Tennis

Move · High-Intensity · Movement, Typed Supps

Almost no time in a match is spent hitting the ball — the sport is mostly a few seconds of sprinting, then a pause, repeated for hours.

Stage by stage

Before the shot (Split step resets balance): A small hop landing as the opponent strikes puts the legs in a position to push off either way.
During the stroke (Ground-up kinetic chain): Legs, then hips and trunk, then arm — most of the energy is generated below the shoulder and transmitted through it.
Between points (Repeated intensity spikes): Short near-maximal efforts with incomplete recovery keep the heart rate surging rather than settling.
Over seasons (One-sided loading accumulates): The dominant shoulder decelerates the arm eccentrically thousands of times, which is where cuff and elbow problems concentrate.

Muscles trained

Primary: shoulders, forearms, obliques
Secondary: quads, heart, lungs

Intensity

7.3 METs (Tennis, general).

Time to effect

Weeks: Footwork, split-step timing and reading an opponent’s shot earlier all sharpen within a few weeks of regular play.
Months: Serve power and shoulder rotational strength, along with the ability to hold that swing speed across a long match, tend to build over a couple of months of consistent play or drilling.

Related supplements

Common myth

“Tennis elbow only happens to tennis players.” In reality: The condition is really lateral epicondylitis, an overuse injury of the forearm extensor tendons from repetitive gripping and impact; it shows up at least as often in manual laborers, carpenters and other racquet-sport players as it does in tennis players.