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!
