Train Your Tennis Muscles

What are tennis muscles?

Tennis uses every major muscle in the body, but there are KEY ones that can be trained to ignite the POWER into your game.

Most players I know want to hit the ball harder and yet only a few work on their body to achieve this goal.

Training to achieve more power in your game is different to just going into a gym and lifting heavy weights on machines.

Tennis is a dynamic sport, that is played on your feet; involves balance, coordination, stability and body awareness, none of which can be achieved by training on machines.

How To Gain More “Feel” And Control In Your Game

Many players have a fear of lifting heavy weights in case they bulk up, lose flexibility and not have any “feel” in their game.

None of this is true if you participate in a tennis specific strength and flexibility program. You will actually have an improved level of feel and control if you do your training right.

Any tennis training program should incorporate movements that challenge the same exact positions you get into when you play.

Here are the main tennis muscle groups.

Legs (hamstrings and quads for improved posture)

The leg muscles are critical for maintaining your tennis posture. If you have trouble holding a low position on your shots then it’s likely that your hamstrings and quads are restricted and weak.

If these muscles are weak, they will send a message to your brain that they can’t hold this position and need to get out of it. You will straighten your legs and get into an inferior position.

This is one of the most common occurrences in amateur players.

The core covers your abdominals mainly (but also includes your hip flexors and glutes).

If you can’t make a full backswing it is your core rotational flexibility that is inefficient.

If you don’t work on this from a training standpoint, you will never achieve a full backswing without creating a high level of tension, which will rob you of racket head speed and bags of POWER.

With a stronger, more flexible core, you will be able to rotate fully on the backswing with minimal tension, creating maximum torque. This loaded position is ideal for generating high levels of racket head speed without swinging any harder.

So many players think that swinging harder creates more power.

This is actually the opposite of what happens as swinging harder creates muscular tension and tense muscles react slower, not faster.