I noticed that many forum members here complain of various physical ailments such as knee pain, elbow pain, wrist pain, back pain, etc... due to playing table tennis. As amateurs, we should try to be realistic about our bodies. The modern double inverted looping game is extremely demanding on physical fitness as we are mostly forced to generate all the pace and spin (unlike pushers and blockers who feed on others). However, it is also arguably one of the most fun styles to play and the most common. The problem is that players like Ma Long, Zhang Jike, Ovtcharov, they're professional players who are extremely conditioned and fit to play. If we want to play a demanding style, we need to train up our body to be able to take the punishment. I would recommend those who already play TT regularly (2-3 times a week), to forego 1 session a week and go hit the gym. Strength training does the following for you: 1) Prevent injuries. Stronger muscles can take more load off your joints and ligaments, and can handle a lot more punishment allowing you to stay injury free for a long long time! 2) Improve your performance. With stronger muscles, your loops become spinnier and more powerful, your footwork becomes faster, and you can reach a lot more balls you thought was impossible to reach, your recovery time goes down due to increased conditioning, and you can enjoy much better endurance. 3) Make you look better. Having a strong, lean and mean body always looks much better, and you'll gain a lot of confidence in other areas of your life. Strength training builds muscles which increase your metabolic rate, making fat loss much more sustainable. 4) Make you healthier. Having a strong body would also give you uncountable health benefits such as lower chances of cardiovascular diseases, joint diseases and other problems in life. 1 program that can be followed really easily is StrongLifts 5x5. The program requires you to commit 3 times a week, ~1 hr per session (very economical in terms of time!) but you can just as easily do once a week (just that you see slower gains). You can find out all about the program at http://stronglifts.com/" rel="nofollow - http://stronglifts.com/ . It's free btw! It consists of these 5 simple exercises: 1) Barbell Squats This is basically putting a barbell onto your back and then squatting. This is recommended by Dimitrij Ovtcharov for TT, and also in some videos Ma Long can be seen doing them too. It is a compound exercise targeting your lower body as well as your lower back. This will seriously increase your explosiveness in your legs allowing you to jump in either direction powerfully. It also allows you to sustain a lower body position for much longer, and also works wonders for generating power in your loops. You want Zhang Jike quads? You do more barbell squats! The huge amount of exertion from the squats also helps you to burn fat fast, and builds more muscle which will increase your metabolic rate allowing you to burn more fat even faster! 2) Overhead Barbell Shoulder Press This basically is lifting a barbell from chest position to the overhead position. It is a compound exercise targeting the shoulders mainly. This would help you strengthen and protect the shoulder joint, which is increasingly important for both FH and BH loops. 3) Barbell Pendlay rows. Have your back straight and 90 degrees to the ground then pull the barbell from the ground to your chest explosively, pulling your elbows to the ceiling. This trains up your back muscles which will allow you to prevent injuries in your back. 4) Barbell Deadlifts Trains up that core and lower back which improves your torso muscles = juicier FH loops! 5) Barbell Bench press. Lying down and pushing a barbell from your chest upwards. This trains up your chest muscles mainly, which benefits your FH loops. Additional exercises: Wide grip and reverse grip pull ups. The former trains up your lats which improves the stability of your shoulder blades and joints which are very useful for BH loops, while the latter improves your bicep strength which is very useful for the FH loop (basically it trains up the forearm snap which is critical for FH loops!) Weighted hanging leg raises/Captain's chair leg raises. This is an abs exercise, also for developing a good core (juicier loops! ). Basically you grab a dumbbell with your legs and try to lift it up. It will develop your abs fast! Some personal tips: 1) Don't listen to those guys using chalk to improve grip. Buy yourself some quality lifting gloves. This will prevent a lot of the nasty callouses that tend to develop after heavy lifting. 2) Posture and form is key. Be sure to read the Stronglifts article on grip, and form. Just like Table tennis, you will achieve much more with good form. 3) Eat well, i.e. eat more quality meat, eggs and vegetables, and try to get junk food such as chips and soft drinks out of your diet! You can buy some protein shakes such as whey protein which I think help out with the soreness quite a lot and boosts progress. Hope the following is useful!
------------- ------- Viscaria FH: Hurricane 8-80 BH: D05
Back to normal shape bats :(
|