Ever wonder what it would be like to train like a pro athlete? Now you can find out from your living room. Half Hour Power is a new DVD that allows you to exercise with No. 1 doubles players Bob and Mike Bryan or last year’s surprise U.S. Open quarterfinalist Melanie Oudin, as trainer Howard Waldstreicher puts them through their paces. The routines are performed with two large resistance bands looped together, with one end anchored to a fixture and the other placed either around your waist or in your hands. As you can tell from the name, the workouts are 30 minutes and they’re just that—work. “Bob Bryan said he felt like a chain smoker,” Waldstreicher says. If you have trouble keeping up with the pros, the DVD also includes a workout where Waldstreicher goes through the moves more slowly.
You can secure the bands using anything from a fence at a tennis court to a closed door. The quick-feet exercises are designed to give you first-step explosiveness and the resistance of the bands helps train you to accelerate and decelerate like you do when you're running for a ball. Take it easy at first and be sure to utilize the alloted one-minute water breaks. If you get too tired, sit back on the couch and watch Oudin's famously fast feet as they scuttle around the Bryan brothers' sibling rivalry in action. It's hard not to take a little enjoyment in their tortured looks as they struggle through the moves—it's difficult even for them. $60, halfhourpower.com
Originally published in the May 2010 issue of TENNIS.