What muscles should you build for Tennis?

Question

What muscles should you concentrate most on for the sport of Tennis.

And what kind of excercises work these muscles?

Answer 1

Well, there are a lot of answers, some good, and some VERY wrong. Here are the facts coming from former professional player and coach.

Legs and Core (mid-body) are the two most important groups in playing tennis. Your strokes' strength and steadiness build from the lower body upwards. With importance being from the bottom to the top.

Legs are the basis of your strength. Look at players as they get tired; their legs begin to weaken. Serves start dumping into the net, as well as groundstrokes. This is a sign of fatigue, whether it be cardio or muscular. Running sprints each day, and distance 3 times a week can aid in building strength and cardio. No more than 2-3 miles is necessary when talking about distance running, since tennis is still primarly an anaerobic sport. Lunges are EXCELLENT in building quads and hamstrings, your two largest muscles in the legs that account for the most leg strength. Jumping rope is great for the calves, which will help in first step speed and quicker recovery.

Core strengthening is very important as well. Your mid-body has to be strong to insure great torso and hip turns aiding in the generation of power. This is the most difficult muscle group to condition in my mind. Sit ups and crunches of various angles are still the best method. Another great exercise is to use medicine balls of various weights. You can toss the balls either to a partner, or against a wall, with the same torso-twisting motions of your forehand and backhand groundstrokes. Some more advance gyms might have a machine I used often. It was a machine that forced you to sit, and put a pad against your thighs. You could then turn push the weight stack with your legs, allowing a full torso turn. If you use this machine, make sure you're working the weights both out and in, to create 100% resistance through both ranges of motion.

Shoulders would be the next most important group. The shoulders are one of the more important groups of the upper body. They'll give you strength that will help you on your backhand stroke especially. Also, they will aid in steadying the racket when returning balls hit with great pace, such as serves. Military presses will help in building this strength, as well as deep benches and deep push ups as well.

Arms have the least importance in the overall scheme of things, but they are important none the less. Your forearms must be strong to be able to help keep the racket steady during contact. Most of the time, just playing and practicing often will keep this strength available to you. Again, some advanced gyms will have resistance machines, such as a cable machine, where you can actually mimic the strokes with weight resistance. Slow, methodical stroke motions with a grip connected to the machine are excellent methods of building forearm strength. Biceps have little to do with strokes, although triceps do. Most strokes in tennis are generated by the EXTENSION of the arms. Tricep strength aids in this extension. Biceps aid in the curling or bending of the arms, so they are of little use in the game. To build triceps, you can do shallow bend push ups and cable reps with your arm extended behind you. Bending to a 90degree angle, then straightening again.

And, as mentioned, you have to have cardio strength as well or your muscles will fail you, no matter how strong you are.

I'm sorry I was rather winded on this topic. But, if you're going to put the time in to conditioning to take your game to the next level, you have to be doing the right things.

Answer 2

Most people will probably say like biceps so u hit it harder, but having been playing all my life i know that the muscles in the legs are the ones you need to build. As you progress in your tennis career, conditioning will become very important. In a 3 set match, you can run about 5 miles, give or take, so run at least 2-3 miles a day to get in shape, and run your opponent to death, then laugh as he gets tired when your not even out of breath. This helps a ton if u play a lateral game.

Answer 3

You don't need a lot of muscle to play tennis, just tone up what you have and work on core strength. Focus your workout on total body and core.

Answer 4

muscles build tennis

Answer 5

Unless you are playing nationally or higher... I wouldn't sweat it. .. in tennis you don't have to be muscular... it would most likely slow you down.
I would suggest though, short sprints (suicides) and other drills that have to do with quick sprints, agility, and faster reactions...
for an instance place 8 tennis balls on a racket on the "T" of the court. grab a ball one at a time and place it at one corner. Run back to the "T" and grab another ball and place it in the next corner....
Quick reflexes and agility are very important at any level... I think to go and work at the gym, you should be hitting it quite well... I play internationally and I didn't start working at the gym until about 6 months ago...
If you do go to the gym I suggest working your abs, lower and upper back... Shoulders, and fore arms... ( strechable rubber bands are good for shoulders and for arms.)

Good luck!

Answer 6

your arm muscles.
don't do it by lifting heavy waits or anything though.
one great exercise for tennis is to try and rotate both your arms in circles for as long as you can. it will really make your arm muscles noticably stronger within a couple weeks. also leg muscles and endurance are very important skills when it comes to tennis so i would try to run as much as possible. always remember to stretch before you work out or run though.

Answer 7

What you first need to work on is your ab muscles! Tennis is about the middle of your body, not your arms. You can workout your arms by just hitting the ball with great force.

Running:: Run for at least 1/2 an hour.
Sit ups:: Lift your body a quarter, up, quarter, up (for at least 5 times at one time. )
Crunches::Lift your body up quarter, up, quarter, down! (for at least 10 times)
Speed Stairs:: Go up flights of stairs as quickly as you can. Hit every stair. left your knees up. Keep your shoulders back.
Pace stairs::Go up the stairs two at a time. Skip a stair at a time. Go at a steady pace, then once you got the hang of it go at a faster pace! Keep your shoulders back.
Lungees:: Step forward and let your one knee go down barely touching the ground. While the other knee is bent at a right angle. Keep your shoulders back.
Suicides:: I'm sure everyone knows how to do suicides.!!
Chairs:: Keep your shoulders back and hands on top of your head. Back to a wall and pretend to sit down. It's like your sitting on air.

This is just about what I'm doing in conditioning for my varsity tennis team right now.

Hope this helps you!!

Answer 8

first off everything is important but its extremely important to have strong legs..especially your calves..jumproping a lot helps with this...ur core is probably more important then anything because on evry shot except a volley ur rotating ur body..and the stronger ur core is the harder and faster u can do without getting hurt...and finally ur arms...everything is very important..but shoulder is a good thing to build for ur serve and your forearm is important too to help prevent tennis elbow

Answer 9

In this order, is my suggestion

1. Leg muscles... all your ground strokes are powered by your legs. Work on flexibility, stamina as well as strength.

2. General upper body workout focusing on flexibility, speed and stamina... which means high reps with relatively low weights. You're not trying to build bulk... just tone.

You can correct me if I'm wrong, but during your ground strokes you're whipping your arm, not contracting your arms as in doing bicep curls. That's why I suggest a general upper body workout versus focusing on triceps and biceps.

Answer 10

I'm suprised that nobody's mentioned abs yet. They are a big source of power, too. Try doing leg lifts for a few minutes or lots of crunches.

Also work on those thighs.