Common Myths and Fears of Lifting for Tennis
At the collegiate and professional level, I’m not sure you would find many, if any, players who aren’t lifting weights to improve their on-court performance and reduce injuries. In contrast, I don’t meet many recreational tennis players who are lifting weights, yet they face challenges that lifting is purposely designed to overcome. I’m not saying you have to be training like the best in the world, but you will undoubtedly benefit by copying much of what they do, even at a beginner level.
Having coached athletes in every major sport and many less mainstream sports, I can say with confidence that tennis is the sport most behind in incorporating lifting as a foundational aspect of training. Even the golf world, a sport far less demanding on the body than tennis, has embraced and even elevated the world of strength training. Ever curious as to why this is, I have overheard and spoken to many players to find out why they are neglecting a key aspect of their health and fitness.
Here are the most common myths, fears, facts, and strategies of lifting for tennis:
- Bulking Up
- Losing Flexibility
- Getting Hurt
- Getting Slower
- Being Too Old
- Tennis is Enough
- Change is Hard
1. Bulking Up
Building muscle is incredibly hard. It requires many hours in the gym lifting in a specific way, lots of meal planning, and excessive eating. In other words, it won’t happen by accident. If it did, you would be studied in a lab. When people experience bulking after lifting, it is usually related to a change in their diet. The reality is that we lose muscle on a daily basis. For those who worry about bulking up, I joke that they just need to wait a week, and it will all be gone.
2. Losing Flexibility
Unfortunately, many people believe that lifting weights will make you stiff due to having bigger, tense, and tight muscles. They may have seen the abnormally large bodybuilder who is so large that they cannot move their arms around their body, but their restricted movement isn’t due to tightness. It’s due to the physical barrier of running into their own body.
The fact is that the body becomes stiff when it doesn’t move enough or doesn’t move through a full range of motion. Proper lifting improves flexibility because every workout includes mobility (passive, active, and dynamic stretching), moving the joints through a full range of motion, and movement in different directions that they wouldn’t get exposed to otherwise. As you build strength and control in more complete ranges of motion or stretched positions, your nervous system allows you to access more mobility, so your muscles relax instead of tightening up.
I find it very interesting as a massage therapist about my clients who lift, that although their muscles are shapely and dense, they often have softer, hydrated, and more flexible muscles that are easier to work deeply and are far less sensitive to pain. In contrast, working with my clients who don’t lift or move much, their tissue is like concrete and highly sensitive.
3. Getting Hurt
Strength is rehab, rehab is strength. The primary purpose of lifting is to reduce pain and injuries, and to make you more resilient to injury. The boost to your performance, appearance, and confidence are bonus effects. Think of lifting as armor building. At times, you may experience some excessive soreness, fatigue, or even pain. This is to be expected when you are purposely challenging your body, but these effects should be rare and short-term and are often the result of prior injuries, ego lifting, and lack of training experience.
If you have never hired a Strength Coach in the past or have existing injuries, you should at least take a few lessons to learn the basic principles. The biomechanics of the human body are complex and require an expert understanding of anatomy, movement, and exercise science, but anyone can learn the fundamentals in a short period of time.
4. Getting Slower
If lifting made you slow, then American football players would not be both the strongest and fastest group of athletes on the planet. Muscles are what produce the force to move your body. Lifting increases the quality and force that your muscles can produce, leading to faster and more efficient movement. Most importantly, lifting allows you to move all joints and muscles equally, at all speeds, at different loads, and through a full range of motion. Moving slowly, declining strength, or a lack of movement is what makes you slow. Some think more muscle means more weight, but you can increase your muscle mass without gaining size or weight. Body fat and weight tend to go down when muscle mass increases from lifting. Fast and explosive movements, often referred to as power, are part of a good lifting program.
5. Being Too Old
It’s never too late to start lifting. It’s actually more important for older populations who are more likely to experience muscle loss, bone loss, joint deterioration, and limited mobility. The science shows that you can continue to build muscle and increase your bone mineral density all the way up to your final years. My older clients could probably whip your butt.
6. Tennis is Enough
Tennis is an excellent sport for people of all ages and levels of athletic ability. Tennis players move better than any other beginner I train. Playing tennis already gives you major health benefits, but it can also be demanding on the body, leading to injuries and muscular imbalances. I don’t imagine you are serving, volleying, or hitting ground strokes equally on your left and right sides. Lifting allows you to methodically address the body’s imbalances, limitations, weaknesses, and injuries.
7. Change is Hard
If you are doing what you’ve always done, you may be overdue for some updates to your training. Players who do lift and share their programs with me are missing key exercises, doing unnecessary exercises, using poor form, or not using enough resistance to get the full benefits. Even as a pro, I’m learning something new about lifting every week. I’m embarrassed at some of the exercises I used to do or have my clients do. My point is that changing your training often is good and necessary. Some exercises will stand the test of time, but it’s the nuances of lifting that could be game changers for you.
What To Do
Lifting is a performance enhancer, not a liability. These myths typically come from individuals who aren’t lifting at all, are doing it incorrectly, or have had a negative experience. Lifting for tennis is not the same as bodybuilding. Tennis training programs focus on building strength to reduce injuries, improving on-court performance, and moving all joints through a full range of motion. It is supposed to make you faster, more powerful, more reactive, and more resilient to injuries. I can guarantee your tennis game will improve. If you are a competitive tennis player, without lifting, you won’t be able to compete at a high level against stronger athletes.
Do 2-3 total body strength workouts per week, between 30 and 60 minutes long. Your workouts should include single-leg exercises, squats, deadlifts, pushing, pulling, core, power, agility, mobility, and rotational movements.
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