Burn more calories on and off the court with these simple tips.
You probably begin a match thinking more about how to crush your opponent than how many calories you’re going to burn. But tennis is a fun way to stay in shape, whether you think of it as exercise or not. You burn as many calories in an hour of singles as you would playing hockey, beach volleyball or basketball. But let’s say your goal is to lose weight and shed fat in addition to winning matches. You’ll need to do a bit more both on and off the court to boost your rate of metabolism, or how quickly your body burns calories throughout the day. The good news: As a tennis player, you’re already well on your way to turning your body into a more efficient calorie-burning machine. Here are four proven ways to rev up your results.
1. Play harder
Interval training—bursts of activity followed by periods of recovery—is beloved by exercise experts because it improves fitness while reducing body fat. One Canadian study found that subjects who practiced high-intensity interval training burned 36 percent more fat post-workout while boosting cardiovascular fitness by 13 percent in just two weeks. Lucky for us, tennis is all about intervals, such as racing toward the net to scoop up a drop shot before sprinting back to the baseline to retrieve a lob. “Tennis is the only sport I’ve seen that has natural intervals built into it,” says Jack Groppel, Ph.D., co-founder of the Human Performance Institute. “You have a very intense period of work and then a point of recovery over and over again.”
Here’s the unfortunate part: The better your game, the fewer calories you’ll burn, since having more control means you expend less energy. Plus, the more you play, the fitter and more efficient you become. So challenge yourself. Opt for singles over doubles and you’ll burn about 40 percent more calories. During practice, play a game to 11 with a partner where one of you hits down the line and the other hits crosscourt. The down-the-line player will get an intense interval workout chasing down balls. You can also hire a teaching pro to run you through your paces, or see if your club offers a conditioning clinic. “By increasing intensity, you not only burn more calories on the court, you’ll also continue to burn more calories afterward as your body works to get back to its resting state,” Groppel says.
2. Get off the court
Since there’s no guarantee you’ll be working hard in a match, you’ll get better results if you also do intervals while cross-training. You can do them almost anywhere—at the gym on a stationary bike, elliptical trainer, treadmill, rower or step machine, or alternating running and walking or biking through your neighborhood. Just be sure you’re challenging yourself in your high-intensity zone: You should be close to breathless for at least 15 seconds (an intensity level of about a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10), then give yourself time to catch your breath (an intensity of a 5 or 6) before heading into the next interval.
“The beauty of intervals is in their infinite variety,” says Martin Gibala, Ph.D., chair of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The longer and harder you work, the higher your heart rate and oxygen uptake, which means the more calories you’ll continue to burn afterward. Aim for two 30–40-minute interval workouts a week.
3. Hit the weights
Strength training not only gives you more power on the court and reduces your risk of getting sidelined with an injury, it also improves your resting metabolism. “Regular resistance training will increase your daily energy expenditure by about 10 percent,” says Gary Hunter, Ph.D., a professor in the department of nutrition sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. For the average person, that can be upwards of 100 calories a day, according to Hunter.
Building muscle is also important if your goal is to maintain a smaller waistline. Hunter’s research has shown that women who did strength training and followed a relatively high-protein diet after losing weight had a higher resting metabolism than those who did aerobic exercise or no exercise at all.
4. Feed your body the right way
There’s a period of time after any workout, on court or off, where your muscles are primed for refueling. “In the first 15 minutes to two hours, your body is in a great position to move carbohydrates into muscles,” explains Michael Bergeron, Ph.D., director of the National Institute for Athletic Health & Performance and Center for Youth Sports & Health in Sioux Falls, S.D. Feed your muscles with a ratio of 3 or 4 grams of carbs to 1 gram of protein, and you’ll recover faster, which ultimately helps with everything from getting you ready to play again more quickly to simply helping your muscles repair and rebuild more effectively.
“The right nutrition will give you the best training effect, so you’ll be able to work at a higher level,” Bergeron says. Grab a box of chocolate milk, sprinkle some fruit in yogurt, or uncap a sports recovery drink such as Accelerade, EnduroxR4 or Gatorade Endurance. You’ll not only improve your recovery, you’ll also be less likely to overeat later in the day, he says, which will keep you on track to reach your weight-loss goals.
Originally published in the April 2010 issue of TENNIS.