Tennis Training...Quick Tennis Workout for Strength/Stability

Hey everybody,

I hope you are having a wonderful day wherever you are...once again in LA it is about 75 and sunny...hard to beat! I just through together another tennis training video for you. This is a quick 12 minute 4 exercise total body circuit. 

It is another example of a sequence that uses compound tennis exercises in a functional way that will enhance tennis performance. We want to train the way we play...multiple muscles and joints working together in a synergistic manner being held together by your core.

Here is the tennis workout for today:

*Do exercises 1-4 in a circuit...no rest between. After all 4 are completed, rest 30-60 seconds and repeat 3x.
**Do 8-12 reps of each

1. Medicine Ball Lunge w/Torso Twist

2. Dumbbell Chest Fly on Stability Ball

3. Dumbbell Rotational Shoulder Press

4. Medicine Ball Figure 8s

In all the above exercises, make sure to activate/engage your core. That is try to simulate trying to stop the flow of urine before you begin. I know it sounds weird but this is a cueing technique to get people to begin to connect to the deep internal abdominal muscles.

For standing exercises, make sure to bend your knees slightly to protect your low back and train your body to engage you legs for more strength and support...just as if you were in the middle of a point on the court.



Until next time, train on purpose and play with passion!

Adam Brewer

Tennis Training...Condition The Body & The Mind

A comprehensive approach to tennis training/tennis fitness, includes both conditioning your body through tennis exercises as well as conditioning your mind with proper sports psychology techniques. Dr. Patrick Cohn is doing some great work in the field of mental toughness for tennis. Check out his latest video below and then make sure to log onto his site to pick up your

FREE Report "6 'Unforced' Mental Game Errors Tennis Players Make" at SportsPsychologyTennis.com





Until next time...train on purpose and play with passion!

Adam Brewer

Tennis Training For Weekend Warrior: Dynamic Warm-Up 1

Check out this short video on a simple 3-minute off-court Dynamic Warm-Up you can do that will go along way to improving your on-court performance and save you from injury. ENJOY!

Andy Roddick's RUN to the Aussie Open Semis

So the Australian Open is almost over and to me on of the best stories of the tournament was Andy Roddick's run to the semis. The key word being RUN. I say this because noticeably improved was his movement around the court and that translated to better results for him.

Why the improvement?

Quite simply in my estimation it had to do with the fact that he lost 15 pounds in the "off-season". Under the watchful eyes of his new coach, Larry Stefanki, Roddick busted his butt with an intense training regimen, ultimately designed with tennis exercises to make him quicker around the court.

15 pounds and greatly improved endurance later, the guy reaches the Semis of the Aussie Open (only to run into arguably the greatest player ever- FEDERER) with 2009 looking brighter than ever for him. Admittedly, I have never been a huge Roddick fan but I really admire him for making this type of change.

Yeah, about a year or so ago he was on the cover of Men's Fitness with biceps bulging but his play on-court was suffering. While Nadal can get away with a more muscular physique, it is not the ideal for fluid shot making and graceful, effortless court coverage.

Moral of the story, if you want to move like a cat around the court and you find yourself carrying a number of extra lbs, whether it comes in the form of hulking muscles or unwanted fat, hire a trainer or connect with me to create a tennis training program that will lean you out and tone you up!

16 Diet Tips To Get You In Great Tennis Shape!

Proper nutrition is essential for playing better tennis, feeling stronger, getting leaner and living with more energy.

Listen you can have the perfect workout program filled with the best tennis exercises to help improve your play, but if you don't have the energy to hit the weights, it is all for naught.

Remember, you are what you eat. Yes, this statement has been made before and t should be said again and again until the significance of its import is fully accepted. If you want your engine to hum, then feed it with premium gas. The more you make eating well a natural, habitual part of your life, the easier the rest of your life becomes.

Listed below are a number of helpful tips to practice daily... I thought it would be good to remind you of some of these ideas as we are starting out the new year...this is always a great time to start fresh and eat right. So here you go:

1. Drink water throughout the day (Drink at least 1/2 your body weight in ounces)
2. Eat 4-5 small meals every day. Eat every 3 hrs to avoid hitting energy lows.
3. Balance macro-nutrients with 40-50% of your calories being complex carbohydrates, 25-30% lean protein, 25-30% essential fats.
4. Eat breakfast.
5. Have fruits and veggies whenever possible.
6. Stay away from sodas. Sodas are filled with sugar and caffeine which spikes blood sugar levels.
7. Eat low-fat sources of protein.
8. Avoid heavy sauces and creams.
9. Eat as many colorful foods as possible.
10. Avoid large quantities of cheese.
11. Use light salad dressings.
12. Choose organic if possible
13. Eat dinner early.
14. At dinner, sequence your meals with soups and salads first.
15. Take a Super Green Food supplement.
16. Don't skip meals.

Be Well and Eat Well,
Adam Brewer

Are You Making This Big Mistake?

What a day it has been...I've been getting myself ready to visit my family for the Holidays.  I try to give myself 2 weeks at the end of the year to rest, recover and recharge for the year to come.  Part of this is taking a break from most digital interface.  Personally, I think we can all stand to do this from time to time- get away from all the crazy technology that is at our fingertips.  I don't know about you, but for me it seems way to easy to sit down in front of the computer to work and before you know it, 2-3 hours are gone.  

Anyway, enough about my little break I will be taking and on to the good stuff...more tennis exercise tips for you.

There may be one HUGE mistake you might be making that could be possibly setting you up for serious injury...not spending at least 5 minutes doing dynamic warm-up before you hit even one tennis ball. I can't tell you how many adult players in particular I see go from their cars to to hitting balls on the courts without any real warm-up.  Alright, alright...I know you might be one of the those "special " people who have been lucky to have gotten away with it so far, but let me tell you, sooner or later it will catch up with you. 

By the way, starting short court or hitting gently at first DOES NOT count as a warm-up.  Yes this should be done, but after you have taken the muscles and joints through a series of simple dynamic exercises.   It doesn't have to be anything crazy either.

Many times, I think people don't go through a proper warm-up because they are afraid of being the only one and looking stupid.  Look...hopefully gone are those high school days when we felt like we needed to be in the "in" crowd.  Take your health into consideration please and don't worry what anyone else is going to think.  

Say you are going to be joining a clinic and you can't get on the court early because there is another group there until you start.  You don't need the court to do a dynamic warm-up.  Here is a simple routine:

1. 20 Jumping Jacks

2. 20 High Knee Marches

3. 20 Butt Kicks

4. 10 Body Weight Squats

5. 10 Lunges

6. 10 Arm Circles Backward

7. 10 Arm Circles Forward

8. 20 Side to Side Loose Arm Swings

Doing something as simple as this is better than nothing.  This will at least give your body a chance to safely begin to engage the muscles with the intensity that the sport requires and FYI...you won't look silly doing it!  

Be Well,

Adam Brewer

3 Keys To Performing Tennis Exercises Safely and Effectively

In Real Estate, it is said that three most important factors when buying a home are location, location, location. Well, when it comes to doing safe and effective tennis exercises, our mantra will be FORM, FORM, FORM.

Getting back to homes for a second, when you build a home, before you put up the walls of the house, the cement foundation needs to be set...without a solid foundation, your home will crumble. In exercising, our "cement" from which we put up our "walls", will be our legs. In other words, even if we are doing an exercise that is targeting the upper body, such as a dumbbell shoulder press, in no way shape or form should you begin to do the exercise without first addressing your set up from the ground up.

Step One: (for standing exercises)
Set up your feet. The most stable stance is on two feet with them parallel and squarely set under the hips. Another version is what is referred to as the staggered stance- one foot slightly in front of the other. This position tends to help if one has low back issues. The last base set up is on one foot- definitely an advanced option.

Step Two:
Put a slight bend in the knees. Helps with balance, saves the joints and protects the low back

Step Three:
Engage your core. Draw your navel toward your spine without flexing forward and continue to breath. To help you with this concept, the sensation in your mid section should be much like when you cough.

Once you've addressed these three primary foundational techniques for standing exercises, you are now prepared to "put up you walls"- move your arms through the shoulder press exercise. Use this three step process and you will be setting yourself up to safely and effectively perform your tennis exercises.

Tennis Exercises..Use Specificity to Improve Performance

I wanted to wish you an early Happy Thanksgiving, as there is a good chance I won't get around to blogging tomorrow. Like a lot of you, I will be involved in holiday events, beginning with my Family Affair Boot Camp workout at the beach starting bright and early at 7 am. It should be a blast, as about 30-40 people, young and old, will gather to start their holiday off with some fitness...sounds pretty cool to me. Hoping the weather holds out though as today was a rainy day here in LA and tomorrow is supposed to be more of the same. We'll just have to wait and see.

Now on to the topic for today...Do I always have to apply periodization training to my tennis fitness exercises? To cut to the chase, the answer is NO. As long as you are thoughtfully applying Specificity to your training, you are good to go. So let's look at what specificity means. To sum it up in one sentence, I might say...

Train The Way You Play-

When one is deciding what types of exercises to use, it is necessary to look at one’s operational environment. In what ways will you be functioning- will you be moving just you arm or will you be bending down, turning and walking, throwing something etc? At the same time, what experience are you bringing to the workout with regard to how much strength training you are presently doing? This is referred to as a needs assessment.

More often than not, it is ideal to gear your training to fit your purpose. For our purposes, we are going to apply our training to an environment (the sport of tennis) where you’re body is constantly be called upon to operate in a synergistic way in which it allows you to change levels, move in multiple planes of activity, at extreme ranges of motion and varying speeds, all the while attempting to maintain balance so you can strike the ball in an optimal fashion. Now that’s a mouth full!

In other words, make your workouts multi-joint, multi-planar, uni-lateral, unstable and primarily standing. However, make sure to be progressive in your approach. Begin with the basics and then move on to advanced conditioning...start slow and controlled and then move to fast and chaotic.

Examples of this will follow soon.

Be well and until next time, train on purpose and play with passion!
Adam