4fitbodies.com

Sports Specific Training – Tennis

David Hansey
NASM Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist
NASM Certified Sports Fitness Specialist
NASM Certified Personal Trainer

Over the next couple of months, I will be highlighting a few sports that I call lifetime sports. Basically these are sports that you can play for your entire life such as golf and tennis. I will also be highlighting some sports such as running, extreme sports and martial arts which are great sports for kids and adults who don’t like traditional team sports. For each of these sports, like all sports, strength training can help you improve and prevent injury.
This month, I will highlight tennis. If you have been playing for a while, you may be skeptical as to how weight training can help. Sports specific strength training for tennis requires a different approach than you may normally have. Many people take classes and work out on their own and then are surprised when they don’t end up seeing results in their game. Training for a few sessions with a Certified Personal Trainer who is certified in performance or sports training is probably the best way to go. A trainer can develop a unique plan for your sport, your needs, your limitations and your goals.
There are a few key areas where tennis players generally need help:
- Recovery
- Agility
-strength
- Rotator cuff and elbow
Recovery is lack of conditioning. It is giving up on that corner to corner run because you are just worn out and need a breather. You can work on recovery on your own with some drills. A trainer can give you specifics, but remember long runs, cardio sessions and classes do little to help recovery, but sprints and drills do.
Agility is also something you can improve on your own or your trainer can work it into your routine. It requires drills that are tennis specific such as lateral drills and corner drills to mimic the moves in tennis.
Strength for tennis can be broken down into results rather than body parts. The result you want is better reach; you need to work on hip drive. There are many exercises for this such as deadlifts. Since deadlifts are one of the exercises I see being performed WRONG every day, get some advice to make sure you are doing it right. Improving your hip drive can help you to add 6 inches to your reach. It does that by making your first step more powerful and longer so you can actually get to balls that you missed before.
Is your serve sucking wind? Then, the results you want are a more powerful, consistent serve. This can be achieved by working on your back and core strength. There are many exercises that can help here. Some key back exercises can give you more power when you are extended in your serve. One of these is the pull-up. Since the pull-up is difficult for many people, you can also do the assisted pull-up but this is a machine that I see being used incorrectly often so ask a trainer to give you some advice. The most obvious is not working hard enough where people just float up and down. The next is not going all the way down which is critical to improve your serve.
Lastly, I see a lot of people complaining of elbow pain not only from tennis but from many fitness activities, including classes. There are only 2 possible causes. One is poor mechanics (and this is almost always the case) If you lack strength, you will use your arm to compensate. True tennis power comes from force transfer not powerful arms. If your arms are weak and you are experiencing elbow pain, there is a basic set of exercises that you can do to prevent the pain. The other (and much less common) reason for elbow pain is overuse. Few players are causing themselves injury from overplaying. It is more likely that you have a very weak backhand and compensate for it by abusing your body. Fix it now by strength training and changing your mechanics so that you can continue to enjoy life.
For more information on Sports Specific Training, call me at 404-514-1896 or visit my website at www.4fitbodies.com.

Tags: Chapel Hill News, Douglasville, Sports Fitness, tennis by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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I work at a very busy gym here in Douglasville as well as seeing clients in their homes and I rarely have cancellations or late clients or no shows on my home clients. Not the same for the gym. One of the incentives of personal training is knowing that you HAVE to show up.

Personally, I am always surprised when people are late. Not because things don’t happen and not because people are not busy. I am surprised because when people first start their personal training program, I tell them to come in early and do their cardio first. So, if you came to the gym 30-45 minutes early to do your cardio, being a few minutes late would not affect the time that you spend with me. You would still be to me on time.

Not trying to be harsh, but I like – no LOVE – to see my clients happy and successful. And you shortchange yourself when you do not work hard with me and take advantage of every single second that you pay for.

So for my personal training tips, let me put them here so that you get everything you can from your personal training.

1. Show up 30-45 minutes in advance. This allows you to do your cardio. It is also your buffer for traffic, people wanting to talk to you, etc. It is easy to add more cardio to the back of your personal training session, but you can’t add more personal training.

2. If you need to cancel, call 24 hours in advance so you are not charged for your session.

3. On days when you don’t “feel” like it, push through it. Unless you are terribly ill, there is really no good excuse. It is being consistent that gets the results.

4. Do what your trainer suggests or at least be honest that you are not going to. If your trainer tells you the best way to get results for your goal is cardio of 45 minutes, 5 days a week. And you can’t or won’t do that, then your goal is too lofty or the time frame is too short. You would do better to adjust your goals and expectations with your trainer than you are to not tell your personal trainer and then not get the results you want.

5. Examine your diet. Working out, even hard, does not give you a free pass when it comes to your food choices. Making healthy food choices is a major key in weight loss and weight control, it is also a major key in giving you enough energy to live a full life. So get honest about your diet. Keep a diary if you have to.

Tags: Douglasville, Fitness, Personal Training, Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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Strength training is a critical addition to your fitness routine and truly the only way to maintain a healthy body, a trim body and live longer. OH WHY? you ask. Well, strength training creates muscle which looks better and burns calories even when you are sleeping. So, that is the best way to get a healthy trim body.

Strength training with heavy weights builds bone mass (unlike classes with light weights that you lift 100 times) and since our bodies are designed to naturally lose bone mass as we age and since having low bone mass can lead to terrible slip and fall injuries, it makes sense to do everything you can to keep the maximum amount of bone mass. This means a healthy training regimen that MUST include strength training.

And last, but certainly not least, why does strength training help you live longer? Pretty simple really. Better bone mass means less chance of injuries such as broken hips. Better calorie burning means less chance of being obese and all the diseases related to obesity. And as any doctor would love to tell you, working out helps control chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and helps prevent heart disease. These are not rare diseases. They kill millions of people a year so yes, you should be concerned.

So if you are not strength training as part of your workout routine, or are not training with heavy weights or just don’t even know where to start, give me a call. A few well planned personal training sessions can set you on your way to a healthier lifestyle that will keep you fit and active for a lifetime.

Tags: Fitness, fitness classes, Personal Training, Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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It can sometimes seem like you can’t get over a hurdle when it comes to exercise. January comes and you decide to start running (or getting on the treadmill, going to fitness classes, playing sports, whatever….)

You quit in a couple of weeks. And come the next year, you do it again.

Why?

Not because you are lazy or anything is wrong with you.

But because there is SOMETHING about the sport or activity that you choose and the way you go about it that makes it unpleasant. And because it is unpleasant, you quit prior to it becoming a habit.

Well here is some insight into why you quit and what makes it boring and how to make it something you can do regularly and learn to love.

First, my sport, running. Many people try to tackle running as something they are going to get off the couch and all of the sudden do. That right there is the problem. You force your body to tap it’s anabolic threshold too early and cause yourself nothing but pain and soreness. Start out with something easier and more appropriate for someone just getting off the sofa. Walking, elliptical, treadmill walking with spurts of running. All of these will help to condition your body to run.

And since I brought it up, what about that treadmill or elliptical. You get on it and time slows down as the timer ticks down. Stop clock watching. Either use the clock for intervals — like 2 minute spurts of running followed by 5 minutes of walking, or put your towel over the screen.

I will have a few more tips next time so see you soon!

Tags: Fitness, Running, Sports Fitness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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I know I tell you to work out to get healthy. And working out will get you healthy. But it is only a part of a healthy lifestyle. You can work out like a demon but if you eat junk food, fried food, processed food, etc. Then you will not be fueling your body correctly and in return, your body will respond with problems. Whether it is just being run down or not losing the weight you are expecting or feeling winded during your cardio.

Your body is like a vehicle and responds only to the correct fuel. So you need to put the correct fuel in. I am not trying to limit your enjoyment. There are many ways to prepare and enjoy healthy food that is delicious and wonderful. It usually takes a bit more time than pulling through a drive through window but you will love it.

The taste of the food will thrill you, the results and how your body feels will thrill you and keeping your weight under control will thrill you.

Not sure if you know where to start for your healthy eating plan. Then check out my site at www.douglasvilleweightloss.com

Not sure if your diet is the problem? Keep a diary for a week or two and record everything you keep in your mouth. Here is a great free diary. FREE DIARY FROM MY SITE

Remember, if you have questions about this or about your personal training or how to get fit, you can always e-mail me or give me a call.

Tags: Douglasville, Fitness, Nutrition, Sports Fitness, Weight Loss, Wellness by David Hansey, Personal Trainer
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