Daily Racquet

Smash Your Fitness Goals With A Nike+FuelBand

Serena Willams wears a Nike+FuelBand and during a typical match she racks up 3604 fuel points and takes 8346 steps! Just like Serena, with a Nike+FuelBand, you too, can track your progress (or not).

Nike+Fuelband tracks your activity through a sport-tested accelerometer, then  translates every move into NikeFuel. It's also a great watch. Wirelessly  sync  your Nike+ FuelBand to visualize your results. Or plug it directly into your computer's USB port to sync. See your peaks, your progress and your trophies. Smash all of your fitness goals in 2013 with this slick little wristband.

Available online at Amazon.com.

Bobble Up!

If you want an endless supply of water to keep you hydrated and you don't want to pay a fortune, you might want to consider getting a bobble or two. That's right! We don't encourage getting just one of these colorful re-usable water bottles, we recommend several.

The Bobble and its filters come in six distinct colors. Each bottle has a built-in filter, so every time you fill it up - you get 18.5 ounces of BPA free water. Each filter works on approximately 40 gallons, or 150 liters, of water — so filters should be replaced every two to three months, depending on usage.

If that isn't enough to sell you on the Bobble, maybe this will — each bobble filter is the equivalent of 300 single-serve water bottles.

Enough said — it's time to Bobble Up!

Available online at Amazon.com.

It's A Wrap!

Have you ever watched a professional tennis match and wondered what that tape is that some of the 
players are wearing?  Well, I now have the answer for you. It's called kinesiology taping.

Currently being touted as the latest in drug-free pain relief for tennis players, Kinesiology Taping is intended to alleviate pain and facilitate lymphatic drainage by microscopically lifting the skin. By lifting the skin and relieving pressure on pain transmitters, KT Tape (20 pre-cut strips per roll) provides muscle-pain relief and support without restricting motion. KT Tape comes in convenient pre-cut strips and is available in a variety of colors. It provides 24-hour relief for up to five days per application and is water resistant, so it stays on in the pool & shower. Previously available only to medical professionals and athletic trainers, KT Tape has packaged the tape in pre-cut strips to bring the benefits of taping to consumers.

We can't tell you how it works but we can tell that it seemed to work for us. So if you have one of those nagging tennis injuries that slow you down, then it might be worth giving KT Tape a try.

Available online at Amazon.com.

Flex Your Way To Tennis Elbow Relief

If you're one of those who suffer from chronic tennis elbow — we've got the cure.

According to a study conducted by a group of New York doctors, pain relief could be as simple as three sets of 15 repetitions twice a day with the Thera-Band Flexbar hand exerciser. The magical Flexbar is a low-tech, long-ribbed, pliable rubber bar that allows you to do “isolated eccentric” exercises, that provide resistance while the muscles lengthen. It will improve your grip strength and upper extremity stabilization by the bending, twisting, or oscillation movement.

Studies done in Belgium in 2007 found that eccentric exercises provided considerable relief for tennis elbow sufferers but the bad news was the exercises had to be performed on expensive machines under medical supervision during repeated office visits.

The FlexBar is 12" long and comes in  4 progressive resistance levels to match user capability. The Yellow Thera-Band FlexBar takes 6 lb. of force to bend to a u-shape, Red 10 lb., Green 15 lb., and the Blue 25 lb.

Get a Flexbar and get a grip on your game.

Available at Amazon.com.

A New Way To Gel On The Tennis Court

Power Bar Energy Blasts offer up a new way to gel on the tennis court — these gel bites offer up a  tasty blast of flavor and energy. These little bite-sized gels are the first energy chews fueled with PowerBar's C2 Max dual--source energy blend. The C2 MAX energy blend has the same glucose-to-fructose ratio shown in breakthrough studies to deliver 20-55 percent more energy to muscles than glucose alone. The other good news is that they contain no artificial flavors, colors or preservatives.

Perfect for the tennis court — you can easily digest 1 or 2 during changeovers, they can stay in your bag without melting. You don't have to leave anything half eaten and they are Yummy! Gel Blasts are available in both Raspberry, a great source of Vitamin C and Strawberry/Bannana, with added caffeine.

Add a blast of energy and taste to your game with PowerBar Gel Blasts.

Available online at Amazon.com. 

2010 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.

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 Tennis Warehouse.

ETCH-Swing
ETCH-Swing is great to use for tennis strength training, whether you’re working on your serve, forehand  or backhand. At advanced levels, it has become an integral part of the training regimens of pros Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azaeenka since the Etch-Swing allows players to merge movement drills with upper body strengthening for more efficient training sessions. The unique design of the Etch-Swing does much more than a weight on the end of a racquet. Available online at Etcheberry Experience.

Yoga for Great Tennis 
In this easy-to-follow 45-minute video, avid tennis player and Jivamukti-certified and 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 Tennis Warehouse.

TenniSpheres
TenniSpheres are an innovative product based on an ancient hand exercise technique. Two iron balls are manipulated in the hand(s) with various motions. The exercises are believed to have beneficial effects not only for the hand, wrist and arm, but for the whole body. Not only on these little balls helpful to your well-being; they're very cool looking! Available online at Tennis Warehouse.

Timex Fitness Tracker
The sleek Timex Fitness Tracker, which combines a comfortable sports digital watch with a wireless digital transmitter that can help you track your daily activity —  this watch works great on the tennis court. The Wireless Fitness Tracker’s digital transmitter easily clips to the waist and wirelessly relays information to a fashionable, highly functional wristwatch that lets you track your time, steps and calories. What a way to get a step on your opponent. Available online at Amazon.com.

PumpOne
PumponeNeed 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.

Xtensor
The Xtensor is a glove-like device that uses elasticized bands for resistance as you open your palm and extend your fingers fully. The mini-workout can help rebalance your muscles, reduce pain from repetitive strain, and ward off join erosion. Use the Xtensor for two to three minutes a day. Work up to two sets of 15 repititions and while it may look a little strange, this little gadget works wonders to help build strength and relieve pain and tension. Available online at Amazon.com.

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

Timex Fitness Tracker Gets Your Feet Moving

For all those tennis buffs who are into cardio tennis or want to track your steps and calories — Timex has made it a little easier with the sleek Timex Fitness Tracker, which combines a comfortable sports digital watch with a wireless digital transmitter that can help you track your daily activity.

Designed with the runner/walker in mind, this watch works great on the tennis court as well — the Wireless Fitness Tracker’s digital transmitter easily clips to the waist and wirelessly relays information to a fashionable, highly functional Timex Ironman Sleek wristwatch that lets you track your time, steps and calories.

In addition to the Fitness Tracker, the watch features a 50-lap memory recall chronograph with lap, split, speed, pace, distance and total stoppage time; an Indiglo night-light with a Night Mode feature; 3 alarms with daily, weekday, weekend and day-of-week options; two time zones and is water resistant to 50 meters.

This little gadget actually keeps those feet moving and it lets you know when you're not.

For more information go to Timex.com. Available online at Amazon.com.

Add A Little Weight To Your Game With A Pro Trainer WinSock

 Here's a great new tennis gadget that will help you warm up your game quickly, build strength in your hitting arm and help you learn to accelerate the racquet through your shots —the ProTrainer WinSock.

How does it work? Simply slide the weighted trainer on your racquet and start hitting. Yes, you heard that right — unlike other racquet weights, the WinSock stays on your racquet while you hit. 

After hitting for five minutes or so, slide it off and you're ready to play. You'll be loose, warmed up and accelerating the racquet head right through the sweet spot for added power and control on all your shots. 

This patent pending weighted trainer easily slides on and off your racquet, weighs less than 7 ounces and is positioned on your racquet at the center of the balance point. Because you can actually hit with WinSock  trainer on your racquet, you are able to use it during warm-ups and training to both loosen up your arm and build strength which helps you reach maximum performance levels quicker, and hopefully, get that quick edge on your opponent by winning the earlier games of your match.

The WinSock is also the perfect training tool to help you develop faster racquet speed on your shots to put more spin on the ball, quicker reflexes, endurance, strength and control by building strength in the tennis muscles.

There is no doubt about it, this little weighted trainer helps deliver a powerful and reliable swing movement and dramatically improves swing speed and swing mechanics.

The WinSock is a must for any tennis player.

Available online at ptwinsock.com.

Go Green With Watergeeks Filtered Sport Bottle

With a Watergeeks Filtered Sport Bottle you can have fresh, filtered water wherever you play, not to mention making great strides in saving our planet from too many plastic water bottles! Made with food grade, BPA free plastic, this 16 oz. filtered water bottle will treat up to 80 gallons of water, approximately 3 months of use under normal conditions. The level 2 filter removes chlorine, bad taste and odor, as well as a significant proportions of heavy metals, including lead, mercury, and copper. Simply fill bottle with water and drink.

Available online at Watergeeks.

Getting A Jump On The Competition

Boxers have been doing it for years — just check out any Rocky movie and you'll see. But jumping rope also has it advantage for tennis players. It improves agility, speed, rhythm, and timing — all vital elements to the game. What's more, it'll spike both your anaerobic and aerobic levels, so you have the energy to both charge the net and take it to a fifth set.

And now, you can get all those benefits and more with JumpSnap, a ropeless jump-rope that tracks calories burned, the number of jumps, a timer, and has a ‘snap’ sound with each rotation providing the user a rhythm for each jump.

That's right! Get all the undisputed calorie burning and heart-pumping benefits of a traditional jump rope without the interruptions of tripping on the rope. The JumpSnap has two handles, one with an electronic chip inside to record the virtual rotations and the number of calories burned. Once you have programmed in your weight and height, the JumpSnap does the rest. With each rotation, there's a clicking sound that gives the illusion of the rope hitting the ground.

This new super gizmo has been featured in US Weekly as Hollywood's hot new workout and praised by Fitness magazine, Elle Canada and FLARE.

For more information go to jumpsnap.com. Available online at Amazon.com.