hey guys now that I'm 45 years old it's more important than ever to treat my body
right so that I can play tennis in general or especially play tennis on consecutive
days because I just practiced for two hours in the Florida humidity
drenched I'm exhausted and I have to go through a certain regimen because I'm playing again tomorrow
in the morning and if I don't do this regiment I'm going to be in trouble I won't be able to play I'm
going to be stiff on the court without energy and probably in pain so in today's video I'm going
to show you how I recover in tennis and it starts off with static stretching I do Dynamic stretching
before tennis I do static stretching after tennis if you want to know dynamic stretching exercise
to check off my video how to warm up for tennis but in any case I have certain problem areas in
my body when I used to play I used to get a lot of calf strains I used to get hamstring strains and
especially the groin area was a big problem for me also the ab area was another problem where I get
a lot of pulled muscles there so these are the areas that I pay close attention to I make sure
that I stretch those areas thoroughly after I play tennis and it's okay to do it statically I'm not
a big fan of static stretching prior to tennis simply because I've had bad experiences with
static stretching prior to tennis and I make sure I do this after I'm done playing don't be afraid
to sit on the ground on a yoga mat I don't have one with me now my mistake I'm gonna be a little
dirty here on the clay but any case on the ground there's certain exercises that you can do that are
really really good the king of stretching is Novak Djokovic and this is one of the reasons why he's
so flexible because of the amount of stretching that he does after every single practice after
every single match so guys it is super important that the first thing that you do after you're done
playing do a thorough static stretching regimen and guys one huge recovery mistake that I used
to commit and this would drive my mom crazy was I used to lose a really frustrating match and
I would go straight to the car and drive home all sweaty and this is one of the worst things
that you can do for your muscles is leave the sweaty clothes after tennis on your body so you
absolutely have to either take a shower that's the best thing you can do but you have to at
least bring a change of clothes multiple changes of clothes because most likely you're going to
continue to sweat after a while so you're going to change out of your sweaty clothes you're going
to put a fresh shirt on and that fresh shirt is probably going to be drenched after 20 minutes
as well so bring several sets of shirts and make sure that your clothes are dry after you're done
playing tennis and guys now that I changed my clothes I feel a lot better I took everything
off even the socks everything is dry and I'm feeling good now the next step in the recovery
is hydration and it's super important to hydrate before your practice or your match during
the practice of the match and after and it's important to use electrolytes now what I use
our natural electrolyte that's found in more expensive water such as Evian it has natural
electrolytes in other words minerals but another thing that I do is put a little bit of lemon
juice in there because lemon is also very high in natural electrolytes in other words minerals
you can see they're a little lemon chunks in this water and so I'm going to finish drinking this I
got another water in the car I'm going to make sure that I continue to hydrate and guys I told
you that the sweating continues after the workout take a look at the way I'm sweating I'm sweating
like an absolute Maniac so this shirt right here is going to be drenched in about 20 minutes and
that's why I say you got to bring tons of shirts with you because even after you're done playing
you got to continue to sweat and it's super important for your clothes to be dry and guys
one of the most important things about recovery is ice so I prepared a couple of ice bags and I'm
going to put ice on the places where it hurts most the worst problem areas for me are my ankle and my
knee and so what ice helps with is inflammation and pain because my ankle does hurt a lot and so
does my knee so put some ice on the problem areas after you play helps tremendously with pain and
inflammation so I'm gonna wrap up my knee and what I usually do is eyes for about 20 minutes
and I'm going to do this now I'll probably do it again later tonight but it's in my experience
most important to do right after you play after you stretched after you change your clothes
you ice the problem areas that you have which is going to help tremendously with recovery
guys another shirt change this is shirt number three and now comes probably the most important
part of recovery which is nutrition and the absolute best nutrition for tennis players
is a starch-based diet okay so I just got my food and you're probably wondering what is
a starch-based diet where it's basically where you're eating the vast amount of your calories
from starch and starch is basically pasta beans rice quinoa bread and that is historically the
food that tennis players have always eaten I'll never forget an interview that I heard from
Roger Federer at Indian wells for some reason he had to play a semifinal in the morning at
10 o'clock because you gotten rained out the day before and they asked him Roger what did
you have for breakfast he won that match and Roger said for breakfast I had pasta
I'm going to show you something super interesting it's a picture of Novak Djokovic Olympics holding
a plate of food and we're going to examine what the greatest player of all time was eating and
guys for the purpose of the video I'm not going to eat in the restaurant because they were playing
loud music I'm gonna eat in the car and we're gonna examine Novak Djokovic food in a second
but I got my food at a place called sweet greens this is a place that serves salads it's kind of
like a upscale Chipotle one of those places I'm going to show you in a second what I'm eating
but first let's examine Novak Djokovic plate at the Olympics so he has some pasta okay that's
a starch this right here looks like rice that's a starch here it's got some greens it looks like
this might be another form of starch I know he's a vegan this is for sure not meat I can't really
make out exactly what this is but you can see that the goat is fueling his system with starch
and for you guys that don't know I've been a plant-based vegan for 11 years my kings are Dr
esselstein and Dr McDougall who are proponents of a low-fat plant-based diet and it turns out
that tennis players have always relied on starch to fuel their bodies see tennis is a sport where
you have to exert an enormous amount of energy but also for a long time so your glycogen levels have
to be up and this is why tennis players eat starch because starch builds up your glycogen level and
gives you a lot of energy for long periods of time so let's take a look now what I'm eating
from sweet greens so here we have rice wild rice that is there's also sweet potato in there and
can't seem to find it right now but I'm pretty sure that I ordered sweet potato which is in
there so there's a sweet potato right here so we got two starches so far we got the wild rice
we got the sweet potato we also have corn which is another starch and also if you look closely
you'll see there's black lentils here okay black lentils which is uh another starch so there's four
starches of course there's some greens there's avocado and there's a light dressing in here so
guys this is an absolute Powerhouse meal I'm not going to show myself eating because it's kind of
disgusting I will see you in the next part of my recovery which is going to be the active recovery
and guys what I'm doing here is active recovery yes I'm back hitting balls and
this is something that can help tremendously in recovery you see a lot of professional players
hit and practice after they've played long matches four sets five sets I'll never forget Jim Courier
would go for runs for several miles after playing Five sets at the Australian Open so don't overdo
it but active recovery is something that can help you tremendously to feel better the next day
when you have to get back on the court I'm gonna do it for about 10 minutes just hit
some balls hit some overhead some serves and make my body nice and loose I'm not going to overdo it
and this is gonna make me feel a lot better when I have to play tomorrow a couple more serves
and a couple of volleys and I'm good
this is especially good guys if you played poorly to go come back out and practice a
little bit more and get your Rhythm back get your feel back this is a great thing to do
even if you don't have to play the next day after losing a tough match
get back out hit some balls not only will this help you recover but it'll also help you forget
about the loss much faster and some of you guys might have been wondering why I changed
it to swim trunks well I was getting ready for my hydrotherapy basically hydrotherapy in other words
just floating in water is a very relaxing thing number one it can help you relax after
a stressful match but I can also ease tension in your muscles now you can do this in a pool or a
Jacuzzi but just keep in mind that you shouldn't do any strenuous activities in water because the
water does take a lot of energy out of you so all you should do is just relax float around and let
your muscles loosen up and I've been doing this a lot almost on a daily basis thankfully I have
a pool at the complex where I live and the reason why I'm doing it every day is because I was at the
hairdresser recently and as I was waiting for my turn I talked to this older lady who was 98 years
old and I started talking to her and I asked her what does she do for exercise and she told me she
goes swimming every single day and she was in a fantastic shape very thin a very fit and seemed
to be mentally all there so that was reason enough for doing hydrotherapy on a daily basis not only
can this help you recover after a tough match but it can also give you some general longevity
wow there's nothing more relaxing than what I'm doing right here before I explain what this is
exactly make sure you subscribe to the intuitive tennis YouTube channel and make sure that you like
this video okay don't forget so basically what I'm doing here is an Epsom salt soaking solution
Wellness therapy with rosemary and mint Epsom salt and essential oils eases aches and soreness from
muscle pains helps promote healing and well-being Comforts relaxed tired and overworked muscles guys
if you want to get yourself one of these doctor teals Epsom Salt Solutions I'm going to put a
link in the description and you can get yourself some Epsom salt I can tell you that my ankle has
improved tremendously since I started doing this on a daily basis and it was my mom who convinced
me to do this I was skeptical at first but then I started doing it and I saw tremendous results
my ankle has a problem with the tendon and it's very painful and there has been periods of time
where I couldn't even walk if you remember my video where I was imitating Roger Federer and
Rafael Nadal I remember that vividly there was about a year ago and I could not walk even I
don't know how I recorded that video I strapped my ankle up and then maybe a month later I had
to pick my mom from the airport and I couldn't walk at all I was limping and then she came here
she suggested that I do these Epsom salt foot baths and I gotta tell you my ankle improved
tremendously not only did the pain go away but I'm playing again I'm playing sets on a weekly basis
and you don't have to soak your feet you can take a bath with epsom salt and kind of treat
your whole body and let the Epsom salt work on all your muscles so this is another form
of hydrotherapy that I highly recommend and guys there's one more thing that you need to keep in
mind when it comes to recovery there's one thing that's the most important out of all of these
things that I demonstrated in today's video and that is sleep I'm going to quote the goat again
Roger Federer they asked him in an interview how much he sleeps and he said he sleeps 12 hours
this is something that I'm so jealous of because I probably average six hours a
night most nights is probably closer to five hours and that's just simply not enough time
for the body to recover for the body to heal the body recovers best when it's sleeping so
this is one of the best things that you can do to be ready for the next match
or the next practice is get a lot of sleep more than you normally get if you can try
to get eight nine or ten hours you're gonna play so much better the next day all right