A warmup for Tommy Paulcan start at 9:30 in the morning, and he still might not have an idea on when his actual workday will begin. It’s simply part of life in professional tennis.
Maybe the first match on the schedule will end quickly, or it could turn into a three-hour battle. By the time Paul makes his way from the corridors to the court, he could have spent several hours trying to stay loose, field, engaged, and physically ready without burning energy he’ll need for the match.
Managing that waiting game in a sport where livelihoods depend on explosive movements and split-second reactions is a skill in itself. It’s also the reason why Paul is a stickler to his routine.
He spoke with Muscle & Fitness through his partnership with Celsius, which has become one of the fixtures of both his at-home training schedule and life on the road. When Paul is home, he prefers to get his tennis work done in the morning, eat lunch, and return for fitness in the afternoon.
That second session is often where a long day can catch up with him. Having a consistentasier
“A lot of times I’m dragging by the afternoon if we have a long tennis session,” Paul says. “So, it’s nice to lean on Celsius to give me that pick-me-up right before working out.”
On tour, its value is partly about maintaining something familiar in a lifestyle where nearly everything changes from week to week. Start times move, matches run long, and waiting several hours to play is nothing unusual.
His training has to prepare him for a lot of outcomes. Most importantly, it has to prepare him to repeat that cycle throughout a long season.
Training for the Match You Can’t Predict
There isn’t any way to recreate every physical demand of a five-hour Grand Slam match in training. Paul knows that, so he and his team focus instead on reproducing the stress-and-recovery bursts of effort that make tennis so physically different from traditional endurance sports.
“I think it all starts at home in training,” Paul says. “We bust our ass in training and work very hard. We train very long, especially leading into the Grand Slams; we play three out of five. We could be out there for five hours or more.”
His prep can include nearly four-hour practices followed by an evening fitness session. The goal is to build the physical capacity to a level where a long match doesn’t introduce a level of stress and fatigue that is foreign to the body.
“In the gym, obviously tennis players, we do a lot of running, cutting, a lot of starting and stopping,” Paul says. “So being agile is super important, but also having a strong base.”
A conditioning session for Paul might consist of 40 seconds of hard work on an assault bike, treadmill, stationary bike, or track, followed by 15-20 seconds of recovery. Paul will repeat that sequence up to 10 times before taking a longer break, similar to a changeover between sets.
“I think interval training is very important in our sport,” Paul says. “Long-distance stuff doesn’t really do a whole lot for us because we’re not running nonstop. We have a lot of breaks in tennis.”
Those short breaks in action become part of the skill. Tennis players don’t simply train themselves to tolerate a high heart rate. They also train their bodies to recover quick enough to produce another quality effort.
Fueling and Recovery Begun Before Paul Feels Tired
Paul’s match-day prep starts well before he enters the locker room. Sleep, hydration, and nutrition in the days leading into competition establish the foundation for whatever workload the match eventually demands.
“I think sleep is something under-talked about,” Paul says. “I think people are catching on more and more, but I think that’s super important.”
Hydration becomes an even more important factor in the days before playing, while his evening meals typically include a significant carbr carb. Match-day meals are dedicated by start time. An 11 a.m. match might mean one meal and a snack, while a later start allows for breakfast, a warmup, and a meal before the match
Paul keeps those meals intentionally uncomplicated. It’s usually chicken and rice or plain pasta. It gives him the fuel he needs without introducing food that could create digestive issues once the intensity increases.
“Basically nothing acidic,” he says. nothing that’s going to upset your stomach when you got to do that interval stuff, and when you run hard.”
Recovery is dictated and proportional to the effort extended during a match. If it’s a quick one, Paul might receive treatment, hit the cold tub, sleep, and return to the court the following day for a shorter practice.
If he does go the distance, his next day will be cleared, and he will focus on mobility and flushing his legs. It’s part of training intelligently and making sure his body is capable of performing again when the next match arrives.
Tennis Players Are Strong in a Different Way
If you look at the physique of many tennis players, most people would underestimate the strength they possess. Paul is aware of this misconception.
“What I think is funny is so many people will maybe look at (Alexander) Zverev or (Daniil) Medvedev or (Jannik) Sinner and think that they’re just skinny guys and they don’t hit the weight room, and they’re not strong,” Paul says. “Those dudes are strong in a different way than you would assume.”
For tennis players, lower-body strength is needed to repeatedly accelerate and stop their own momentum, along with the balance and core control necessary to strike effectively from compromised positions. Those qualities become even more valuable as fatigue builds and maintaining clean mechanics becomes increasingly difficult.
There is also the mental component of the sport. Tennis leaves players along with their mistakes, and a poor point can quickly turn into a bad game or set if a player doesn’t move forward immediately.
Paul estimates that tennis is “90 percent mental.” He believes the best players develop ways to interrupt that spiral before it begins.
“The best players in the world have routines and have cue words in their heads that they say in certain situations to get them back in the zone, to lock back in for this next point,” he says.
It’s that ability to reset that is vital across a long season filled with travel, different surfaces, changing schedules, and weeks away from the comfort of home. Paul says surrounding himself with people he enjoys and always having a specific goal to work toward helps him keep the tour from becoming a dread.
When asked what an everyday athlete could burrow from his preparation, he comes back to the habit that helps hold everything else together.
“Routine is everything,” Paul says. “Finding your routine, getting a good routine first, I guess, and then sticking to it. I think it’s hard to be consistent when you’re not training consistently.”
Tommy Paul-Inspired Tennis Conditioning Workout
Total time: 30–40 minutes
Equipment: Dumbbells/kettlebell, resistance band, cardio machine, or running space
Warmup: 5 Minutes
Complete two rounds of lateral shuffles for 30 seconds, 10 bodyweight squats, six reverse lunges per leg, 15 band pull-aparts, and 30 seconds of high knees. Keep the pace controlled and focus on gradually increasing your range of motion.
Strength and Stability Circuit: 10–12 Minutes
- Goblet squat: 10 reps
- Reverse lunge: 8 reps (each leg)
- One-arm dumbbell row: 10 reps (each side)
- Pushups: 10–15 reps
- Plank shoulder taps: 20 reps (each side)
- Lateral skater bounds: 8 reps (each side)
Rest 45 seconds between rounds. Paul describes elite tennis players as being “strong in a different way,” with powerful bases, excellent balance, and extremely strong cores rather than simply carrying more muscle.
Tennis Point Intervals: 10 Minutes
Choose an Assault bike, treadmill, rower, stationary bike, or open running area. Perform 40 seconds of hard work followed by 20 seconds of easy recovery for eight rounds, then rest for two minutes.
Paul uses similar intervals to replicate long tennis points and train his heart rate to drop quickly during short breaks. “You’ve got to know how to get your heart rate back down in between every point,” he says.
Core and Mobility: 5–8 Minutes
Complete two rounds of 10 dead bugs per side, 30-second side planks, 10 Pallof presses per side, and 30-second hip-flexor stretches. Move slowly and treat this section as both training and recovery.
Paul’s biggest takeaway for everyday athletes is simple: Routine matters more than the occasional brutal session. Build a program you can repeat consistently rather than one that leaves you unable to train again.
