Want to take your tennis game to the next level?
Practice sharpens your shots, but the best exercises for tennis are what give you the strength, agility, and explosiveness to win long rallies and walk off the court without pain.
Most players train their legs and core and stop there. They miss the one thing every shot runs through: the hands.
Your grip and forearm strength is the contact point between you and the racket, and it decides how much power and control reaches the ball.
Get it right and you hit harder, last longer, and protect yourself from tennis elbow.
Below are the top exercises for tennis players, built to cover the full athlete: lower body, power, core, and the grip work that most training plans skip.
Why Grip and Forearm Strength Matters for Tennis
Every forehand, serve, and slice depends on a firm hold on the racket. When the ball hits your strings, force travels back through the frame into your hand and forearm.
Weak forearms absorb that load badly, which kills control and feeds overuse injuries like tennis elbow.
Strong forearms for tennis do three jobs at once. They lock in your tennis swing, they let you keep racket control deep into a third set, and they shield your wrist and elbow from the repeated stress that ends seasons.
This is the edge most players leave on the table, and it is the difference between a good week and a long career on the court.
Best Strength Exercises for Tennis Players
Here are five best strength exercises for tennis players that build the power, agility, and grip the sport demands.
1. Lateral Lunges
1. Lateral Lunges
Lateral lunges are one of the best strength exercises for tennis players for sharper side-to-side movement.
They strengthen the lower body and train the lateral push you use chasing down wide balls.
How to do lateral lunges:
- Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and hands at your chest.
- Step wide to the right, keeping your left foot planted.
- Bend your right knee and lower into the lunge, keeping your left leg straight.
- Keep your chest up and back straight, knee tracking over your toes.
- Push off your right foot back to standing.
- Repeat on the left side.
2. Pogo Jumps
This at-home tennis exercise builds the explosive quickness you need to reach every shot.
Pogo jumps train your lower legs to load and release fast, which shows up as sharper first steps on the court.
How to do pogo jumps:
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent.
- Bounce on the balls of your feet, heels off the ground.
- Keep your arms by your sides and your feet close together.
- Land soft and rebound straight back up.
- Repeat for several reps, jumping as high as you can each time.
3. Overhead Med Ball Slams
A staple of any serious workout for tennis players, the overhead med ball slam builds the rotational power behind big serves and put-away shots.
How to do overhead med ball slams:
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, holding a medicine ball with both hands.
- Lift the ball overhead with straight arms and a tight core.
- Slam it to the ground in front of you with full force.
- Catch the bounce and lift it straight back overhead.
- Repeat for 8 to 12 reps, resting briefly between sets.
4. Continuous Lateral Bound
Continuous lateral bounds are a plyometric tennis workout that improves agility and the single-leg power you need to cover the court.
How to do continuous lateral bounds:
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees soft, arms at your sides.
- Bound wide to the right, landing on your right foot.
- The moment you land, push off and bound right again.
- Continue for several reps, then switch and bound to the left.
5. Plank With Rotation
Plank with rotation builds the core stability and rotational strength behind every groundstroke. Your obliques carry a heavy load when you swing the racket, and this move trains them directly.
How to do plank with rotation:
- Start in a high plank, hands under shoulders, feet hip-width apart.
- Brace your core and glutes to hold a straight line.
- Lift your right hand and rotate open, reaching toward the ceiling.
- Hold a beat, return, and repeat on the left.
- Alternate sides for several reps.
Forearm Exercises for Tennis Players
These forearm exercises for tennis are where you build the grip and racket control most players never train.
Add them to your routine and you will feel the difference in your tennis swing and your durability on the court.
6. Wrist Roller Forearm Builder
The wrist roller is the fastest way to overload the forearms through their full range. Rolling a weighted strap up and down hammers the grip strength for tennis that holds steady under fatigue.
A friction-based tool like the Gripzilla Tornado lets you dial resistance up or down with a simple twist, so you can build grip, wrist, and forearm strength without dragging gym plates to the court. The Dynamo wrist roller does the same job for classic up-and-down roll training.
How to do the wrist roller:
- Hold the roller out in front of you, arms extended.
- Roll the resistance up by curling one wrist over the other.
- Control the roll back down. Do not let it drop.
- Repeat for 2 to 4 sets.
7. Wrist Curls and Reverse Wrist Curls
Wrist curls train the forearm flexors. Reverse wrist curls train the extensors.
Balancing both sides is one of the smartest ways to prevent tennis elbow, because most elbow pain comes from overworked, underbalanced forearms.
How to do wrist curls:
- Sit with your forearm resting on your thigh, palm up, holding a light dumbbell.
- Curl the weight up by flexing only your wrist.
- Lower slow and controlled.
- Flip your palm down and repeat for reverse wrist curls.
- Do 2 to 3 sets of 10 to 15 reps each.
8. Hand Gripper Holds
The crush grip is exactly what holds the racket through a hard return or volley. A hand gripper trains that grip directly, and it slips into your bag for warm-ups or off-court reps anywhere.
How to do hand gripper holds:
- Hold the gripper between your fingers and palm.
- Squeeze until both ends meet.
- Hold the squeeze for a 2-count.
- Release slow and controlled.
- Repeat for 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps per hand.
For the full lineup of tools that build serious grip, browse the grip building tools collection. And if you want to go deeper on training the arms specifically for the court, read our guide on arm workouts for tennis players.
Build a Complete Tennis Workout Routine
The best exercises for tennis players work as a system, not a checklist.
Pair the lower-body and power moves for speed and explosiveness, lock in your core with rotation work, and finish with forearm exercises for tennis to protect your elbow and add control to every shot.
Train two or three of these sessions a week, keep your form clean, and load slowly. Strength built right is strength that lasts a full season.
The same grip-first thinking carries into other sports too, like the demands you will see in our best exercises for martial arts guide.
Now get on the court and put these tennis exercises to work.
