2008 New Year's Resolutions

As we gladly ring out the old, and optimistically ring in the new, most of us have probably included a few things to help us get fit for the courts. If that includes you, here are a few of our favorite fitness aids that might help you accomplish your goal.

Complete Conditioning For Tennis
Take your game to a higher level! Now you can train to play like the pros by specifically conditioning each fitness component to meet the physical demands of tennis. Complete Conditioning for Tennis by Paul Roetert and Todd Ellenbecker improves your strength, power, agility, flexibility, quickness, and stamina. Experts from the United States Tennis Association provide the very best training exercises and drills, sample workouts from the game’s top players, and sample programs to maximize your tennis performance. You’ll finish strong in every match.

Available online at Amazon.com.

PumpOne
Need a little incentive to help you? Try PumpOne — a personal trainer that fits in your racquet bag. Here's how it works — you download a workout program, sync it to your iPod, iPhone, Nano, Zune or cell phone, and click through your workout while listening to your own music. When you’re done with an exercise, click the next button for your next move. Single workouts start at $9, packages start at $49. And for the tennis player there's even a tennis-specific stretch and core package.

Available online at PumpOne.

Yoga for Great Tennis
In this easy-to-follow 45-minute video, avid tennis player and Jivamukti-certified and Yoga Alliance-registered yoga instructor Anastasia will guide you through this tennis specific yoga practice. Flexibility, strength and breath control, which is part of every Yoga posture, is the key to on-court improvement.

Available online at Steady Bliss.

Dyna-Flex Pro Plus Gyro Exerciser
Professional athletes use the Dynaflex Pro to strengthen your wrists, forearms, and other lower arm muscles. It's great to use as a carpal tunnel exercise (for prevention and rehabilitation), and also works great for improving arm strength for almost every sport and physical activity. Professional athletes use the Dynaflex Pro to improve grip, to improve arm strength, to improve shoulder strength, to improve coordination, as therapeutic relief for the hands, wrists, arms, biceps and triceps, and to gain a competitive edge in sports requiring hand speed, control, accuracy, and grip strength.They've been around forever. You may have played with one as a kid. They come in fun and different colors.

Available online at Amazon.com.

Perfect Pushup
The Perfect Pushup puts a new spin on one of the oldest exercises, the pushup. Invented by someone who knows a lot about pushups, former U.S. Navy SEAL, Alden Mills, the Perfect Pushup's rotating handles allow your arms to rotate naturally when you do pushups the same way they do when you throw a punch or press up a dumb bell. The Perfect Pushup is the perfect tool for accelerating your New Year's resolution  — getting fit for the courts!

Available online at Perfect Pushup.

Tanita Healthy Jump Jump Rope
Jumping rope has many health benefits—it's good for the heart, strengthens the upper and lower body, and burns a lot of calories in a small amount of time and best of all, you can do all this without taking one step into a gym. The Tanita Healthy Jump jump rope, a Tennis Magazine favorite, is digital, so if you enter your weight, the LCD display tells you how many calories you burn, just like when you’re on a treadmill.

Available online at The Competitive Edge. 

You make 'em and you break 'em but at least you have to try.