Fitness Workout for Table Tennis

[SleepyMaster]

i think some understated benefits of additional exercise for table tennis are increased endurance for long tournament days/weekends, injury prevention, and addressing the imbalances created from playing a highly-repetitive game centered around a dominant hand/side.

some grouping/variations of push ups, pull ups, squats would make a difference for many people who don't do these exercises and benefits transfer over to everyday life.

i think riding a bike is beneficial and easier on the body to incorporate into a routine than running for example. jumprope/agility ladder also good imo.

always an argument over how much strength is needed for the game, but I don't think the overall benefits should even be a question, only the opportunity cost of time/training compared to more table time/practice when planning a routine

For a tt you don’t need a lot of strength training, if your main sport is tt. So better keep most accent on that

Two times a week full body (or split them to one lower body/one upper body) - short trainings for about 30 min each, going 50-70% of your max on those, not overdoing and over complicating on them. This should be enough for 99% of people

 

[Tiz]

Anders Lind has a good video about exercises for table tennis

 

[ToH]

The excellent channel PechPong tt got a nice vid about it to.

 

[riemsesy]

You can train without becoming a bodybuilder.
Just keep your reps high.
You need a specific range of repetition to stimulate hypertrophy and weight.

So when you want to train for endurance just do more repitions per set.

You can also do some plyometric exercises for explosiveness.

Don’t forget to stretch all body muscles too. That’s a workout on own.

 

[kase]

It would be irresponsible for me to advise you on what to do without knowing your current physical shape and limitations. I suggest consulting a personal trainer. Unfortunately, I've seen ludicrous recommendations posted on other forums, eg: advising an older overweight player to start with high impact plyometrics. It's a great way to get injured.

I will tell you my routine and you can do your own research.

At least 1x per week, sometimes 2x I will do a leg workout. I have a sedentary job which makes me more calf / quad dominant than I should be, so my workout is focused more on the posterior chain. This involves (2 or 3 sets, with a multi-second hold at peak contraction):

Squats with a light bar. After 2x sets I can feel my range of motion really improving.
Bulgarian split squats.
Hip Thrusts with a bar.
Leg extensions - I do high weight and low reps to focus on tendon conditioning (to prevent patellar tendonitis).
5 min core workout.
Lateral band walk with the band around my feet. Having the band around the feet instead of the thighs means that I am also working on ankle eversion in addition to glute minimus.
Closed loop exercise for glute activation, don't know what it's called (see

)
Cross trainer for 30 mins with my heart rate at least 85% of my max.

Sometimes I also do some of these with my heel off the ground, which makes it a bit more athletic and game-like. I also sometimes incorporate other single leg exercises like lunges, pogo hops or skipping. I should be doing lunges in different planes too, but I run out of time.

I also try to do a quick, basic upper body workout at least once per week. It does help with table tennis, because the tendons become more elastic and able to transfer energy more efficiently. I feel that the muscles are more naturally 'activated' too, even in their resting state. The bat is attached to your hand, so energy needs to be transferred from the feet all the way up the chain to the fingers.

I also try to do a 2 - 6 km run once per week. However if I'm playing a lot, I may need fresh legs, so I may skip this and do the above workout only once per week, as I can't recovery quickly enough.