presses, and leg presses with moderate weight will yield gains in all-important muscle mass that will not only strengthen but also protect the joints.

Aerobic vs. Anaerobic

The ectomorph has a great advantage in that they are naturally geared for endurance exercises. Tennis is one of those sports that involve both aerobic and anaerobic activity. In aerobic activities, the muscles of the body gain energy from oxygen. In anaerobic activity, oxygen levels in the blood are depleted and the muscles have to get their energy from other sources, mainly the chemical nucleotide ATP (adenosine-triphposphate). When we play tennis, we are not only running and sprinting, but also using our legs to generate power, our core to stabilize our upper and lower bodies, and our arms and shoulders to actually hit the ball. That’s a lot of muscle activity! Think about simply running from sideline to sideline ten times; not too tough, eh? Now think about running from sideline to sideline and each time having to squat low, pick up a weight, and throw it across the net. Becomes a lot harder right? In the first example, we are simply running and our our breathing may increase, increasing the flow of oxygen to our blood and muscles. In the second, we are still running, but now the demand on the lungs and muscles is much higher and the oxygen is used up much faster, forcing the muscles to find another source of energy. This is why tennis is both aerobic and anaerobic, and this demands that we train in both realms to achieve top performance on the court.

Hope all that wasn’t too technical, but I wanted to give you an idea of what’s involved in reaching the next level of fitness for you.  Next week we’ll discuss the remaining two body types and more about cross-training to achieve better performance on the court!