A Simple Way to Crank up Your Tennis Game

Cross-training with yoga poses that support your tennis game

Tennis is a fun social sport to play. You get out into the sun, hang out with your friends, a little competition, what’s not to like?

The game of tennis, however, has a few drawbacks, especially for aging bodies.

• It’s a one sided sport. Even though you hit both forehand and backhand, you mostly engage one side, your dominant side.
• The ball hits the racquet far away from the body which creates small impacts to your joints, specifically your elbow and wrist, sometimes your shoulder. Overtime this can lead to joint pain in the arms.
• There is a lot of quick stop-start-switch directions, which can be hard on knees, ankles, and hips.
• It requires significant core strength to play well and to get good power, and this wanes as you age, unless you work on it.

That doesn’t mean that you need to give up tennis! What is does mean is that you might need some conditioning outside of tennis to keep you playing the game you love.

I often compare the body to a car. A new car runs great and doesn’t need much maintenance outside of the occasional oil change. An older car might need new brakes, new tires, new spark plugs, and a new alternator, all so that it runs the way it always has.

A young body doesn’t require much work to do the sports and activities that you love to do. An older body needs more preparation and aftercare to do the exact same sports and activities.

Things to think about

Cross-training (other activities that strengthen and move the body in a complementary way) will prepare your body for tennis. Functional strength training, mobility work, and core work will all help your body manage the physical stresses of tennis and help your body better acclimate to the sport.

Quad strengthening will support your knees, core work will give you more power in your swing, and mobility work will allow you to go for those hard shots without throwing out your back.

Some other things to think about while playing:

Push from your glutes

I see a lot of adult athletes in my acupuncture practice, and probably a third of them are tennis players. Typical injuries are overuse or strain injuries, like tennis elbow, groin pulls, hamstring, or lower back injuries. These often arise from inefficient movements, using smaller muscles to do the job of bigger muscles.

When your glutes are strong, you’ll push from your back leg using your glutes, rather than your hamstrings, calves, or lower back. You’ll get more speed and power as you rush the net or move side to side. Doing glute strengthening exercises will make them more accessible when you play.

Initiate your swing from your core

When you rely on your arm for your power, your shoulder, elbow, and/or wrist will start to feel the brunt of it. Initiating your swing from your pelvis, the center of your core, will give you more power as you’re using bigger muscles to initiate the work.

If you’ve ever driven a standard car, you know that in order to get the car moving, it needs to be in first gear. First gear gives your car a lot of power to get it moving from stillness. Once it’s moving, you can move into higher gear which allow the car to go faster, but require less power.

Your glutes and oblique muscles, in this case, are like first gear. They give your body the power to move rotationally. The shoulder and arm then take over once your swing has started, because the big work is already done, like the higher gears.

Before you play

Here is where you build your foundation. On your off days, if you spend some time building your core and body strength and working on your mobility, you’ll feel the benefits on the court.

Here is a simple yoga sequence to build strength and increase mobility. You can also use it to warm up before playing. After there is a cool down routine for after you play. Stretching afterward is just as important as warming up before. Getting on the court when your body is cold is a recipe for injury. Please don’t do static stretches before you play. You should have a dynamic warm up that moves your muscles and joints through a range of motion.

Scroll down to watch a video where I guide you through both the warm up and cool down sequence. Cool down starts at timestamp 11:50

Warm up/Cross-Training sequence

1. Start standing with your feet about shoulder distance apart. Begin to turn your pelvis from side to side and allow your arms to swing naturally in response. Rotate from your feet, lifting your right heel as you twist to the left, lifting your left heel as you turn to the right. Let your breath flow freely, swinging side to side for about a minute or two.
2. Come to Table pose and extend your right leg behind you, toes on the floor. Then extend your left leg back into a Plank pose. If you prefer to take Half Plank, lower your knees to the floor behind your knees. If this bothers your wrists, you can lower your forearms to the floor. Whatever version you take, hold your Plank for 5-10 breaths, holding longer and longer as you get stronger. More on Plank pose here:

Ask a Yoga Teacher: Plank Pose

3. Stand up in Mountain pose. Reach your arms overhead and lower your hips into Utkatasana/Awkward pose. Press downward through your right foot as you straighten the right leg, pulling your left knee toward your chest. Use your glutes and quads to do this. Step your left foot back into Crescent Lunge. Press your right foot into the floor to bring your left knee back to your chest. Lower back down into Utkatasana, then repeat on the other side. Do 5-10 repetitions on each side as slowly and mindfully as you can.
4. Stand in Crescent Lunge with your right foot forward. Bring your hands behind your head, elbows out to the sides. Keep your lower body stable and as you exhale, twist your upper body to the right. Return to facing forward as you inhale, then again exhale to the right. Repeat this 5-10 times, then practice with the left leg forward.
5. Sit kneeling or on a block or two. Take a strap, belt, or towel and hold either end. Make sure to pull it tight but have a wide grip. Start with the strap on your lap. Raise the strap over your head and bring it down behind you so the strap touches the back of your pelvis. Then go back over your head until the strap is in your lap again. If you didn’t feel a stretch, walk your hands a little closer together. Repeat this until you feel the stretch in the chest and shoulders. Once the hands are close enough, go up and over 5-10 times.
6. Sit cross-legged on the floor with your right leg in front. Interlace your fingers and make 3-4 wrist circles going forward, then 3-4 wrist circles going backward (please see the video, I can’t describe it well). Then press your palms up toward the ceiling, shoulder blades go downward and wide across your back. Lift the chest into an upper back backbend. Circle the upper back to the right, then forward, then left, the back to the ceiling. Release your hands and interlace them behind your back in Yoga Mudra. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and hinge forward with a flat back. Hold for 3-5 breaths, then repeat the whole thing to the other side. Switch the leg that’s in front, interlace your fingers with the other fingers on top, and circle to the left first.

Cool down sequence

1. Lie down on the floor with your knees pulled into your chest. Drop your knees to your left, stacking the right hip on top of the left hip. Rotate the left ribs toward the ceiling, the right ribs toward the floor. Breathe deeply and slowly, filling and emptying the rib cage with breath. Stay 5-10 breaths.
2. Place your left foot on the floor and cross your right ankle over your left knee, like the number 4. Pull your left knee toward your left shoulder. Reach through the triangle in your right leg with your right arm and interlace both hands behind the left thigh. Use your arms to bring your left knee toward your left shoulder. Use your right elbow to gently press your right knee away from your chest. Keep the legs where they are and reach your tailbone toward the floor to deepen the hip stretch. Hold 5-10 breaths.
3. Pull your right thigh toward your chest and extend the left leg forward on the floor. Hold behind your right thigh and extend the leg toward the ceiling. Press your right heel toward the ceiling as you reach your right sit bone toward the floor. Try not to fight yourself. You might work just to straighten the leg, which might not straighten fully if your hamstrings are tight. You can also hold the foot with a strap or towel if you struggle to hold behind the leg. Rock your pelvis forward into a neutral pelvis. There should be a small amount of space under your lower back in order to isolate the hamstring stretch. Hold for 5-10 breaths.
4. For an added calf stretch, place a strap on the ball of the right foot. Gently pull on the strap to bring the toes closer to your right shin. Hold 5 breaths. Repeat 1-4 on the left side.
5. Sit up, in a chair, kneeling, or cross-legged. Cross your right arm under your left arm and either bring the palms together or grab opposite shoulders. Drop your chin to your chest and hold a few breaths. Roll your left ear toward your left shoulder and hold a couple of breaths. Roll your right ear toward your right shoulder and hold a couple of breaths, then move your chin back to your chest.
6. Lift your head to vertical and extend your right palm forward, fingers toward the ceiling. Use your left hand to pull the fingers back toward the back of your wrist (they won’t go very far). Then aim the fingers downward and use your left hand to move your fingers toward the front of your wrist. Keep your fingers aiming downward but spin your palm forward. Use your left hand to pull the fingers backward. Repeat 4 and 5 on the other side.

Warm up and cool down video for Tennis

Join me on the mat!

A regular yoga practice keeps you strong and mobile for your tennis game! Join Purple Room Yoga, an online yoga studio for active adults over 50. Click the button below for a 10 day free trial!