The 10-Minute Tennis Warm-Up That Saves Your Body
Turning up cold and belting forehands is how adults get injured. A no-equipment, minute-by-minute warm-up that protects your shoulders and has you playing your best from the first game.
By Two brothers in Melbourne, co-founder of RallyHub.
Here is the most common way adults get injured playing tennis: they turn up five minutes before the hit, walk on cold, and start belting forehands. The first explosive serve or hard lunge for a wide ball lands on a body that has not been told it is about to play sport, and something in the shoulder, calf, or lower back lets go. A proper warm-up takes ten minutes, needs no equipment, and is the cheapest injury insurance in the game. Here is the exact routine, minute by minute.
Why warming up actually matters
Warming up is not stretching, and the old habit of standing still and pulling your foot to your backside before exercise has been out of favour for years. Static stretching a cold muscle does little to prevent injury and can briefly reduce your power. What you want is a warm-up: raising your heart rate, getting blood into the muscles, and moving every joint through the range tennis demands, so that your first sprint and first serve are not the first time your body has moved all day. Done right, it also means you play better from the first game instead of taking a set to wake up.
Minutes 0 to 3: raise the pulse
Start by getting warm in the literal sense. You want a light sweat and a faster heartbeat before you do anything dynamic.
- Jog gently around the court or along the baseline for a minute.
- Add a minute of easy side-shuffles, facing the net, down and back. This is the exact movement you use to cover the court.
- Finish with a minute of light skipping or fast feet on the spot.
Nothing here should feel hard. The goal is warm and loose, not tired.
Minutes 3 to 6: dynamic mobility
Now move the joints through full, controlled ranges. These are active movements, not held stretches. Do each for around thirty seconds.
- Arm circles: big slow circles forwards then backwards, waking up the shoulders before you serve.
- Leg swings: hold the fence, swing one leg forwards and back, then side to side. Switch legs. This opens the hips for wide balls and lunges.
- Walking lunges with a torso twist: lunge forward and rotate your upper body over the front leg. This primes the legs and the trunk rotation every groundstroke uses.
- Trunk rotations: stand tall and rotate your shoulders left and right, letting your arms swing loosely. Your forehand and backhand live here.
Minutes 6 to 9: mini-tennis on court
Do not start a warm-up hit from the baseline at full pace. Start in the service boxes. Stand at your service line, your partner at theirs, and rally softly using short, controlled strokes. This is mini-tennis, and it is how every pro on tour begins a session.
Mini-tennis warms up your hands, your timing, and your touch at low speed and low impact. After a minute or two of soft rallies, gradually step back toward the baseline and let the rally lengthen and the pace build. By the time you are both at the baseline, your body has eased into full strokes instead of being thrown into them cold.
Minute 9 to 10: practice serves
The serve is the most explosive, most injury-prone motion in tennis, and it is the one people warm up least. Never let your first serve of the day be a full-power first serve. Hit several easy serves at half pace, focusing on a smooth motion and a high finish, then build up. Roll a few second serves with spin to get the shoulder moving through its full range before you ask it for power.
Spend a minute here and you protect the shoulder and back that a cold first serve so often tweaks.
Save the static stretching for afterwards
The held stretches, calves, hamstrings, shoulders, are valuable, but their place is at the end, when the muscles are warm and you are cooling down. That is when gentle static stretching helps with flexibility and recovery. Before you play, keep it dynamic and moving.
The ten-minute version, at a glance
- 3 minutes: jog, side-shuffles, fast feet to raise the pulse.
- 3 minutes: arm circles, leg swings, walking lunges with a twist, trunk rotations.
- 3 minutes: mini-tennis in the service boxes, building back to the baseline.
- 1 minute: easy serves building to full pace.
Ten minutes. No gear. It is the difference between a season of tennis and a season of physio appointments, and you will play your best from the very first game instead of the third.
If you are already nursing something, read our guide to tennis elbow and other common injuries, and in the warmer months see how to play in the Australian summer heat so your warm-up does not become a heat problem of its own.