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Importance of Warm up and Cool Down
Do you manifest yourself serving the perfect tennis shots in the future? It can be possible but only with the right tricks and techniques. Tennis training requires a carefully crafted plan along with a specific workout regimen. This workout routine has different types of exercises along with warm-up and cool-down exercises. Both these types of exercises constitute the heart of a tennis workout routine.
Want to know why? Let's read further!
Warming up Before Playing Tennis
Tennis as a sport can be taxing on your body because it requires different types of robust shots and also compels you to move across the court every now and then. But before you start to play tennis, it becomes essential for you to indulge your body in stretching and warm-up exercises. These exercises prepare your body so it can focus on high-intensity movement required during the sport.Â
So these exercises can increase your blood flow and resilience on the court and prevent common types of injuries like tennis elbow or rotator cuff tears. Warming up before your tennis exercise routine also helps to target the areas that are prone to injuries and hence increase their resilience.
What’s even better is that a pre-exercise warm up does not just make you warm but has other benefits as well.
Here are some of those:
Warm-up exercise can most importantly increase the flow of blood to your muscles. This, in turn, can increase the delivery of oxygen as well as nutrients in your muscles.
 Warming your muscles can help to make them more supple and even enhance the energy-releasing reactions that are used while playing this sport.
 Other than this, warming up before your tennis workout routine can even prepare you mentally for the upcoming exercises and prepare your muscles for stretching.
 Warming up also helps to make your nerve-to-muscle pathways ready for physical activity, strenuous movements and exercises
 Working without a warm-up can increase the stress and fatigue on your muscles as well as the heart and hence amplify risk of injury.
 In the end, warming up can also prepare your heart for any increase in body activity.
Popular warm-up exercises like high knees, walking, lunges or toe touches help to move your body’s joints one at a time. This, in turn, takes your body through progressive movement that can stretch your muscles. Thus, these exercises can prepare your body for a high-intensity workout and hence help to recover any injury during strenuous exercises.
Benefits of Cooling Down
As the name itself suggests, the process of cooling down after a workout means to slow down the level of activity of your body.
Here are certain benefits of cooling down:
When high-intensity activities and strenuous exercises are stopped suddenly, then blood can pool down in the large muscles of your body. This could in turn lead to fainting and dizziness. However, cooling down helps to avoid any of these circumstances.
Cooling down also helps to bring your body back to resting levels and hence regulate your heartbeat and breathing patterns.
Metabolites or intermediate substances that are formed during metabolism tend to accumulate in your muscles in the form of lactic acid. This acid can get build up during high-intensity activities of the body. On the other hand, it can be removed from the body with gentle exercise rather than stopping all of a sudden. So you can practice exercises like stretches to remove lactic acid and also enhance your body's recovery after working out.
Though some amount of soreness in the muscles is expected after working out, a high amount of muscle soreness can be an issue. When you indulge in a high-intensity workout for your tennis session, you may notice Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness or DOMS. Cooling down post workouts can help to deal with excessive muscles and allow your body to recover before your next workout.
Warm Up Exercises for Tennis
A warm-up exercise routine before your tennis workouts can help to prepare you physically as well as mentally for any potential tennis injuries. So, here is the list of different warm-up tennis exercises that you can include in your workout routine.
1. Jumping Jacks
Tennis as a sport requires a wide range of motion and a high level of endurance. Jumping jacks can help to prepare you for building endurance as well as the range of motion because they can increase your heart rate. Start with 2 sets of 25 and increase gradually.
2. Knee Lifts
Besides the wide range of motion, tennis also requires full body movements. Due to the same reason, you should include knee lift in your warm-up exercise routine. Knee lifts are performed when you raise your arms to hip level and then let your knees touch the arms by lifting them. When you start this exercise you can include 3 sets of it for 15 to 30 seconds at a single time.
3. Jumping Rope
Including jumping rope in your warm-up exercises and help you increase the agility as well as the mobility of your entire body. It can increase your coordination and balance, and hence prepare you to play tennis in a regulated manner. But in case you do not have a jumping group then you can include jogging in your warm up exercise routine. But make sure to jog while doing arms circles.
4. Shadowing
Shadowing includes imitating all the actions that are related to your tennis practice sessions. All you have to do is repeat the session for 3 to 5 minutes to help prepare yourself physically as well as mentally for the match. While shadowing, you can imitate actions like backhands, forehands, serve motions, etc
5. Mini Tennis
Yes you heard it right. Before indulging in the robust strokes and powerful swings from the baseline you can practice tennis on a smaller scale. Mini tennis will help you to get the hang of the strokes and prepare your body without wasting too much energy.
Cool Down Exercises for Tennis
Cooling down exercises for tennis help to reduce the stress in your body gradually instead of immediately stopping it. This helps to adapt the body to the environment and return to its normal state. In case you do not indulge in cool-down exercises, then your body will try to return to its normal state abruptly which can result in an instant shock.
This shock, in turn, can result in different injuries like muscular tightness dizziness cramping or joint stiffness due to the decrease in adrenaline in the body.
Here are some of the tips and techniques you should remember while doing cool-down exercises after your tennis workouts.
Make sure to keep yourself nourished and keep moving after your workout to prevent the problems mentioned above.
As soon as your tennis workout is over, you should replenish lost electrolytes with a sports drink. Each pound lost while playing should be replaced with 24 ounces of water within 2 hours after playing.
You should also focus on consuming healthy carbohydrates as well as lean protein within 2 hours after playing. This will help to repair damaged muscles and replenish energy.
Make sure you keep your body moving after playing to avoid any joint stiffness and do not abruptly stop moving. Instead, decrease the movement gradually which can help to ease your body back to its normal state.
 The duration of your cool-down routine should be of about 20 to 30 minutes. Once the routine is over you can enjoy your meal to facilitate the recovery process.
Conclusion
Thus, this was all you need to know about the importance of warm up and cool-down session during your tennis workout routine. if you do not warm up before your tennis workout routine then your heart and lungs can get unnecessary stress due to the inadequate oxygen supply to these organs.
Moreover, the importance of cooling down your body for 20 to 30 minutes after your strenuous workout cannot be stated enough. These couple of minutes can help to prevent any injuries to your body while improving your performance.
Good luck!