Ace Your Workouts!

Shake up your usual routine with these fun, Tennis-themed sessions.

- Emma Lewis and Mary Comber

Hooray, the tennis season is here! The long, warm days are perfect for outdoor racquet sports, so why not step out of the gym and shake up your routine a little? You’ll reap oodles of fitness and wellbeing benefits with this fun, full-body workout. Worried your skills aren’t up to scratch, or perhaps you don’t have anyone to play with? We can help with that! Read on to check out the great ways you can hone your skills and fitness while having a ball (excuse the pun).

The body benefits

Tennis offers an impressive total-body workout. Its stop-start nature makes it a perfect interval workout, building your stamina and cardiovascular fitness, while burning around 500 calories an hour. The average tennis player is said to cover three to five miles on court during a match.

The game builds your strength and power while improving your speed, co-ordination, balance and agility, thanks to the constant changes of direction required to return the ball. It can even help you live longer, according to research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The study found that those who played a racquet sport had a 56 per cent reduced risk of death from heart disease and stroke.