The tennis Grand Slam season began this past Monday with the Australian Open and what has been typical a lot more than naught, Andy Roddick is bounced early from a slam.  This happened just last night and this time he had to retire due to a hamstring injury.  Andy Roddick’s whole workout routine needs a makeover.  Something isn’t working.  Americans have been banking on this guy to continue the championship runs of Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Jim Courier and he keeps failing.  No one else is coming down the pipeline, so he is it.

Roddick was the last American to win a grand slam championship and that was 2003.  He is the only one to be a runner-up in that time span and no other American has come even close to that.  The great American tennis players are obviously playing other sports in our country.  Since 2003, there have only been 2 junior Americans to win the U.S. Open Junior title.  So, Roddick may be our best chance for a long time and I for one am going to help him do his best.  So, I’m going to give you Andy Roddick, a workout program that will catapult you to hopefully one more grand slam.  Let’s focus on Wimbledon and the U.S. Open because we both know the French Open title is a fantasy.

After scouring the internet for all the “reliable” sources that had the inside scoop on Andy Roddick’s workout program, this is what I found.  He does try to watch his diet.  He doesn’t want any excess fat on his body because then he has to move that around on the court for 4, possibly 5, hours.  Need to be lean and light, with enough muscle to generate the power he needs for his game.

He also does a lot of core work which is good.  Tennis relies heavily on the core.  He uses a 10 pound medicine ball for something that I couldn’t quite figure out.  Tennis.com says he also does stability crunches and leg raises.  Alright, we’ll work on this core routine.

He doesn’t do a lot of leg workouts with weights for fear of bulking up too much.  Instead he does a bunch of leg work on the track.  He’ll initially do some distance runs to build endurance that will change to interval sprints that will mimic the time he is on the court.  So, he’ll run 30 – 60 meter sprints with a 25 second rest inbetween.  25 seconds is the amount of time between points on average.  He’ll do some bodyweight lunges and squat jumps for leg strength.  He also does 1 leg bunny hops holding a medicine ball for 60 meters.  What the article said was his focus is on the heel when he does these hops, which doesn’t make sense to me.  You are on the balls of your feet when you explode around the court, why the heck are you doing bunny hops landing on your heel and causing shockwaves to go up your leg.

Alright, here is your new workout Mr. Andy Roddick.  You can thank me later.

Core work is important, but I want to see your core mimic what you do on the court, so I recommend some medicine ball wood chops.  You could do this with a pulley contraption as well, but the wood chops from one shoulder to opposite knee would work great.  The second thing you can do would be to do some side medicine ball tosses against a wall.  This will coordinate your core with your legs to develop the power for your forehand and backhand strokes.

I like the jump squats, but add some dumbbells to your lunges.  I seriously doubt your legs will get super big with the volume we will have.  Our emphasis is on strength and power so the reps are small, but the weight is up.  Do angled lunges or lateral lunges to mimic movements on the court better.  Also, since you just pulled your hamstring, start doing some 1 leg bridges or ball hamstring curls to strengthen those bad boys.  Stretch them as well.  One hamstring injury is one hamstring injury too many, start working them out.

You got a he!! of a serve Andy, so make sure you are doing some wrist curls and reverse wrist curls to keep your forearms strong and reduce the chances of you getting tennis elbow.  Do plenty of rotator cuff exercises in all directions and keep that area extremely flexible.

Finally, you need to stay balanced everywhere so you need to do some push/pull exercises for your upper body.  Simple push-ups and pull-ups will work the front and back of your torso and not cause any more imbalances to your body then you already have.  Most tennis players have one side that is more dominant.  We will probably never balance it out entirely, but we try to do the best that we can to fend off anymore potential injuries.

I like your running drills, so keep doing that.  It will help with your speed.  As I mentioned, I think your bunny hops should be on the ball of your feet, to stimulate the power that you need on the court.  Anyways Andy, this is my workout to you.  Take it and get yourself game ready.  No need to thank me and I only want one form of payment.  If you use this and win one of the remaining slams this year, then I would like you to fly my wife and I to the Australian Open next year.  That is the one slam I definitely want to see before I die and it would be nice of you to do that.  Notice I didn’t mention anything about your wife, Brooklyn Decker, and spending the day with her.  That would be a separate post in itself.