May is Genesis Tennis Month!
If you’ve been searching for an exercise that works out your entire body, look no further than a game of tennis. Playing tennis improves your core, arms, legs, and back as well as sharpens your agility, quickness, and stamina. It’s also a great way to work off stress and improve mental focus.
Tennis is a sport kids can learn early in life. What parent wouldn’t want their children to get these benefits through their growing years? AND it’s never too late for adults and seniors! The human system can be trained and improved at any stage of life. No sport other than tennis has ever been acclaimed by all disciplines as one that develops great benefits physically, mentally, and emotionally.
Tennis is an activity that enhances the function of the heart and lungs while increasing metabolism, developing 
balance and coordination, and strengthening bones. Every time you hit the ball your body is using mental and physical resources that come together in a great overall workout.
Ready to try tennis for yourself? Find Genesis tennis near you!
Tennis Programs
Five Reasons to Play Tennis
- Quality of Life: People who participate in tennis 3 hours per week (at moderately vigorous intensity) cut their risk of death in half from any cause, according to physician Ralph Paffenbarger who studied over 10,000 people over a period of 20 years.
- Self-Esteem: Tennis players scored higher in vigor, optimism, and self-esteem while scoring lower in depression, anger, confusion, anxiety, and tension than other athletes and non-athletes according to Dr. Joan Finn and colleagues at Southern Connecticut State University.
- Reaction Time: Since tennis requires alertness and tactical thinking, it may generate new connections between nerves in the brain and thus promote a lifetime of continuing development of the brain, reported scientists at the University of Illinois.
- Mood: Tennis outperforms golf, inline skating, and most other sports in developing positive personality characteristics according to Dr. Jim Gavin, author of The Exercise Habit
- Burning Calories: Competitive tennis burns more calories than aerobics, inline skating, or cycling, according to studies on caloric expenditures.
Muscle Groups Tennis Works
Arms: If you want a good workout for your arms, using a tennis racquet is great for toning your forearms, biceps, triceps, and shoulders. Playing tennis for a couple of hours helps build upper body strength by forcing you to stretch and utilize a wide range of muscles you might not otherwise target.
Core: Everyone is looking to strengthen and tone their core muscles, and tennis is a great way to do just that. By constantly using the abs and lower back to stabilize you as you move and strike the ball, playing tennis helps improve balance and increase power from the core.
Legs: Tennis is also a great workout for the legs. Your quads, hamstrings, and calves are all heavily involved in tennis as you must continuously shift your body and move quickly and decisively to run down shots and position yourself to hit returns. Tennis will improve your explosive muscle ability, and improve both the aerobic and anaerobic performance of your muscles.
Heart and Lungs: As you age your body’s exercise-related oxygen use will decline, but playing tennis helps slow this rate by increasing your overall lung function. Playing tennis also lowers your risk of heart disease, lowers cholesterol, and promotes better bone health. Tennis also slows the decline in coordination as you age, and provides you with better overall health as you enter your golden years.
If you’d like to learn more about how tennis can improve your overall health, call your local Genesis Health Club today to speak to one of our fitness experts or find out about our tennis programs online and get in the swing of better workouts through tennis.
