Tennis is a difficult sport to train for.
You don’t need to be the fastest player on the court, but you do need some speed.
Endurance alone won’t win you a match but it could be the catalyst for a loss.
Superhuman feats of strength aren’t necessary, but strength (and the ability to produce force), is highly beneficial.
Essentially, you need a little bit of everything. Strength, speed, stamina, suppleness – and above all else – skill.
What am I getting at here? Well, many out there frown upon weight training usage for tennis players. And specifically, upper-body work.
But ‘a little bit’ of upper-body strength training is necessary. Below, I’ll outline my 5 favorite upper-body exercises for tennis players.
Before I do that – I want to present my arguments in favor of upper-body strength work – as I believe tennis players under-appreciate it’s benefits.
Do We Really Need Upper-Body Strength Training?
Unlike other court sports like basketball, for example, there’s an argument to be made that tennis requires more upper-body strength because of the highly repetitive striking that’s involved.
All those forehands, backhands and serves will place a toll on certain tissues and structures of the shoulders, arms, pecs and more.
I’d also argue that (most) tennis players under-dose upper-body strength work. In other words, they’re just not including enough of it in their programs.
Here are 3 primary benefits of upper-body strength training:
1. There’s a performance benefit:
Being able to exert more force in a certain direction (with a specific movement pattern), has the potential of augmenting racquet speed and ultimately, ball speed. And it’s not just exercises that seem ‘specific’ to a stroke like the serve, which have the potential to transfer. There are many muscles in the upper-body that could contribute to greater angular velocities at each segment of the kinetic chain – leading to more zip on the ball.
2. Strength and size can play a role in injury mitigation:
Being strong across the board doesn’t mean you need to look like a bodybuilder – as most strength gains will be neurological anyway. Strengthening weak links can help dissipate forces across multiple joints and tissues, sparing susceptible injury areas in the process. On top of that, ‘some’ size can be protective as well. Perhaps there’s a reason you’re seeing more tour players adding a bit of bulk to their frame these days – added muscle can have an almost ‘dampening’ effect.
3. Concomitant increases in range AND strength:
Placing a joint through its entire range or getting the most length out of a tissue is a worthwhile pursuit. You see, it’s not enough just to have external shoulder rotation – for example – you also need to have the ability to get in & out of that range (i.e. strength at length). Using a pullover (as we’ll see below), could be one move that can progressively add both strength and ROM (range of motion) through a specific movement pattern (one that is necessary during the serving action in this case).
Top 5 Upper-Body Strength Exercises for Tennis
Back to the main event of this post – here are my top 5 upper-body strength exercises for tennis players (in no particular order):
1 – Incline Bench Press:
There are studies that have shown bench pressing to be an effective way to increase throwing velocity in baseball pitchers and handball players, along with throwing distance in track events like shot put & hammer throw. Similar mechanisms would be at play during the serve. And because the incline bench variation will recruit a little more of the anterior shoulder and a little less of the pectoralis muscle groups, it’s a go-to move if you want to add force generating capabilities in the upper-body.
