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I am a Tennis player. 23 M USTA 4.0. I am pretty much well in shape (height:6'00" weight:170 pounds).

I want to improve my stamina. I run 3 miles(at speed about 9 minutes/mile) thrice a week. I can run about 5 miles without a stop before my body urges to take a break. (I try to run as much as I can once in every two weeks). My problem is this number (5 miles) is not improving for last 6 months. That means even if I am working hard my stamina is not improving. Please suggest some techniques.

EDIT I run to improve my stamina in general. Yes, I want to improve my stamina for Tennis. My experience is - For about first hour, I can split step every shot. After one hour, my capacity to split step gradually decreases. At hour 3, I do split step only about 20% of shots, I can still hit my shots though. At hour 4, I find myself not moving my legs at all, but I can still hit the ball. What can I do from Tennis' perspective. Is this kind of stamina considered low. (My breaks are very short).

Ivo Flipse
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hrishikeshp19
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    Do you want to improve your stamina for tennis or for running? – Dave Liepmann Jul 20 '12 at 18:18
  • @dave for tennis. – hrishikeshp19 Jul 20 '12 at 18:59
  • Are you competing for 4 hours, or practicing for 4 hours? – Dave Liepmann Jul 20 '12 at 19:03
  • @dave: practicing – hrishikeshp19 Jul 20 '12 at 19:13
  • @hrishikeshp19 Try to give people more than 15 minutes before you accept an answer. – michael Jul 21 '12 at 01:41
  • @michael: Thanks for your answer, but It was a lot more than 15 minutes. Anyway, I am waiting for another day or two before I finalize my last accept. – hrishikeshp19 Jul 21 '12 at 06:39
  • @hrishikeshp19 do you run with a heart rate monitor? I'm guessing you are running at an effort that you probably shouldn't be - too hard to build aerobic base but too easy to work on your anaerobic threshold. Many people make this mistake. They run above threshold because it feels like they are working hard, but aren't working hard enough to increase (thus the plateau) their threshold. This is just a guess, but if you have a HRM we could isolate some conditions. – Ryan Miller Jul 23 '12 at 13:27
  • @hrishikeshp19 also worth noting, running and tennis really are two completely different motions. Running is all about moving FORWARD as fast as possible. Tennis, much like basketball, is a lot of LATERAL movements (which running will not help with). Perhaps your plateau in tennis stamina could be helped with lateral drills. – Ryan Miller Jul 23 '12 at 13:30

2 Answers2

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The nature of tennis is 3-5 second bursts of speed with 3-5 seconds rest for around 30 seconds, followed by 30-60 seconds of rest. This suggests that the Phosphagen and Glycolitic pathways will be be called on the most. If you are able to play explosively for an hour or more before fatiguing, it is likely that the problem is not fitness, but nutrition. Your glycogen stores may have been depleted over time, and your body can not produce enough on its own during the activity. You may consider a pre-exercise carbohydrate source, as well as more carbohydrate during the exercise Physiology of Preparation, Competition & Recovery

Running distances trains the oxidative pathway while ignoring the other two pathways. For this reason, increasing your distance running fitness will probably not help you in the later hours of your tennis. In fact, it may be counter productive, as it is difficult to have all metabolic pathways in peak form simultaneously.

So, to train for longer tennis activities, train the correct pathways. Consider several rounds of tabata sprints with side-switching length rest, and make sure you are replenishing your glycogen stores with carbohydrate.

michael
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  • makes sense. I am a bit underweight. Also, my diet is mostly vegetarian food. I will probably do some research on what should my diet be. Thanks, the post was useful. – hrishikeshp19 Jul 21 '12 at 06:33
  • Whatever you're doing now, do the opposite. Start alternating your workouts. If you do short bursts one day, do long marathons the next. Try running full throttle for one block, then walking two, and repeat. Keep your body guessing. – siouxfan45 Jul 22 '12 at 19:21
  • @hrishikeshp19 you are NOT underweight. Don't change your diet. – Ryan Miller Jul 23 '12 at 13:28
  • @RyanMiller What is the point of this comment? 6' 170# definitely sounds slim, but the diet changes are for performance improvements, not weight change. – michael Jul 23 '12 at 14:27
  • @michael OP mentioned "I am a bit underweight". Using the BMI scale, OP is not underweight. – Ryan Miller Jul 23 '12 at 15:17
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    @RyanMiller BMI of 29: http://whatsurfrantime.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rf.jpg?w=529 BMI is useless, especially for athletes. – michael Jul 23 '12 at 16:36
  • @michael useless? interesting. so impact of mass on the main component of one's endurance engine is useless. very interesting. mass is still mass regardless of composition. – Ryan Miller Jul 23 '12 at 17:16
  • @RyanMiller I don't see that this conversation in any way helps the OP, so I'm not going to continue it. – michael Jul 23 '12 at 17:30
  • michael and ryan: Thanks for your views. let me extract useful things. So, my next plan now is 3 days of (sprinting +lateral movement) workout and 3 days of running and 1 day of total rest. Also, I will eat a nutribar or something during workouts and also drink some water(I never tried these two things). I will keep tracking readings. – hrishikeshp19 Jul 23 '12 at 17:49
  • @hrishikeshp19 If you aren't drinking water for the entirety of your workout, dehydration could also be the entire explanation for any problems you are having. – michael Jul 23 '12 at 17:52
  • @michael: 2 days ago, I thought "more you can run, stronger is your heart, better is your stamina". Thank you very much for correcting me and possibly many others. – hrishikeshp19 Jul 23 '12 at 17:57
  • @RyanMiller BMI is an actively dangerous metric, particularly (as michael notes) for athletes. – Dave Liepmann Jul 26 '12 at 18:53
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I will address this simply from the standpoint of increasing the amount of time you can run, but I do want to point out that there are other factors that may influence this, such as your nutrition, hydration, other workouts around the run, things of that nature.

You are running approximately 30 minutes, 3x a week, for around 9-10 miles total distance. If you keep running at that same pace, same distance all the time, then your body cannot adapt to longer distances, and thus when you nearly double your distance, you fatigue. This is not surprising, since you are not stretching yourself. If you want to run longer than 5 miles, then you need to work on that day to day.

I personally think that you get much more out of your running if you are doing it more often, so in addition to the 3x per week, I would add in 2 days of 15 minute runs. Keep this up for a few weeks to get used to it, then start adding some time to all your runs. Don't add more than a few minutes to each run, and then give it a couple weeks to adapt to the new level.

After a few months, your daily longer runs will be in the 45 minute range, which will put you in the area of 5 miles at your current pace, and that should result in being able to run 7-9 miles for a long run.

To adapt to run longer distances, you have to practice longer distances. Right now, you are not pushing past that limitation, so it's not going to naturally get longer. You can level off wherever you want for your own personal fitness goals.

Edited to add: You are 4.0 player, which is getting pretty decent. I would assume that you have a coach, but even if not, you have to also consider if simply running more will give you the fitness you desire. If you edit your question to let us know what kind of stamina you are talking about you may get better responses. I can run 13 miles at any time due to my training, but I couldn't do the lateral movements required in tennis for more than probably a set before I'd be dragging. Where do you feel your fitness is failing you?

JohnP
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  • I second the "more often" idea. As one of my coaches use to say, "5 4s is better than 4 5s". On one of his shorter days I think working in some strides would actually be pretty beneficial. – nurdyguy Jul 30 '18 at 19:46