Tennis Fitness – Medicine Ball Workout
May 31, 2011 by: Ian WestermannIn this video I’m joined by certified personal trainer Steve Beck! Steve shows us some great strength increasing exercises that we can do with a medicine ball and a wall. These medicine ball drills will target tennis specific muscle groups to help you increase your power and acceleration on the court! Get out there and start working on your fitness today, it’s a great way to improve your on court performance!
Should juniors, i.e 9yr olds use a medicine ball?
My girl plays tennis and was looking into introducing throwing 1kg / 2kg ball for core development….is this a good idea?
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Ian Westermann Reply:
August 28th, 2011 at 2:30 PM
Joe,
Absolutely, I’ve used med balls with juniors before with great success. At that age it’s not so much about building strength as it is about learning how to use the body correctly and efficiently. Just make sure it’s a weight that is easily managed!
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Tom, great feedback – we’ll definitely do that next time around. Thanks for watching!
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I like the vids on Fitness!… Just one comment, in the future, do you think Steve can demonstrate 2 to 3 reps first and then have you do them. Or perhaps just have Steve do the reps and Ian can discuss on how each move directly relates to tennis strokes/movement.
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 8th, 2011 at 1:01 PM
Glad you’re enjoying them, Tom!
I think that’s a really good suggestion, to have Steve at least demo the moves first. That way we can be sure that everybody gets an example of perfect technique.We filmed them this way because I wanted Steve to be free to move around and talk without having to worry about demoing at the same time…..in the future I’ll have him at least show a few reps though.
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Hi Ian, got a question more for Steve and that is I would like his opinion about what area should we be working on the most when my wife and I set aside some time to go to the gym. Should we focus more on core (abs), shoulders, biceps, arm or wrist strength or more on lower body? Keep in mind we are far from being gym rats and go there as last resort when schedule or weather keeps us off the court. I am into time efficacy and we are both in our late 50′s.
If the answer is simply “yes” I will understand, as that is what my old boss would say whenever I asked her a simple either/or question and believe me, I knew instinctively what she meant.
BTW…. I like tossing the medicine ball idea however if I did that against our local school building wall the city po-po would drive up in less than 5 minutes asking me what the hell do you think you’re doing and arrest me on the spot
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Steve Beck Reply:
June 9th, 2011 at 8:55 PM
Vernon, you do need to be cautious where you do this one as not every establishment is medicine ball friendly! As to what you and your wife should work on, that’s fairly easy. Barring any medical issues on yours or her part, I’d say that you should do some full body circuits a few times a week, as well as some cardiovascular conditioning. It is important to maintain muscle mass as we grow older, because we naturally begin losing it after 50. This can lead to weaker bones, ligaments, and tendons, and therefore predispose us to injuries. I would include movements for the major muscle groups: legs, chest, and back, incorporating both upper body pushing and pulling movements. If you’re able to use free weights (or even bodyweight), major movements like squats, lunges, and pull ups (even assisted ones) can involve the core muscles as well. Again, focus on the major muscle groups, not the minor ones like biceps or calves as these will get worked by working the larger muscle groups. There are some great shoulder pre-habilitation exercises out there that I’d also recommend for everyone. You could do all this, with a properly designed program, in about an hour’s time in the gym.
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Guys as always a great job & video. One question is it possible to use bands to do the trunk workout. I don’t have a block wall but lots of different resistace bands. Didn’t know if you would get same results.
Thanks Phillip
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Thanks or the kind words guys. More to come!
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Mestengo Smells like a troll to me…or someone with the social prowess of a 12 year old.
Thank you Ian and Steve for making this video.
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Dear Mestengo,
I’d be very interested in taking a look at your website of free tennis and fitness instruction.
Please provide the link for all of us.
Thanks!
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Well let me put it this way kid; there are 13 Olympians including a gold medalist, 2 silvers and two bronze, 122 D1 athletes including 31 tennis players that were all coached by me. You don’t know what you are talking about and your “expert” isn’t much better. I started coaching when you were still playing with your dirty diapers. Your Opie qualities having nothing to do with your under-impressive physique.
It amazes me how much you try to teach and know so little about. Your demonstrated leg use is the level I see used by a 2.0 tennis player. Your audience are beginners, not ranked juniors headed for the tour or NCAA competition. Stop trying to teach neophytes advanced techniques. You are going to get someone hurt. Your latest offering is a recipe for a herniated disk.
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 3rd, 2011 at 8:27 AM
Mestengo,
You’re certainly entitled to your opinion, and I completely respect that which is why I asked for further clarification in my first response to you even though you were already being less than friendly. If you would like to disagree with me in a professional and respectful manner then I would be 100% open to hearing your feedback (truthfully), but the way that you’re currently communicating isn’t something that I’m interested in participating in.
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Ian and Steve,
Thanks for posting the video. It looks like it would be a great warmup/workout to a little wall session that I do from time to time.
Thanks for responding to ole Negative Nellie, I mean Mastengo without escalating the negativity. I thought your form looked fine, not expert, but fine. I know with my past experience teaching golf and a little volleyball, demonstrating the skill or excercise for the student to see prior to them attempting was always a good starting point. It would have been nice to see Steve perform the skill first and then pass it over to you for further demonstration.
Great Video – cant wait for the next one -keep up the good work.
Brad
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 2nd, 2011 at 4:20 PM
Thanks for watching, Brad! I’ll definitely be releasing some more soon.
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ok, i just have to reply to Mastengo. Dude, you need to chill out and appreciate the simple fact that Ian is making this sort of stuff available to people. I do a lot of this sort of training and the fact of the matter is that neither Steve nor Ian was trying to become your trainer in a 2 min video. If you have better training to offer, great, let us all see it, if not, then try to be a tad more encouraging of people who are!
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Ian,
Your demonstrated technique sucks! And the fact that Steve Beck trained you and did not correct you during the filming demonstrates that his expertise sucks.
Hint Ian “Opie Taylor” Westermann – Too much lower back, way too little leg use.
Learn BEFORE you teach if you care about the health of your viewers!
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 10:27 PM
Mastengo,
Thanks for watching.
Hm….I re-watched to check out what you were talking about and honestly don’t see how the lower back could possibly be over-used the way that I’m demoing all three sets. The two sets starting turned to the side use a big full-core rotation, and the overhead motion doesn’t have me bending from the back at all, just the legs and arms/shoulders. The lower back is either moving in unison with the rest of my body, or pretty much stationary from what I can see here….maybe you can point out which set you’re talking about specifically.
As for using more legs in general through out, I definitely could have been a bit more active there, but that’s certainly not going to lead to any strain or injury as long as I’m not isolating and twisting the back without the rest of the core supporting it.
Glad you appreciate my Opie-esque physique
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Steve Beck Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 11:36 PM
Mastengo, Ian was using the key muscles of his core and legs, wheile getting a pretty good hip drive. He could have had a little more leg drive, but this is acceptable technique for now, and certainly nothing that would lead to injury long term.
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How many repetitions for sure then? 10 on each side? and.. for how long should we do this? Like, everyday? or every other day? Thanks for posting this!
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 10:23 PM
You’re welcome, Juan! I’ll have Steve post an answer to your questions!
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Steve Beck Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 11:32 PM
Juan, I’d repeat this drill three times a week. The repetition scheme is 10 per side for the dominant two handed trunk rotation, 10 per side for the thrust/arm dominant throws, and 10 overheads. You can repeat 2-3 circuits of this and that will be plenty.
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Ian,
Thanks to you and Steve for the Medicine Ball Workout video.
What size medicine ball does Steve recommend for adults?
What size medicine ball does Steve recommend for high school aged youth?
What size medicine ball does Steve recommend for junior high school aged youth?
Thanks.
Chuck
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Ian Westermann Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 10:22 PM
You’re welcome, Chuck!
We’re using an 8lb ball in this video, but I know that Steve recommends 6lbs for adults if you haven’t ever trained yourself with a ball like this before.
I’ll make sure that Steve comes back himself to answer your questions about high school and junior high aged youth. I definitely don’t want to make a guess at it! Thanks for watching.
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Steve Beck Reply:
June 1st, 2011 at 11:30 PM
Chuck, good questions. I would probably recommend 4-6 pound balls, depending on the athletes size, strength, and prior training history. I wouldn’t go much past an 8 pound ball, even for adults. Increase the force of the throw instead of adding weight or distance from the wall.
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