Why I started doing tennis shoulder exercises
I skipped them. For months. The lifting felt like the real work. The band stuff felt like physical therapy homework I had not been assigned.
Then a Monday serve felt like someone had reached into the joint and turned a small angry dial. I am not going to dress that up as a sports-science moment. I had underdone the unsexy work.
I am not a clinician. If you are hurt, that is a different conversation with a different person. This is the add-on I run now so I stop pretending the shoulder will "just be fine."
What is in the block?
After the main lifts:
- Band external rotations, elbow pinned to the side
- A 90/90 rotation if it feels clean that day
- Face-pulls or pull-aparts
- A little anti-rotation if I have time (pallof, side plank with a reach)
Two or three sets. Light. The ego stays on the bench press, not here.
What do I cut the day before I play?
Overhead pressing. Heavy landmine work that leaves the shoulder cooked. Anything I would describe as "a good pump in the delts." Weekend tennis plus a Thursday shoulder roast was the combination that got me.
Lateral work and a single-leg hinge can stay. The serve does not need my help being high-volume.
How this sits next to regular lifting
Same as golf. The hypertrophy session is the session. Tennis gets a supplement. In FlexFit I keep the sport toggle on for tennis days in the gym and off when I would rather just lift and go home.
What I wish I had believed earlier
Arm care is not a personality. It is ten minutes. Skipping it was a personality, and a dumb one.