I remember in high school, every month we would have a physical test in weight training. This was a nice reminder of what the class was suppose to be about instead of the hour long social event it became. The test included things like the Max Bench press, sit and reach, maximum pull-up, and that beeping machine you ran lines to.

Pure evil. But these exercises didn’t bother me too much. The one exercise that did get on my last nerve was the wall sit. Your legs shook uncontrollably as you abs attempted to fire and stabilize. You closed your eyes for seconds at a time desperately searching for a happy place that would subside some pain. All I could do  was glare at my coach thinking “Are you serious right now, how much longer fatty!”

In a sport like tennis, the incorporation of isometric exercises can be more helpful than you think. These, although boring, muscle contraction holds can help you quickly develop strength and muscular endurance safely. The key word here is SAFE. By adding some progressions to old exercises, you can make them challenging and fun.

With a sport that demands so much from your lower limbs and joints, safety often climbs the ladder of priority. Your not getting any better or improving your ranking when your injured right? So why do some tennis players still do exercises that dangerously isolate and put unnecessary stress on certain joints? Good question.

A prime example of a dangerous exercise for a tennis player is the leg extension. This popular bodybuilding machine puts the knee in a high stress situation and then takes it through a range of motion. Are you going to get big quadriceps and that bodybuilder teardrop? Maybe. But your more likely to get an ACL tear and explosive muscles firing improperly or not at all.

 

 
So how can Isometrics make your stronger?

It turns out, that my coach in high school was right all along.

Who would have thought he knew more than how to lose football games and eat Bearclaws.  Isometrics if used properly, is a highly effective way to safely and quickly develop strength. The idea is that you are able to achieve a higher level of maximum muscular contraction when holding a demanding position. More muscle fibers are recruited and the muscle is worked more intensely in a shorter time period.

“Contraction during isometric exercise produced more force contraction than what is generated by lifting weights.” – Peter Friesen (Head Strength Coach NHL Carolina Hurricanes)

What type of tennis player should use Isometric Training?

The great thing about Isometrics is that almost any athlete will benefit from some sort of similar training. This is mainly effective because of the increase in muscular force and fiber recruitment throughout a contraction.

Isometrics will be highly effective for athletes coming back from an injury, which is part of the sport, or for individuals who don’t have a lot of experience in strength training. Since the involvement of movement is eliminated, performing isometrics becomes the safest way to strength train.

Advantages

•     This is a great opportunity to enforce vital movement patterns in new strength training athletes. Something we use with all our athletes prior to more complex progressions.

•     It can be trained anywhere.

•     Isometric training increases Neurological strength and recruits a

higher amount of muscle fiber for each movement.

•     Exponentially safer than convention training, since it doesn’t involve movement.

•     Has the ability to not only increase strength through an increase in muscle size but also in improving muscle contraction efficiency.

Isometric Exercises

1. Wall Sit


I know what your thinking. Albert, you just bashed the wall sit and threw your P.E. teacher under the bus. Why are you reintroducing this exercise? Well, what can I say he was right. This is an oldie but still a goodie.

- Make sure that your head and back are flat against the wall. Your hip/ knee/ and ankle are flexed at 90 degrees. The knee needs to be directly in front of the hip and your hands should never touch any of the lower extremities.

- A great progression for this exercise, if it becomes too easy, is to make it unilateral. After lowering yourself into a perfect wall sit, make it more difficult by extending one leg straight in the air in line with your hip. I warn you, this isn’t easy.

2. Sustain Lunge


This is a great exercise if done with proper form. Lower yourself into a lunge following these pointers.

- The front knee should be directly over the ankle. The same knee should be in line and directly in front of the hip. Your ear should be over the hip on the front leg side or over the hip on the back leg side. The knee on the back leg should not be touching the ground.

 

3. Sustain Pushup


Are you an athlete who struggles with upper body strength or do you have a tennis player that has difficulty performing pushups. Try starting off with a pushup isometric hold.

- Lower yourself into pushup position. Your arms should be about shoulder width apart with the top of your knuckles in align with the top of your shoulders. Make sure you have a straight line from your head, down your spine, and all the way through to your legs.

- A trick is to contract the abs and squeeze your butt to make sure you have a straight spine and full muscle contraction. You can test this by lightly hitting the athlete holding the position. They should be contracting all the active muscles and be very stiff.

- A great progression to this is the wheel barrel/ 1 legged wheel barrel.

-  Another great progression is holding the pushup position with only

3 points of stabilization on the ground. So lift one arm, or one of the legs to make it more difficult.

4. Plank

Anyone who has done an abdominal program, even if it was 8 min abs should be familiar to this exercise. It is almost identical to the pushup but you lower yourself down onto your forearms. A big mistake people make here is rounding the upper back. You want a small dip in between your shoulder blades to eliminate any extra help from the back.

- Some great progressions here in the plank is to remove, one at a time, the points of stabilization on the floor. So you can lift one leg, lift one arm, or one leg and opposite side leg.

An important idea to mention, is the length in time to hold each exercise. You will find a wide variety of suggestions if you search around but I feel that 30-40 seconds is ideal. Once you can do this time comfortably, I think it becomes a point where you need to progress. To continue to see an increase in strength you will have to progress the exercises to become more difficult or add weight.

Sample Lower Body Routine

- Sustain Lunge Left

- Sustain Lunge Right

- Sustain Wall sit

- Sustain Calf Raise

(all for 35-40 sec) 1-3 sets

Core Routine:

- Plank – 30 sec

- From plank lift left leg up 15 sec, return to plank

- From plank lift right hand up 15 sec, return to plank

- From plank lift right leg up 15 sec, return to plank

- From plank lift left hand up 15 sec, return to plank

- From plank lift right leg and left hand up 15 sec, return to plank

- From plank lift left leg and right hand up 15 sec, return to plank

- Plank – 30 sec

 

Sample Upper Body Routine

- Sustain Pushup

- Sustain one handed pushup

- Sustain opposite one handed pushup

- Sustain pushup one leg

- Sustain pushup opposite leg

- Sustain pushup

(all for 30-40 sec) 1-3 sets

 So with a new found respect for my coach from high school, I now know why he made us do those dreadful wall sits. If only I would have known………..

Albert Park

Personal Trainer and Strength Coach for Hocevar Performance www.HocevarPerformance.com / www.AlbertkPark.blogspot.com