Tennis Tips : Play Better Tennis by Incorporating Both Aerobic and Anaerobic Workout Routines
As I mentioned in an earlier blog, one of the factors that has helped me and my wife the most in improving our tennis is by making sure we have regular workout sessions. We have fitness trainer at our local gym who uses many of the exercises in the book ‘Complete Conditioning for Tennis’ by E. Paul Roetert and Todd S. Ellenbecker. The book emphasizes the need to do both aerobic and anaerobic exercises and so in this article, I wanted to explain these terms in more detail and explain why it is important to incorporate both forms of exercises in a workout routine if you want to be a more successful tennis player.
In its simplest form, aerobic and anaerobic refer to the presence or absence of oxygen, respectively.
Aerobic Exercise
During aerobic exercise, glycogen (which is stored in our body mainly in our muscles and liver) is converted first by our bodies into glucose. If the glycogen stores in our body run low (through extensive long-term exercise, like running a marathon, for example) then our bodies begin to use fat as a fuel. But for a typical tennis game, the predominant energy source will be glycogen and not fat.
During aerobic exercise, oxygen is taken in through the lungs and carried to the tissues in our body through the blood stream. Glucose is then broken down with the aid of oxygen into a chemical called ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Aerobic exercise is a highly efficient producer of ATP and is the main energy system needed for sports where long term endurance is required (long distance running or moderate tennis activity, for example).
Anaerobic Exercise
During high intensity workouts (such as very fast sprinting or intense weight lifting) the main energy term used by the body is called anaerobic glycolysis, which also produces ATP, but without using oxygen. A by-product of anaerobic glycolysis is lactic acid, which begins to accumulate in the muscles after continued high intensity workouts. This build up of lactic acid is the reason for the burning sensation felt in the muscles and will eventually force the person to stop the activity until the lactic acid can be removed from the body. Anaerobic glycolysis is only effective as an energy source for about 2-3 minutes after which the person must cease activity or slow down to allow the aerobic energy system to “kick-in”.
If you are still unclear about the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise, try this. Do push-ups as fast as you can and keep the level of activity as high as possible. Alternatively, sprint as fast as you can along a track or road. After a very short time, you will find you “hit a wall” and you have to stop or slow down because you are physically very fatigue. You may also have a burning sensation in your muscles (lactic acid build up). This is anaerobic exercise. Now try a moderate jog around the block or moderate work-out where your heart rate and breathing rate increases, but you can still maintain the activity level over a relatively extended period of time (30min or longer). This is aerobic exercise.
How Does This Relate to Tennis?
Depending on your level as a player, your game will probably include both anaerobic (fast sprinting for side to side or front to back where your heart rate increases rapidly and you are out of breath) and aerobic (moderate activity level) activity. Therefore, to improve your overall fitness level and success rate in tennis matches (especially in tournaments and competitive tennis games), you need to incorporate a work-our routine that incorporates both aerobic and anaerobic fitness conditioning. That’s why one of my favorite tennis tips (and the subject of my very first blog) is for you to increase your fitness to play tennis rather than playing tennis to keep fit. Besides increasing your success rate as a player, you will also dramatically decrease your chances of injury.
