Strength Training For Tennis Players
Summary
TLDRThe video provides a comprehensive approach to preventing wrist injuries for tennis players, whose wrists endure tremendous stress. It outlines proprioceptive exercises like joint mobility and nerve glides, followed by two types of strengthening: lifting weights to target muscles and end range conditioning to strengthen tendons. The proprioception section aims to improve communication between joints/nerves and the brain to address underlying issues causing pain. The strength sections make muscles, tendons and wrists more injury-resistant while also potentially improving flexibility.
Takeaways
- 😀 Wrists are commonly injured in tennis due to high stress
- 👍 Preventative exercises can reduce wrist injury risk
- 🤲 Do sensory work and joint mobility warmups before playing
- ✋ Strengthen wrist muscles and tendons to make them injury resistant
- 🖐 Work on end range conditioning to improve flexibility and strength
- 🤚 Alternate between muscle focused and end range strength training
- 👐 Median, radial and ulnar nerves impact wrist and hand function
- 👋 Mobility exercises can free up restrictions in nerves
- 🖖 Vision training can help players improve performance
- 👌 A full coaching program is available to help experienced players advance
Q & A
What are some of the most commonly injured parts of the body for tennis players?
-The wrists are one of the most commonly injured parts of the body for tennis players, even high-level players with good technique. This is because the wrists have to deal with a tremendous amount of stress when playing tennis.
What is the purpose of doing sensory work for injury prevention?
-Sensory work involves applying sensation to an area which sends sensory information back to the brain to a specific part. This helps wake things up and prepare that part of the brain for movement.
What are some examples of exercises to strengthen muscles for injury prevention?
-Some examples given in the video are exercises for pronation, supination, wrist flexion, wrist extension, and radial deviation using a weighted bar or dumbbell. Aiming for 10-15 reps of eccentric strength training is recommended.
What is the purpose of end range conditioning exercises?
-End range conditioning exercises help strengthen tendons and muscles in their maximum range of motion. This helps bulletproof the body against injuries.
How often can you train the wrists with these injury prevention exercises?
-The video recommends being able to train the wrists with these exercises 5-6 days a week because the wrists tend to recover quickly and don't get too fatigued compared to bigger muscle groups like legs.
What should you avoid when working on nerves?
-When working on nerves, you want to avoid going to maximal tension. Think of gentle mobilizations, stopping around a 3/10 tension.
What is an isometric contraction?
-An isometric contraction is when a muscle contracts but doesn't change length. For example, when pushing against an immovable resistance.
What is the purpose of the free vision program offered?
-The free vision program aims to help tennis players improve visual skills like reaction time, ball tracking, timing and focus which are critical for performance.
What types of training does the full coaching program provide?
-The full coaching program provides brain-based training to improve vision, coordination, strength, flexibility and power - all key things that allow a player to reach higher levels.
How can you get a consultation about the coaching program?
-Clicking the link in the description allows you to fill out a survey which will determine if you're a good fit for the program, and guide you to schedule a consultation call if so.
Outlines
😀 Intro on Preventing Wrist Injuries
The paragraph introduces that wrists face a lot of stress in tennis, making them prone to injuries. It outlines that the video will provide a comprehensive preventative approach including proprioception, joint mobility, nerves work and strength training.
👁️🗨️ Offering Help to Improve Visual Skills
The paragraph introduces that the author helps players improve performance using neuroscience. It advertises a free vision program to enhance visual skills for better timing, ball tracking and reaction.
👃 Nerve Mobility Exercises
The paragraph demonstrates nerve mobility exercises to target the median, radial and ulnar nerves. This involves gently moving the wrists, arm, shoulder and neck through various positions to mobilize the nerves.
💪 Muscle Strength Training
The paragraph outlines strength training for muscles using weights, targeting pronation, supination, wrist flexion, extension and radial deviation. It suggests 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps for each exercise done 2-3 times a week.
🦾 Tendon Strengthening
The paragraph demonstrates end range strengthening exercises for the flexors and extensors using bodyweight. This targets the tendons for injury prevention and flexibility.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡wrist
💡injury
💡prevention
💡strength
💡flexion
💡extension
💡mobility
💡sensory
💡nerve
💡End range conditioning
Highlights
Wrists are one of the most commonly injured parts of the body for tennis players
Good preventative exercises can reduce wrist injuries in tennis
Sensory work wakes up the joints and prepares them for movement
Joint mobility exercises improve coordination and send feedback to the brain
Nerve glides free up restrictions and improve signaling to muscles
Muscle strengthening exercises target power and coordination
Tendon strengthening exercises improve flexibility and bulletproof against injury
Alternating muscle and tendon exercises allows for better recovery
Wrist sensory and mobility work can be done daily as part of warm-ups
Brain-based training improves vision, coordination, strength for better performance
Better vision allows for faster reaction time and ball tracking
Improved coordination enables better technique learning and control
Increased strength and flexibility reduces injury risk
Assessing coaching program candidacy through survey
Subscribe for more helpful injury prevention and performance tips
Transcripts
your wrists have to deal with a
tremendous amount of stress when you
play tennis and that's why wrists are
one of the most commonly injured parts
of the body for all players even high
level tennis players with good technique
so it's a really good idea for tennis
players to do preventative work to
reduce the likelihood of RIS injuries
and that's exactly what I want to show
you how to do in this video I'm going to
take you through a comprehensive
approach to preventing wrist injuries
hopefully you find the video helpful if
you do it' be great if you give me a
thumbs up and if you haven't subscribed
to my channel before it really helps me
out and it's much appreciated if you
could do that as well in order to
prevent wrist injuries there's a few
different things that we need to work on
so this video is going to be broken down
into sections the first section is going
to look at proception so we're going to
do some sensory work and then some joint
Mobility work we need to make sure that
the joints are sending good information
back to our brain because if the joints
aren't moving properly that in itself
can be a major underlying cause of pain
we're then going to do some nerve work
again we need to make sure that our
brain can send good information via the
nerves to the muscles and we need the
nerves to be sending good information
back from the muscles and from the
joints and again if the nerves aren't
working optimally that can be a major
underlying cause of pain and injuries
and then finally we're going to do some
strength work actually going to do two
different types of strength work to
Target the muscles and to Target the
tendons to make them stronger and more
resistant to injury so we'll start with
the sensory and Joint Mobility work now
you might not have done sensory work
before but it's really simple it
involves applying sensation to an area
now the idea of this is as we do it I'm
rubbing my wrist joints and I'm rubbing
the rest of the joints in my hand and
that just sends s sensory information
back to my brain to a specific part of
the brain and it wakes things up and it
helps prepare that part of the brain for
movement so doesn't take too long but
it's a really useful thing to walk to
work on as part of your warm-up so I'm
just making sure that I rub all of the
joints in the wrist and in in the hand
so that's the sensory side done now
we're going to work on some joint
Mobility exercises again we're going to
do all the joints in the hands and the
wrist starting with the wrist themselves
so we're going to go for some flexion
and extension so I'm just extending and
flexing my wrist just trying to make
sure they're moving properly I'm then
going to go for some lateral Glides
again just making sure the joint is
moving properly and sending good
information back to my brain and then
I'm going to do some rist
circles and this is a joint Mobility
exercise but it also works on
coordination as well I'm just trying to
make a smoother circular shape as I can
like that and you can see I'm only doing
three to five repetitions in each
Direction it's not a massive amount of
work it's just enough to wake things up
and set good information back so that's
the wrists now we're going to Mo work on
the hands so we're going to do some
Happy Hands I'm going to pull my pinkies
down and then bring them around like
that and as I do this I'm trying to
mobilize the joints in my hand as much
as possible so I'm really pulling my
fingers down trying to open up the
individual joints and then I'm going to
do that in reverse and again just
leading with the thumb the index finger
pulling them down and trying to mobilize
the joints in the the hands and a little
bit in the wrists from there we're going
to start to work on the fingers so I'm
going to do finger circles or thumb
circles to start with so I'm just trying
to do three circles in each Direction
Direction it's mobilizing the thumb
joint it's also working on coordination
now when I do these circles I'm trying
to keep the rest of my hand still so I
shouldn't see the whole hand moving
around I'm trying to isolate the joint
itself and just create movement from
that one joint and I'm going to do this
for all of the fingers just three
circles in each Direction trying to
focus on the quality now as I'm doing
this other fingers might move because
they there's some shared tendons and
that's okay but what we shouldn't see is
the whole hand moving and also when
you're doing this you want to be keeping
your fingers completely straight so
there we go simple joint mobilizations
for the fingers we're then going to do
another mobilization now to work on the
rest of the joints so I'm rolling them
down and waving them out and then I'm
just going to reverse that motion again
we're just making sure that the joints
are moving properly and sending good
information back to the
brain so takes a couple of minutes some
sensory work followed by some Mobility
work but doing that regularly can be a
really really important thing to do for
injury prevention so the next thing that
we're going to look at are going to be
some nerve exercises but before I show
you them I just want to let you know
about some additional help that's
available to you if you're serious about
becoming a better tennis player now you
may or may not know I mainly help
players to improve their performance by
using applied neurology and Neuroscience
so one of the big things that I help
players to do is is improve their visual
skills so they can react faster track
the ball better have better timing and
stuff like that and I've created a free
Vision program to help you improve your
visual skills so you can become a better
player if you'd like that free Vision
program there's a link up there and I'll
place the link down in the description
as well now we're going to do some
Mobility work for a couple of the nerves
that Supply muscles in the hands the
wrists and the forearm so the first one
that we're going to work on is something
called the median nerve the median nerve
supplies flexor muscles in the hand and
the wrist so when we work on nerves
we're not trying to work too hard on
them we're just trying to be fairly
gentle with them so you want to think
about going for like a a three out of 10
in terms of tension so when you go into
these different positions that we're
going to go into it might feel like a a
little bit of a weird stretch it might
also feel a little bit kind of
electrical and tingly because it's a
nerve that we're working on but you
don't want to go to maximal tension just
stop at about 3 out of 10 now the way
that we're going to find the position
we're going to spread our fingers we're
going to bend our hand back we're going
to take our arm down to the side and
potentially in this position you might
already be feeling a stretch in your
forearm or some tinglin into the fingers
but depending on your level of
flexibility we can then lift the arm
away from the side a little bit and then
we can lower the shoulder blade now for
a lot of people as soon as you start to
lower the shoulder blade it can really
ramp up the tension so just do it nice
and carefully don't do it really quickly
just slowly lower the shoulder blade and
see what happens and then from there
you're going to tilt your head away so
for me when I get to this position
that's about a three out of 10 I can
feel a stretch there and a little bit of
tingling into my thumb and these two
fingers but then what we're going to do
in this position is we're just going to
mobilize the nerve so I'm going to bring
back my head back to the middle that's
going to take the tension off the nerve
and then I'm going to tilt it back I'm
just going to do that three to five
times and each time I do that it creates
a little bit of tension in in the nerve
and then going to lift my shoulder blade
up to take the tension off and lower it
back down and do that three to five
times so again just changing the tension
the nerve trying to free up any
restrictions in and around the brachial
plexus and then from there I'm just
going to do the same thing with my hand
so
just bending my hand to take the tension
off and then doing that with my hand to
increase the tension and I'm going to
shake it out and that would be one side
done you can then repeat the process
with the other side so taking you know
spreading your fingers bending your hand
back finding the position of tension
then working on the head working on the
shoulder blade and working on the wrist
so that's how you can work on the median
nerve we're then going to do some work
on the radial nerve which supplies
supplies your triceps but it also
supplies muscles on the back of the
forearm responsible for wrist extension
and finger extension so it's very
similar just a little bit different now
we're going to going to bend the fingers
that way so instead of bending them back
we're now going to bend the hand
forwards or Flex the wrist bring our arm
down to the side and internally rotate
the shoulder so before we externally
rotated now we're going to internally
rotate the shoulder again lift out to
the side lower the shoulder blade and
then tilt the head away and this time
we're expecting to feel a stretch on the
back of the forearm maybe the back of
the wrist into the back of the hand so
for me that's my three out of 10
position and again I'm going to mobilize
from the
head do three of those mobilize from the
shoulder blade and again as I pull my
shoulder down it increases the tension
in the
forearm and then I'm going to relax the
wrist and then Flex the wrist so
mobilizing this nerve in three different
positions and then shake it out and then
again repeat the process on the other
side so once you know what you're doing
you can see it only takes maybe 20 or 30
seconds to do we're then going to do one
final nerve so this is the ol the nerve
this also supplies muscles that Flex the
wrist and bend the fingers but now we're
thinking about the pinky finger and the
ring finger so you'll feel it in a
slightly different place to before so
this time we'll be spreading the fingers
bending the hand back into this position
taking our arm out to the side and when
I get into that position I can feel a
fairly strong stretch so for me that is
the maximum position that I need to go
into you might also need to tilt your
head away and lower your shoulder blade
a little bit but for me just this
position is enough but then I can drive
the tension tilting my head away to
increase it bringing it back to the
middle to take the tension
off same thing for the shoulder blade so
if I lift the shoulder blade up it'll
take the tension off if I lower it it'll
increase the tension and again just
maybe three four five reps of that and
then with the wrist I'll relax the wrist
to take the tension off and then
increase the
tension like
so and that's our final nerve drill so
we've now worked on all of the nerves
that Supply the muscles in the hands the
wrist and the forearm again once you
know how to do it it only takes 20 to 30
seconds to work on each of them but
doing this regularly is massively
important for injury prevention now
we're going to work on our first type of
strength exercise ex and for this
exercise we're kind of focusing more on
the muscles themselves trying to make
them stronger and you're going to need a
little bit of equipment to do this so
I'm using this special bar that just
allows me to do additional weight or
load additional weight and really
monitor and progress my strength over
time if you don't have access to
something like that you can use a hammer
and you can get hammers of different
weights that you can do these exercises
really simply with and then the final
option that you've got or there are a
couple of other options you could could
use a dowel or a pole of some sort but I
could be placing a weight on my racket
and working like that now I won't be
able to use a full range of motion
because the weight will fall off but
I'll be able to work on some of the
movements that we're trying to work on
but I'm going to be
using the bar and the first exercise
that we're going to do is going to be
pronation so pronation is the movement
that allows you to create Top Spin on
your forehand it's what gives you the
power on your serve it's technically the
forearm but we're going to class it as
the wrist so for pronation I'm just
going to lift it back up and I'm going
to lower it
slowly so when we're doing this we want
to train the Ecentric strength so our
ability to decelerate so that's why I
lower it slowly under the control if I
do that it's just gravity if I lower it
slowly the muscles are working on the
way down so we'll lower slowly lift back
up quickly and you want to aim for
between 10 and 15 reps and each rep is
going to take around 4 seconds so if I
lower it for 3 seconds lift it back up
lower for one two three lift it back up
if I do 10 reps like that that's going
to be 40 seconds and if I do 15 reps
like that it's going to be 60 seconds
and that's going to be the right sort of
length of exercise to really stimulate
the muscles and help them get stronger
and I find that wrists don't need that
much recovery or the body doesn't need
that much recovery when you're doing it
so I can do the left side and then I can
go on and do the right side so again
just work through a set and do the right
side for 10 to 15 reps then switch back
to the left hand and then we're going to
work in a circuit so I'm now going to
work on superation so I'm going to be
lowering it the other way and lifting it
back up so slowly lowering it under
control lifting back
up again I'm going to do that for 10 to
15 reps change the right hand go for the
same thing
there 10 to 15 reps from there I'm going
to move on to wrist flexion so for wrist
flexion I'm just going to lower the
weight under control and then I'm going
to flex or bend the wrist and you're
just going to do the maximum range that
you can do without pain or discomfort so
I'm lowering under
control and then flexing the
wrist 10 to 15 reps switch to the other
side lower under control roll Flex the
wrist then we're going to work on
extension so the exact opposite of that
now I'm going to lift the weight by
bending my wrist back and then I'm going
to lower it lift the weight by bending
my wrist back and then lower under
control again 10 to 15 reps change hands
repeat the
process 10 to 15 reps and then we're
going to do one more exercise so for
this one we're going to be doing nna
deviation sorry we're going to do radial
deviation uh so radial deviation is this
movement so it's going to be really
important for the snap on the forehand
so I'm going to lower it down and then
I'm just going to lift it back up so
this is strengthening muscles on the
wrist here so again if I lower it for
maybe three seconds lift it back up 10
to 15 reps again Lower lift back up
lower lift back up and that's my circuit
and you can do that for maybe two or
three rounds so we have superation sorry
we have pronation we have superation we
have wrist flexion we have wrist
extension and then we've got radial
deviation so they're going to be our
five exercises and again two to three
sets is going to be enough and you can
do this you know two to three times a
week is going to be a really good amount
of work and for me personally I do this
one in the evening when I'm watching TV
just find it helps me fill some time and
prevents wrist injuries now we're going
to work on our second type of strength
exercise and for this version we're
going to be working on end range
conditioning or end range strengthening
so it's going to work the muscles but
it's also going to be really good for
strengthening tendons and it can have a
couple of different purposes if you lack
flexibility in your wrist you can use
these to help improve your wrist
flexibility but if you've already got
very mobile wrists then it's just going
to really help to bulletproof you
against injuries so we're going to be
working on wrist flection and finger
flexion in end ranges and then we're
going to be working on wrist extension
and finger extension in end ranges so
wrist flexion finger this is finger
flexion this is wrist flexion but I'm
going to go and lean forwards and put
some body weight onto it um to create a
stretch so in this position I have a
stretch on my forearm now for me because
mobility and flexibility tends to be my
biggest issue in this position I do a
lot of long hold stretching so I get
into this position and I do deep
breathing so I'll breathe in for maybe
three or 4
seconds and then exhale for you know
around 6 8
seconds and I find if I hang out in
these positions for maybe two to three
minutes I can start to increase the
range in my wrists some people find that
they can increase the range much more
quickly than that but for me I have to
hold stuff for a long time but after
I've done that for you know a couple of
minutes then you're going to start to do
contractile work where if you're already
very mobile you can just start the
contractile work straight away and we're
basically going to work on two different
movements I'm going to work on bending
my fingers so in this position I'm
trying to squeeze my fingers into the
mat so I'm creating a a contraction it's
called an isometric contraction because
I'm not really moving anywhere because
the mat's in the way but I can feel a
lot of tension in my wrists and in my
forearms the muscles working trying to
bend the fingers so I squeeze and I hold
here and you know you can do this in
different ways but a contraction a good
contraction for 6 to 10 seconds is
normally enough so for me because I work
on range of motion I do that and then I
try and increase my range a little bit
and then I squeeze again for another 6
to 10 seconds and it might feel a little
bit uncomfortable at the start don't
cause yourself any pain but you might
need to get used to the discomfort and
kind of get get used to the feeling but
working on that for maybe 6 to 10
seconds do a few different rounds of
that and then you can work on the
muscles on the back of the forearm so
now I'm trying to pull my fingers up as
much as I can now I can't go anywhere
because I don't have any more range of
mode motion but I'm trying to lift my
fingers up into the sky and as I do that
I'm Contracting the muscles on the back
of the forearm so we're working on the
end range of motion and again you know 6
to 10 seconds is enough rest for a few
seconds and then repeat it trying to
squeeze my fingers up as high as I
can then we're going to go back to the
flexes and now in try instead of trying
to bend the fingers we're now going to
be trying to bend the wrists so I could
actually push myself away in this
position so potentially I could go into
a push-up position and create more
resistance but depending how strong you
are just leaning your body weight over
and pushing your hands into the mat or
the ground you'll be able to feel it on
the back of your wrists again 6 to 10
seconds relax it and then another 6 to
10
seconds strengthening the
forearms and then one final time and
then again we're going to go to the back
of of the forearms now instead of trying
to lift the fingers up I'm now trying to
pull the hole of the hands up so the
first time we were working on the finger
extensors now we're working on the wrist
extensors but again nothing's going to
move cuz I'm already in my maximum range
of motion but maybe you can see or if I
go around to the side you can see if I'm
in this position I'm trying
to pull my hands up you can hopefully
see a little bit of change in definition
of the muscle so I'm trying to pull them
into extension and again same thing
maybe 10 uh 6 to 10 seconds rest a
little bit and then go again do that a
few times and then we've worked on this
position we've done end range
conditioning for our flexors and our
extensors and then we're going to do the
opposite of that and there's different
ways that we could do this but I'm just
going to go into a kneeling position and
now I'm flexing my wrist and from there
I can hold out in this position try try
and increase the range of motion for a
little bit of time but then I'm going to
work on Contracting the muscles so I'm
going to start by working on the wrist
extensors by pulling my wrists back into
the ground so in this
position I'm trying to pull my wrists
into the ground I'm not moving anywhere
but I'm trying to do
this again 6 to 10 seconds rest it for
me sometimes that allows me to get a
little bit more range of motion so then
I increase the range and then go okay 6
to 10 seconds and for this one I find
just working on extension as one
movement so I don't break it down I just
try and pull them back and then that
gives me a little bit more range so then
again I
squeeze work on those
extensors and just increase the range a
little bit and then from there I can do
flexion work on the flexion I like to
work on on bending the wrist initially
so just trying
to I'm trying to now bend my hand as far
down as I can or as far back as I
can 6 to 10 seconds and relax it do that
a few times trying to bend the hand back
as much as you can and you might find in
some of these positions you're starting
to cramp a little bit and it feels a
little bit uncomfortable if you haven't
done any short range work before by
short range I mean in this position
sometimes it gets a little bit crampy
but that's something that you'll get
used to and you'll work through but then
the final thing that I'm going to do is
work on bending the fingers and the
wrist so in this position I'm trying to
squeeze my fist as hard as I can and I'm
trying to bend my
wrists like so and then I relax
it rest a little while and then squeeze
it and go for it again so we're St
strengthening the finger flexors and the
wrist flexors in this end range
position and that's the second type of
strength exercise that you can work on
and what I like to do is kind of
alternate between days so one day I'll
work on the previous drills that I've
shown you using the bar kind of focusing
more on the muscles and then on the
alternate day I'll focus more on these
end range of motion exercises and I find
for me you know I can recover pretty
quick L from these so I definitely
wouldn't train big leg muscles squats
and deadlifts every single day but I
find that I can do wrist work you know
five six days a week and it makes things
feel good and helps me to prevent
injuries and doesn't Tire things out you
might find that that works for you or
you might find you need to do a slightly
lower volume so potentially you could do
the other variation on Monday this
variation on Tuesday the other variation
on Wednesday this variation on Thursday
and that that might work well for you or
potentially you do it all together in
one big wrist program and you just maybe
do that two to three times a week so
there's no perfect way to set things up
it's all about how your body recovers to
different types of training and kind of
how strong you are and things like that
are also going to have an impact but you
can definitely do the sensory work the
wrist mobility and the nerve drills on a
daily basis and as part of your warm-ups
and cool Downs before you play so that's
a comprehensive approach to preventing
wrist injuries if you incorporate those
exercises into your program on a regular
basis it's going to drastically help to
reduce the likelihood that you'll get
injured now if you'd like more help in
this area or more help to improve your
performance I have a full coaching
program where I work with experienced
players helping them break through to
the next level so I teach people how to
use brain-based training to improve
things like their Vision so that they
can react faster so they can track the
ball better so they can focus for longer
how to improve their coordination so
they can learn Tech technique more
easily and gain greater control over
their shots and how to improve strength
and flexibility and power so they can
reduce injury risk and so they can
become faster around court so if you
would like to learn how to do those
things how to become a better tennis
athlete so you can play higher level
tennis then there'll be a link in the
description where you can schedule a
time to talk with me to see if the
program is a good fit if you click on
that link there going to be a quick
survey for you to fill out and that will
kind of let me know whether you're a
good candidate and if you are a good
candidate it will then guide you through
to my calendar you can choose a time to
talk and then we can go from there okay
hopefully you've enjoyed the video if
you did give me that thumbs up and again
if you haven't subscribed to my channel
much appreciated if you could do that as
well
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