Playing tennis and working out on a treadmill include lots of running, but the differences in the workouts are greater than the similarities. Tennis is anaerobic, while treadmill work is aerobic, with the activities producing different fitness benefits. If you’re a tennis player, treadmill workouts can interfere with your performance and are best used during the off season.
Treadmill Workouts
Unless you perform intervals, a treadmill workout is a steady-state activity that puts you close to or in your aerobic heart rate range. Beginners who walk on a treadmill might work below their aerobic heart rate, but their workouts mirror an aerobic workout in most other ways. Both speeds recruit your muscle’s slow-twitch fibers, burn more calories from fat than anaerobic training does, move you in only one direction and don’t train your heart, lungs and other muscles to recover after intense activity. Treadmill walking is low-impact, while running is high-impact.
Tennis Workouts
Depending on whether your play singles or doubles and how hard you play, a tennis match is a high-impact, anaerobic activity. You use your high-twitch muscle fibers to make quick bursts of speed, burning mostly glycogen to fuel your muscles. Even if you are a playing a low-key doubles match, you will still experience some points that raise your heart rate to your anaerobic threshold, followed by a short recovery between points. Unlike a treadmill workout, tennis requires you to move in many directions to hit the ball and recover each time.
Calories Burned
Even though most of the time you are on a tennis court you are not hitting the ball, you can still burn more calories than during an aerobic workout. Tennis players play high-intensity points that raise their heart rate to its maximum, followed by a break after each point. Even though you are not playing, your heart rate remains high as your body recovers. According to the Mayo Clinic, a singles tennis match burns 584 calories for a 160-pound person, while high-impact aerobics burns 533 during that same time. Tennis also provides a longer post-workout calorie burn.
When to Use Treadmills
If you are an athlete who plays tennis, basketball, volleyball, soccer or other start-and-stop sports, it might not be a good idea to use a treadmill during your season. Treadmill workouts use different muscle fibers, amounts of glycogen, heart rate ranges and muscle movements than your sport. During your pre-season and in season, you will be better served by high-intensity interval workouts. Tennis players can play mini-tennis for conditioning, playing many short points to keep their heart rates high as they use tennis-specific movements. Use the four service boxes and regular or low-compression balls. Hit for 30 seconds, using sharp angles and depth and directional changes to make each other run around the boxes at high speed, then take 90 seconds to recover to simulate the work/rest ratio of a tennis match. Use a treadmill for post-season recovery, or active rest, working at a brisk walking speed that keeps you in shape, but lets you avoid high-impact exercise as you take a break from punishing tennis matches.
References
Writer Bio
Sam Ashe-Edmunds has been writing and lecturing for decades. He has worked in the corporate and nonprofit arenas as a C-Suite executive, serving on several nonprofit boards. He is an internationally traveled sport science writer and lecturer. He has been published in print publications such as Entrepreneur, Tennis, SI for Kids, Chicago Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and on websites such Smart-Healthy-Living.net, SmartyCents and Youthletic. Edmunds has a bachelor's degree in journalism.