Service charged (2024)

Rafael Nadal is one of the fittest athletes in any sport - not just tennis - and his training requires everything from endurance and power, speed and agility to coordination and tactics. He also needs to factor in recovery... Oh, and practice. During the off-season Nadal trains six days a week for six-and-a-half hours every day - fouron court and the rest in the gym or the pool. Here, he reveals the secrets of his training regime.

Muscles Used: Latissimi dorsi/biceps/rhomboids/trapeziuses

How to do it: Standing with legs shoulder-width apart, keep a strong core and pull the cable across the body, pivoting at the waist but keeping the back straight and using your free arm for balance.

Importance of Exercise:

This is an excellent compound exercise for both the back and the arms. It can be used to build muscular endurance for the demands of a tennis match, but the cross rows can also be performed at speed to build up the power required in both arms and back for certain shots.

Muscles used: Rhomboids/ trapeziuses/deltoids (posterior)

How to do it: From the standing position with legs shoulder-width apart, hold the cables at chest height (across the body), arms stretched wide but in front of the chest with elbows slightly bent. Bring the arms together until at right angles to the body, then return to the start position.

Importance of Exercise: This works the shoulder muscles and upper back, the areas used for all of the various shots in tennis. The upper back powers the backhand and serve; the rhomboids stabilise the shoulder and prevent injury.

Muscles Used: Pectorals/biceps

How to do it: Standing with the cable slightly behind you, relax your shoulder and focus on your core. Bring your arm across your body, with your elbow slightly bent, and stop when you get the cable in front of you at 90 degrees to the body. Return to the start position.

Importance of Exercise: Performed on a Technogym Kinesis, this allows a perfect imitation of the forehand action against a resistance, strengthening the muscles used in the forehand in the specific movement pattern. This can be progressed by introducing speed to further mirror the tennis forehand.

Muscles Used: Pectoralis major/Latissimi dorsi/deltoids (anterior)

How to do it: With your forearm at 90 degrees, allow the resistance to gently pull the arm backwards. This stretch will put a strain on the rotator cuff muscles and tendons. Hold this stretch for about 30 seconds; repeat three to four times.

Importance of Exercise: The rotator cuff is a group of muscles that work together to provide the shoulder joint with dynamic stability and help control the joint during rotation.

Training these muscles is predominantly about injury prevention, which is of great importance to any professional athlete.

Muscles used: Pectorals/biceps

How to do it: From the standing position, keep elbows ahead of the shoulders and resting against the padding.

Bring your hands together on the exhale, then return to the start position as you inhale.

Importance of exercise: Strength and power in the shoulders, arms, chest and back is key for all elements of tennis. Bicep and pectoral work-outs will help the forehand and serve.

While other players may amble back to the baseline after a change of ends, Nadal is famous for the way he sprints back into position. So is this a way of rattling his opponent? "It's not intimidation," he laughs. "I don't even think about it. I do it because I feel good doing it. It's like me saying, 'OK, I start again!'"

Yet sprint training is a major part of Nadal's work-outs. As well as doing shuttle runs on court, he uses the running machine.

Instead of sprinting forwards, he tries to make sideways movements, too - a bit like his sprint to the baseline at change of ends: "It really helps with my coordination and footwork."

**The wobble board

**With an inflatable half-ball on the underside and a flat board on the topside, the wobble board is a great training aid. "It really helps Nadal with coordination, footwork, movement and balance," says the tennis champ's fitness trainer Joan Forcades. "So he can change direction quickly and easily on court."

Swimming pool work-outs

While Nadal has a swimming pool at his house in the Majorcan town of Manacor, he also has use of the local municipal pool. "Sometimes when I have pain in my knees I do aerobic work by running in water up to my waist. A typical work-out is ten widths."

**Stretching

**Nadal has a personal physio, Rafael Maymo, who stretches him before and after every work-out. "Normally I have massage on my quadriceps and the other muscles that lift the knees," he says. "If I'm more relaxed at the knees it takes the pressure off them. If there is pain, I'll use ice."

**Cardiovascular work

**Rafa's doctor, Angel Ruiz-Cotorro, describes his patient as "able to mix the explosive pace of a 200-metre sprinter with the resistance of a marathon runner". Which explains how the Spaniard is able to run from one side of the baseline to the other throughout a five-set match.

Nevertheless, Nadal knows he isn't quite superhuman.

In recent years he has tried to play from a position further inside the baseline in order to reduce the mileage he clocks up during a match. This has resulted in shorter matches, and no sign of the knee tendonitis that plagued him in 2009. "In the past I had problems in my knees and feet, so I prefer not to run a lot during training," he says. "I use the cross trainer because there's less impact." A typical routine will be seven minutes' warm-up, then ten minutes of interval training (say, 30 seconds fast, then 30 seconds slow), then seven minutes of warming down: "It's easier to run like this - it's less boring."

Rafa avoids running outside the gym. "I work at a high intensity, so tennis practice is all the running fitness I need. It is aerobic enough for me."

Actually, this is one area where Nadal's discipline is lacking. "I've never had a special diet," he admits. "I'm not careful about that. It's just that before a match I won't to eat a steak. Seafood is my favourite - I love gambas a la plancha from Majorca. During matches, it's bananas."

**Supplements

**Before matches, Rafa takes the energy supplement Vitality Sport. During matches, he might take mineral salts. And after matches, he uses OxiBlock Spin, a supplement full of antioxidants to ward off fatigue. naturalvitalitysports.com

Rafael Nadal uses Technogym for training. technogym.com

Originally published in the December 2010 issue of British GQ*.*