Train to level up your tennis and pickleball game.
Your workout routine in the Club should reflect your life and priorities out in the “real world” — your job, your chores, and yes, your hobby sport like pickleball or tennis. The reason is simple: A sport-specific training regimen can help improve your performance and lower your risk of injury, says Peter Hoffman, COACH X at Equinox Highland Park.
Here are the five elements you’ll benefit from emphasizing in your workouts, whether you are looking to clinch an end-of-season trophy or are playing purely for joy.
1. Lower-Body Stability
Racquet sports are agility sports. You’re moving with speed and quickly changing directions as the ball flies across the court. And that’s what makes stability training — building your ability to maintain and control your joints’ movement or positioning — essential for athletes. “The reason why stability is important in tennis and pickleball and other racquet sports, of course, is injury prevention along the kinetic chain,” says Hoffman. The side-to-side movement involved in these sports, for instance, requires dynamic stability through the knee and, without it, may up the risk of ACL strain or injury.
To strengthen your ability to dynamically stabilize the lower body, practice lateral shuffles, carioca, and other drills that involve quick foot movement. You’ll also want to program box jumps and depth jumps (leaping off of a box), suggests Hoffman. “They can help with being able to accommodate those forces through your legs, to make sure that when you hit the court and you're recreating the same movements in pursuit of a tennis ball, you're safe while doing it,” he adds.
2. Overhead Mobility
Tennis players in particular will want to prioritize overhead mobility, especially if you spend your day hunched over a desk, says Hoffman. Consider your everyday routine, in which you rarely lift your arms above your head or move them through their full range of motion. When you hit the court and suddenly have to perform a series of overhead serves and smashes, there’s a risk of shoulder injury, he explains.
The Rx: Take the time to stretch your lats and chest, which will help open up a greater overhead range of motion over time, says Hoffman. You can also use the TRX system to perform Ts, Ys, and other scaption movements. “[They] go a long way in being able to handle lots of overhead motion with a tennis racket, but also being able to, like, slow down that racket speed once you make contact with the ball, to make sure you don't pinch your shoulder or develop some type of rotator cuff injury.”
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3. Cardio
Tennis is typically more taxing on the cardiovascular system than pickleball, but incorporating cardio work into your fitness regimen is a smart move regardless of the sport. The longer you can fight off exhaustion, the longer you can be competitive.
Pickleball players can recreate the demands of the sport — usually brief periods of movement followed by a few seconds of recovery — with some interval training. You might hop in place for one minute, rest for 20 seconds, then perform alternating side lunges for one minute, following up with another 20 seconds of rest, says Hoffman. Repeat the formula with a few other exercises, and you’ve got a heart-building circuit.
Tennis requires a mixture of aerobic and anaerobic fitness; you’re hustling around the court for upwards of an hour, but you need to be ready to quickly sprint for the ball, too. Build your aerobic base in the gym with lower-intensity, steady-state cardio on the stair climber or treadmill, says Hoffman. Elsewhere in your routine, train explosive movements to get your heart rate spiking as high as possible, he suggests. You might do a sprint on an air bike for 10 seconds, pushing your heart rate to climb, then recover for two full minutes. As you progress, gradually reduce the amount of recovery time.
“Bringing that rest period down will pay off well out on the court when it comes to, you know, taking on a point that has you sprinting from side to side on the court — and spiking your heart rate — and then being able to recover quickly and get ready for the next point,” says Hoffman. “That’s a great way to stay competitive if you're actually a very competitive person in tennis.”
4. Core Work
Your core is the powerhouse group of muscles that transfers the force you generate in your legs all the way to your arms and, ultimately, racket or paddle. Plus, the muscles in your trunk that are responsible for rotating (obliques), flexing (rectus abdominis), extending (erector spinae), and lateral bending (a combo of all of those muscles) all activate in order to pull off an effective tennis stroke.
Core training doesn’t have to be intense. Focus on building endurance, says Hoffman; these muscles need to be activated throughout your entire match, after all. Try bicycle crunches, planks, chops, and dead bugs. Perform your favorite core moves for one minute a piece, with 20 seconds of rest in between, he suggests.
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5. Strength Training
“The weight room is very valuable for someone who's playing tennis or pickleball,” says Hoffman. “Yes, you have your athletic components, you have your agility, but doing basic kettlebell goblet squats heavy, like once a week, heavy lunges, heavy side lunges, that amount of strength development in the legs will pay off very well on the court.”
That’s because greater muscular strength is linked with enhanced jumping, sprinting, and changing direction — skills you rely on to crush your opponents, research suggests. Doing four sets of eight reps of a barbell back squat, for instance, will improve the amount of power you can generate with your legs on the court, says Hoffman.
With your training, you’ll want to prioritize unilateral work, or movements that activate the muscles on just one side of your body at a time. “If you've seen tennis players, the difference in the size of their forearms is a perfect example of how it is very easy to over-develop one side,” says Hoffman. Choose equipment that allows you to independently load your arms, like dumbbells rather than a barbell for a chest press, and play around with single-arm movements like biceps curls and shoulder presses so you’re able to divert all of your attention and energy to your non-dominant side. If you’re playing three or more times a week, you might want to add a few extra reps on your non-dominant arm to close the gap on any major muscle imbalances, he says.
Every athlete is different, and no single training program is best for all tennis- and pickleball-playing members. For personalized guidance on how to level up your on-court performance, chat with a Coach at your Club.