The Best Warm-Up for Tennis Players

Warm-ups are important for a few reasons: increase tissue temperature and extensibility, increase heart rate to prep the system for intense exercise and prep specific movements that will be performed at higher speeds.  Most often, people do not warm up either for lack of time or lack of knowing where to start!  If you have a particular area of pain or tightness, you may want to spend more time there.  Otherwise, moving through movements of the whole body is ideal. 

For each of the exercises below, I will use the width of the court, going back and forth between exercises.

Try this simple yet comprehensive workout:
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    Jog Forward 50% max effort (width of tennis court)
    Slowly back pedal (back to starting line)
    Jog Forward 60% max effort
    Slowly back pedal
    Run forward 75% max effort
    Side shuffle 
    Run forward 75% max effort
    Side shuffle (facing opposite way from last time)

 Inchworms- moving slowly and deliberately; keep the legs as straight as possible for a good         hamstring and calf stretch.  Once walked out to the plank position, do a push up (can drop to     knees if needed) then walk feet to hands.  

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Toy Soldiers- standing upright, hands out stretched in front; kick opposite foot to opposite     hand; alternate feet and move forward with each repetition. 

Walk on toes- just like it sounds, walk on tippy-toes with small steps.

​Walk on heels- walking on heels, taking small steps. 

World’s Greatest Stretch- a great warm up tool because it hits three areas that need attention     for tennis players- hips, hamstrings and back!  Go through ten reps of each movement then     switch legs.

3-way lunge- also addresses multiple areas, particularly glutes, hamstrings, quads and adductors.  Perform 6 reps in each direction per leg.

Leg swings- hold on to something stable at your side; swing leg forward and backward, letting gravity carry it back down.  Also, swing to right and left.  Preform 10 repetitions each direction.

Arm swings- open arms wide then swing across the front, one arm over the other until your fingers contact your back, swing back to front and cross over the opposite way. Also, swing arms up overhead and then back down past the hips. Again, allow gravity to do the movement, no forcing the range of motion! Perform 10 reps in each direction.  

After this warm-up you should notice that your muscles feel warm, heart rate is up, breathing has increased and you are ready to increase the intensity of your movement.  A proper warm up may decrease the likelihood of an injury and will get you ready to perform more quickly! ​

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Good luck this tennis season!  If you missed the first parts of this 4-part series, be sure to check those out.  At Athletes’ Potential we help tennis players resolve pain, improve performance and prevent injury.  Like what you’ve read?  Give us a call!​

Thanks,

    Dr. Jackie, PT, DPT, OCS, CSC

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