Unlike other sports, tennis is one that puts a lot of uneven pressure on different parts of your body leading to potential injury. Aside from off-court fitness training, dynamic stretching is one that is overlooked by players as a way to not only reduce injury but also help you maximize your short court warm up and actual match play.

While there are static stretches like butterflys, tennis requires dynamic stretching prior to playing to warm up your muscles which static stretching alone will not do enough of for tennis.

However, we know that it can sometimes be hard to squeeze it in, especially when you are strapped for court time with your partner or opponent so ways to get it in are by getting buy in from your partner for you both to atleast get 5-10 minutes in to help maximize your time hitting or by arriving a bit early and finding an area outside or in the waiting room to actually get your dynamic stretches in for even 5 minutes.

Below are our top 4 picks for warming up your muscles prior to playing:

Dynamic side lunges

This one is great especially if you have little space around you. Go side to side 15-30 times and do side lunges to warm up. These will really help warm up your hip-flexors to help add more stability as you put uneven load on your hips as you hit your forehands and backhands.

Butt kicks

These are so good for getting you warmed up! If you are strapped for space - just do them in place!

Toe Kicks

These are great for warming up your calves and hamstrings. You may need a bit of space for these but if you are crammed doing them in place side to side 25-30 times should do the trick!

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