Friday, December 4, 2009

Tennis transformation

For the past 5-6 months I have been playing 3-4 tennis matches a week. And while I have noticed exciting improvements in my game, I have also noticed changes in my body. I have lost weight. I try to eat more calories to compensate for those that I burn. I sometimes purposely eat fatty and sugary foods, like a snickers bar right before I go play. But the pounds continue to come off. Taking a look at my body it seems that most of this is muscle weight. My shoulders, chest, and arms have gotten smaller. I guess this is normal since I will often play tennis in lieu of lifting weights for my after-work exercise activity. The reason I haven't been doing both anymore is because of shoulder pain. I'm pretty sure its just tendinitis. It doesn't hurt except when I try to stretch my shoulder behind me (the motion you would use to do a butterfly press) So that has made weight lifting difficult since the inflammation in my shoulder really limits my motion under resistance.

So, I have gotten kind of scrawny. I am just under 6 feet tall, and I weighed in at 155 lbs last week. I have to agree with most folks...that is too thin.

I guess the only thing to do if I want to re-gain muscle mass, is to curtail the tennis until the shoulder heals... and then start lifting weights again. Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm not a fitness professional or a doctor... so I am just going with what seems to be common sense here. But perhaps there is an option I am not seeing.