good warm up excercises?

[unknownmasterofnothing]

I have to lead a stretch and warmup for my tennis class. And So far what people have been doing is either run up the stairs 3 times.

 

 

 

or jumping on your two feet up, down, then left right. Then with only one foot, jump up, down, left right. Then the other foot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Any suggestions for warmups? I'm thinking just laps around the gym.

[ctp080188]

Hmm there is a lot of studies debating whether stretching aids your performance. But I'll come to that in a second.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Basically the point of a warm up is to prepare yourself for the task ahead, both mentally and physically. The aim is to increase the deep muscle temperature, not just the skin temperature, as this will increase elasticity of the tissues.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A general warm up should include increasing your heart rate, which will increase your blood flow, in turn will stimulate nerve conduction. Therefore running laps would probably be sufficient. However I would suggest running up and down the courts but each tie do a different action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So for instance:

 

 

 

-First length - jog

 

 

 

-Second - skip

 

 

 

-Third - side-step

 

 

 

-Fourth - side-step with the opposite leg leading

 

 

 

-Fifth - run backwards

 

 

 

-Sixth- two footed jumping

 

 

 

-Seventh - hopping on right

 

 

 

-Eighth - hopping on left.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so on. This adds variety and also specific movements such as side-stepping prepares you well, as you are repeating movements that you use during the sport.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In terms of stretching, you may want to do some static and dynamic stretching. Static stretches involve you just standing still and holding a stretch for a specific muscle or muscle group. For example quadriceps stretch involves you standing on one leg, holding the other foot in your hand whilst putting your knee close to your other and pointing it down. (Sorry if that was unclear). For "maximal" benefit these should be held for 30 seconds. It has been proven (Brady & Irion, 1994) that a 30 second stretch is more benficial than a 15 second stretch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dynamic stretching is a pattern of movement that replicates muscle activity, so movements such as rotating your arms forwards and backwards, then swinging your arms in front so that they cross, would also be beneficial.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When stretching it is important that you do not try to stretch further then is normally possible for you, as this can cause pain and damage to muscle tissue.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes and just to put a debate forwards, it has been said that stretching can decrease performance. This is because stretching helps increase flexibility, but excessive flexibility may lead to an increased risk of injury. There has been no link found that stretching actually improves performance, and that it still does not prevent soreness or injuries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the long post, lol, I study this and yeah I can go on a bit. Sorry if some is irrelevant!

[ctp080188]

Hmm I also just thought of something else. If you want to make increasing your heart rate a bit more fun, you could play tag. I'm assuming you have a number of tennis courts next to each other.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right, well how you can do this in an organised manner is split your group in half. Get one half to stand on the outer tramline along the length of the court, and the other half to stand on the line that divides the service boxes (my mind's gone blank on what this line is called!). Then on the count of go (perhaps by yourself or your coach), the people on the tramline must try and catch the person on the middle line before you run out of courts to run on. You must only run straight. You then switch round.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also you can encorporate different situations, such as both face the opposite direction before having to run, or sitting down before running, or lying down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Again, I'm so terrible at putting things into words, if it makes no sense I apologise! But I hope this helps!

[Barihawk]

CTP, it wont increase your performance, but it will increase your muscle durability (meaning you wont get tired so fast).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most importantly, it stretches the vital muscle of the body, the heart.

[ctp080188]

CTP, it wont increase your performance, but it will increase your muscle durability (meaning you wont get tired so fast).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most importantly, it stretches the vital muscle of the body, the heart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As far as my studies have taken me, stretching includes no indication of muscle fatigue. Muscle fatigue occurs due to fitness levels and no amount of stretching directly before exercise will allow you to increase your aerobic capacity significantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also the heart does not need stretching as such, as was mentioned before, heart rate needs to be increased so that there is an increase of blood flow to the muscles during exercise, which will allow the muscles to work at their full capacity as the blood supplies the fuel for them to work.

[Gin_and_Tonic]

- Stretching

 

 

 

- Static Movement

 

 

 

- Slow Movement...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing to strenuous- In the order

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You need to get the cardiovascular muscles pumping and the muscles warmed up.

[assassin_696]

When I played tennis more than I do now, I used to do a few laps of the court. 3 at 50% pace, 2 at 75% pace and 1 at 100%. Then I'd do a few warm up stretches, mostly for my shoulders and arms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I found the best way to warm up was just to have a gentle knock up with somebody else.

[One Too Far]

a few laps around a gym (dont know how big your gym is but if its big a few laps if its not some more) and just start of slow and get faster slowly

[Tigra00]

Backflip off a moving train into the sun roof of a car, driving away clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's what I do anyways.

[jemathonical]

Do the usual strtches like hamstrings and quads.

 

 

 

Then do some legs swings, they're great

[falconice]

What I do for tennis is first stretch the legs. Y'know, to the right for 10 secs, to the left for 10 secs, and down the middle for ten secs. (Everything's ten secs from here on out.) Then hold you right/left feet next to your butt. Then shoulder stretches, arm stretches, and finger stretches. Next you should lean your upper torso as far right/left as they go to stretch the abdominal muscles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run 2 or 3 laps around 3 tennis courts width and warm up your jumping, side steps and backword... moving... thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I usually play mini-tennis (service line's out) for about 5 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND THEN I rally from the baseline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I make a big deal about warming up because that's how one of my coaches got hurt so I believe it's really important. Plus I feel as if I have more energy if I do and I don't feel tired as quickly.

[jemathonical]

What I do for tennis is first stretch the legs. Y'know, to the right for 10 secs, to the left for 10 secs, and down the middle for ten secs. (Everything's ten secs from here on out.) Then hold you right/left feet next to your butt. Then shoulder stretches, arm stretches, and finger stretches. Next you should lean your upper torso as far right/left as they go to stretch the abdominal muscles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Run 2 or 3 laps around 3 tennis courts width and warm up your jumping, side steps and backword... moving... thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then I usually play mini-tennis (service line's out) for about 5 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

AND THEN I rally from the baseline.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I make a big deal about warming up because that's how one of my coaches got hurt so I believe it's really important. Plus I feel as if I have more energy if I do and I don't feel tired as quickly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That seems right