training

Tennis Cardio Plus

Anyone interested in training for competitive tennis knows there’s going to be cardio involved. But what kind of cardio workout is best for tennis? If you want to get the most out of your workout, you need to focus on the three most important cardio conditioning factors in tennis: speed, endurance, and fast reaction time.

Speed. To improve speed, try simulating the side to side shuffle steps performed during matches. Combine that with interval running and sprints. In fact, one of Andre Agassi’s favorite training tips is to sprint uphill.

Endurance. To stretch out your peak performance time, make sure to get outdoors as much as possible. Your body needs to be readily acclimated to the outdoor conditions experienced during a match. Swim, bike, go for speed walks-just keep running to a minimum. Know in your mind when you are training for speed and when you are training for endurance.

Fast Reaction Time. To work on your reaction time, nothing is better than a personal tennis coach-someone who will force you to grow as a player through focused and intensive drills. Group clinics are sometimes even more effective as the players naturally form bonds, feel supported, challenge one another, and time after time rise to new heights on the court.

training

Different Types of Carbohydrates

can you guess which group these donuts belong in?

Carbohydrates are broken down into the following three categories. They include: Simple, Complex, & Very Complex Carbohydrates.

Simple Carbohydrates (also called sugars) : Simple carbohydrates can be found in white sugar, juices, cake, candies, glucose syrup and honey. They are made up of molecules and quickly absorbed into the blood stream.

Complex Carbohydrates Foods that are high in complex carbs include: bread, rice, pasta, beans, vegetables, and potatoes. Your body takes time to digest them making us feel full longer.

Very Complex Carbohydrates (also known as Fiber) These are found in whole meal bread which adds bulk to our food, which helps in digestion. Fiber helps to ease the flow of food through the intestines. 30-35 grams of Fiber is recommended per day for the body.

Having too much or too little of one type of carbohydrate leads to an unbalanced diet, so it’s good to know what foods fall into each carbohydrate category. Between 50 and 60 percent of your daily calorie intake should be obtained from carbohydrates, and whilst the fiber in fruits and vegetables make them a good simple carbohydrate choice, the majority should be whole grains and other complex carbohydrates. 

Without enough carbohydrates, your body may be deprived of the calories and vital nutrients it needs, which can manifest itself in a variety of medical symptoms. On the other hand, too high an intake of carbohydrates, especially simple carbohydrates, can lead to bad cardiovascular heath and/or weight gain. To ensure you are eating a healthy diet, it is important to understand which types of food constitute each carbohydrate category, and the effect which they can have on the body.

If you’re concerned about what to eat during training, remember to grub along the lines of 60-65% carbohydrayes (hopefully very complex carbs!), 20-25% fats, and 15-20% proteins.

training

How Best to Refuel your Body After a Workout!

The best way to refuel your body after a workout is to have a 3:1 relationship from carbohydrates to protein. After a long workout your body has lost carbohydrates due to the intensity of the workout. The ideal time to have either a shake or a meal is within 30 minutes of finishing your workout.This will help repair your muscles and optimize muscle recovery. An hour after ending your workout you should refuel on protein.

Try this simple technique and you will reduce muscle soreness!

training

The Pleasures of Exercise!

In my experience, when it comes to exercise, most people fall into two camps. Either they view working out as a source of happiness in and of itself, or they see it as a drag. When people fall into this second camp, they’ve often been inactive for years and wish only to feel happy about their bodies. But if you can’t find joy in becoming an active person, and you keep going on dreading the gym, just how long will your new toned body last? … Cycles of weight gain and weight loss will be sure to follow anyone who has forgotten just how much fun exercising can be! An effective personal trainer should reawaken in their clients the simple joys that come with being active. When we were kids, we didn’t need motivation for exercise, we realized that moving around felt good and was fun! Bad habits, superficial “solutions,” and a culture preoccupied with being perfect have confused and held so many back from reaching their potential. There is fitness for an occasion, a dress size, a number on a scale, and then there is fitness for the rest of your life. Way too much of the fitness industry today focuses on quick-fix gimmicks, leaving consumers with false ideas about what it means to be healthy and happy. But let’s face it, no gadget from an infomercial used ten minutes a day will ever help cut the pounds in a lasting way longterm way. Health for the long-term is certainly a tough sell-as good healthy habits don’t fit nice into a bottle or a box — but it’s the only worthwhile way to go and get fit!

training

Fitness Setup Before Class

Here’s some quick footage that shows my fitness setup before a session I was hosting!

training

The Importance Of Core Training

Your core is the link between upper body strength and lower body strength. Consisting of three primary muscle groups (abdominals, hip musculature, and spinal musculature), all of the muscles work together to stabilize the spine and pelvis, allowing for the fluidity of movement. For athletes, the strength of the body is held down by the weakest link, and what good is strength without stability? Unfortunately, due to the tendency to focus a disproportionate amount of energy on working out the arms and the legs, the core muscles are one of the most neglected areas of strength training; even though as infants this is the first motor control we acquire. Babies figure out how to stabilize their core prior to branching out into other motor control challenges.

In tennis, we swing the racket with our arms and run down the ball with our legs, but all the while our core muscles remain the center of power, keeping us balanced, agile in-motion; our center of gravity low to the ground. An experienced personal trainer who understands the symptoms of a disproportionate fitness program can help to insure that you are getting the most strength and mobility out of your body, on and off the court. Even if you are not an athlete, a weak core will force the body to redirect weight and pressure to the spine, causing bad posture, limited mobility, and back pain.

The importance of core training is compounded further by the fact that back pain is one of the most common causes of insomnia. This will be discussed in a future “Ryan’s Insights” article, as a good night’s rest is essential for the body’s 24-hour biorhythms to remain in synch, allowing for muscles all throughout the body to repair themselves.