Fitness

The nine golden rules for strength training in midlife, according to experts

Published

5 months ago

February 8, 2026

The nine golden rules for strength training in midlife, according to experts

NHS guidelines encourage adults aged 19-64 to complete two-and-a-half hours of exercise per week, or a bit less if it’s more intense, alongside a couple of “strengthening activities”. But exercising at 19 tends to feel very different to exercising at 64.

Not only do your social, work and family commitments mount up as you advance through life, but your ability to recover from intense exercise also reduces. Yet the benefits of exercise, and strength training in particular, become more valuable the older you get for injury prevention, freedom of movement, and heart health.

Patrick James, head coach at Marchon Victoria gym, understands this better than most. Despite more than a decade of experience working as a coach, he counts persuading his mum to lift weights as one of his top achievements to date.

“She’s 67, and always felt that if she walked regularly and did the gardening, she didn’t need to do it,” he says. “But if you want to walk up the stairs and get out of a chair in 10 years’ time, you need to strengthen your legs.”

It started with a simple twice-weekly bodyweight circuit; kneeling press-ups off the sofa, squatting to a chair, rows with a weight in the garden and single-leg hip thrusts. Now she is the proud owner of three different kettlebells and completes four or more home workouts each week.

“She can feel the benefits of it now – that rush of endorphins, feeling healthier and feeling stronger,” James says.

Those aged 50 and up can experience similar results sans gym, with just a couple of weekly workouts, he adds. This approach maximises the juice-to-squeeze ratio of your exercise efforts.

Here are his tips on how to maximise your workout.

Tip 1: Consider your exercise choice

“In your younger years, you can afford to train poorly and get away with it,” James says. “As you get older, moving towards your 50s, 60s and 70s, you can’t. Whether through hormones or your body’s ability to synthesise protein, the rate at which your body can adapt and recover from exercise slows down.”

But this doesn’t mean you should stop exercising – quite the opposite. James’s solution is to box smart.

“I can’t train my 65-year-old client the same way a bodybuilder in their 20s trains,” he explains. “He might have played rugby back in the day and now he has very little cartilage in his knees, so it hurts to do a heavy back squat, so I have to find an exercise or variation that allows him to train the same muscles without it being painful.”

For example, instead of heavy barbell squats, James might prescribe goblet squats to a box, reducing the range of motion to one that is comfortable for the client.

Tip 2: Lift lighter weights for more repetitions

Lowering the weight you’re lifting and the number of repetitions you’re lifting it for can reduce pressure on certain joints and minimise discomfort during strength training workouts.

“Heavier strength training – lifting a heavy weight for five repetitions or less – will put a bit more pressure through the joints,” James says. “You can get a similar stimulus for building muscle and maintaining strength from lifting lighter weights for 10-20 reps.”

For example, you might substitute the five sets of five heavy barbell squats mentioned above for three sets of 10-20 goblet squats to a box.

“The intensity will be a little bit lower, but you’ll still get a great stimulus to develop muscle and build a stronger body,” says James. “And for most people, the joints will feel better through doing some strength training, if they build it up gradually.”

The key is to start with lighter weights and exercises with smaller ranges of motion, then progress over time.

A gym isn’t a prerequisite for making impressive fitness progress (Getty/iStock)

Tip 3: Challenge yourself

There does have to be an element of challenge in a strength training exercise to ensure it’s effective for building strength and muscle, James says.

“We don’t need to be training to failure [the point where your muscles are too tired to complete another repetition] on every set, as someone in our 50s or 60s,” he explains. “We just want to make sure the sets we do are somewhat challenging so we can create a good stimulus for muscle growth. If we can do that consistently, then, over time, we are going to get stronger.”

Take a “little and often” approach and aim to hit major muscle groups in the legs, glutes, back, chest and shoulders twice a week.

Swap high-load, low-rep exercises for lighter weights lifted for more repetitions to reduce stress on your joints while still building strength and muscle (Getty/iStock)

Tip 4: Embrace the full-body workout to maximise efficiency

Rather than focusing on a single muscle each session, James recommends doing full-body workouts two or three times per week.

“For building muscle, we know that one set done three times per week is better than three sets done once per week,” he explains, adding that the more you work a certain muscle and movement pattern on any given day, the more it will take out of you. The quality of the exercise will also decrease as you tire, leading to diminishing returns.

By spreading each muscle’s workload through the week, you can keep your body feeling fairly fresh and ready for the rigours of daily life – as well as your next workout.

Tip 5: Get your priorities straight

Six to 10 sets per week for each major muscle group should be sufficient to build muscle for most people, James says. If you want to focus on developing a certain area, you might add a couple of extra weekly sets or exercises that target those muscles.

“You want to prioritise the big muscles in your sessions – these are usually working in the compound or multi-muscle exercises you can lift more weight with,” he says. “In the lower body, aim to hit the quads, glutes and hamstrings. In the upper body, there are the pecs in the chest, the lats in the back and the delts of the shoulder.”

Prioritise multi-muscle compound exercises like squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows and presses to ensure bang for your buck from your workouts (Getty/iStock)

Tip 6: Progressive overload is essential for continued results

The body adapts to get better at the things we consistently ask it to do, so strength training can be seen as a conversation with our muscles.

Every time we lift weights, we are telling our body that we want to become stronger. If we make a strong enough case, doing sufficiently challenging exercises, then over time it will adapt by bolstering our bones, tendons, ligaments and muscles.

This is why we have to apply progressive overload: the process of gradually increasing the difficulty of our workouts over time, in line with our increasing strength and fitness levels. You need to increase the weight, up the number of sets and repetitions, or switch to a more challenging exercise variation, relative to your rising strength level, to send the body a clear message that you want to continue to grow stronger, rather than just maintain what you have or lose muscle.

Tip 7: Find low-impact ways to raise your heart rate

If you are new to exercise, James advises opting for a lower-impact form of cardio – for example, using exercise machines such as exercise bikes, rowing machines and ellipticals, which make it easy to get your heart rate up with a low risk of injury.

Using these machines once or twice a week to get a bit out of breath can deliver plenty of health benefits, including improved heart health and reduced risk of several major illnesses.

These more intense activities should also be underlined by a healthy dose of daily movement – “Aerobic activities such as longer walks.”

Tip 9: Put enjoyment first

Enjoyment is the most important, and most overlooked, tenet of a successful exercise plan. You could have a scientifically-optimised training plan for building muscle, but if you don’t follow it because you don’t enjoy it, it’s going to be redundant, James says.

“It’s about finding a plan that someone can adhere to, enjoy and be consistent with,” he says. “And if you’re consistent, you’ll most likely see results.”

Enjoyment can ensure you stick to an exercise plan – and consistency is the key to success (Getty/iStock)

The four-move workout

This is a beginner workout with minimal equipment, which works the main muscle groups of your upper and lower body and should take no more than 30 minutes. Do three sets of 10-20 repetitions of each exercise, and repeat two to four times per week.

The aim is to perform at least 10 repetitions in every set, while using a weight challenging enough that you cannot easily lift it for 20 repetitions.

“As you start to adapt to the training and become familiar with the movements, try to either increase the weight or number of reps.”

If you don’t own any weights, a filled water bottle or rucksack can be used instead, but James recommends investing in a couple of dumbbells or kettlebells to broaden your exercise horizons if you’re training at home.

“You can get a set of kettlebells for around 20 quid,” he says. “Start with a 5kg and 10kg weight, and as you get stronger, you can buy heavier options.”

Exercise 1: Squat to chair or sofa

Sets: 3 Reps: 10-20 Rest: 90 seconds

Coach’s notes:

If you are not using a weight, hold your arms out straight in front of you
If you are using a weight, hold it against your chest in the goblet position
Place your feet just outside hip-width apart with your toes turned out slightly
Take a big breath in and hold it as if someone were going to punch you in the belly
Take two seconds to lower your bum to the chair in a smooth, controlled motion
When it touches the chair, stand back upright, breathing out as you do so
Keep your eyes looking straight ahead with your chest upright throughout the movement
Over time, you can make this exercise more challenging by increasing the depth of the squat or by increasing the weight or reps

Exercise 2: Romanian deadlift

Sets: 3 Reps: 10-20 Rest: 90 seconds

Coach’s notes:

Hold the weight in front of your thighs in both hands with your arms straight and relaxed
Place your feet hip-width apart with your toes pointing straight ahead
Take a big breath in at the start of the rep
Bend your knees slightly, then keep them in this position throughout the exercise – this is important for preventing you from using your lower back rather than your lower body muscles
Lower the weight in a straight line toward the ground by hinging at your hips, keeping it close to the front of your legs throughout
As you do this, think about pushing your hips back horizontally as if you are closing the fridge door with your bum
At the same time, let your shoulders come forward like you are looking over a cliff
Stop when the weight reaches the middle of your shin, then stand back up
Your back should remain in a relatively straight position the whole time

Exercise 3: Press-up to chair or sofa

Sets: 3 Reps: 10-20 Rest: 90 seconds

Coach’s notes:

Find a chair, sofa or another sturdy raised surface to press up from. This makes the exercise slightly less challenging than a standard press-up – the higher the surface, the easier the exercise will feel, so you can progress to lower surfaces over time to make the exercise more difficult
Place your hands on the surface, just outside shoulder-width apart
Keep your bum squeezed and hips forward so that your torso and hips stay in one line
Bend at the elbows to lower your torso until your chest touches the chair or sofa, then press through your hands to return to the starting position
Start on your knees, and over time, you can progress to your feet as you get stronger

Exercise 4: Single-arm row

Sets: 3 Reps: 10-20 Rest: 90 seconds

Coach’s notes:

Support yourself on the back of a chair or sofa with one arm while you hold the weight in the other hand
Keep your back flat and your torso roughly parallel to the ground
As you row, think about pulling your elbow towards your trouser pocket rather than pulling the weight straight up to your chest
Finish the rep with the weight at the bottom of your ribcage, then slowly lower it back toward the ground until your arm is straight

Fitness

Why 21-15-9 Might be the Smartest Workout Format in Fitness – and How to Use it to Drive Muscle Growth

Published

8 hours ago

July 5, 2026

Press Room

Why 21-15-9 Might be the Smartest Workout Format in Fitness – and How to Use it to Drive Muscle Growth

CrossFit means a lot of things to a lot of people – because it’s made up of a lot of things.

Since the rise of the fitness giant, countless brands, events and training methods have sprung up around it – not claiming to be CrossFit, but looking suspiciously CrossFit-esque.

There are, however, a handful of things that are uniquely CrossFit: the ‘Girls’ benchmark workouts. The Hero WODs and, of course, its signature rep schemes.

Chief among them is ’21-15-9′.

The 21-15-9 rep scheme may just be the single most CrossFit thing in existence. But what exactly is it? Where did it come from? And why might it actually be better at building muscle in a hurry than its conditioning roots would have you believe?

Let’s have a look.

What Is 21-15-9?

If you’ve never encountered it before, the format couldn’t be simpler. Choose two exercises (occasionally more) and perform 21 reps of each, then 15 reps of each, then nine reps of each, completing the entire workout as quickly as possible – with good form.

Probably the best-known example is ‘Fran’: 21 thrusters and pull-ups, followed by 15 of each, then nine. On paper it doesn’t look especially intimidating. In practice, it’s one of the most feared benchmark workouts in fitness.

Where Did it Come From?

Unlike many modern training methods, 21-15-9 didn’t come out of a study. It came from the gym floor.

CrossFit founder Greg Glassman has explained that the format emerged through years of coaching and experimentation in the 1990s. Rather than chasing a perfect sets-and-reps prescription, he was looking for a workout that allowed athletes to maintain a high power output from start to finish.

The thinking is surprisingly elegant. You begin with 21 reps while fresh. By the time you reach the set of 15, your ability to produce force has already fallen. By the final nine, you’re significantly more fatigued – but the workload has dropped by almost the same amount.

Instead of grinding through increasingly miserable sets of the same length, the workout ‘meets you where you are’, reducing the work required as your capacity declines. The result is a workout that encourages you to keep moving instead of standing around trying to recover.

The numbers themselves are also remarkably practical. Forty-five total reps per movement provides plenty of training volume without turning the session into an endurance slog, while every set divides neatly into thirds if you need to break it up.

(Although I’ve got to be honest, I’m a 20-15-10-5 man myself, just for the sake of round numbers.)

Why Does it Work So Well?

Although there isn’t research showing that 21-15-9 is somehow the magic formula, there are obvious reasons why it consistently produces brutally effective workouts.

Descending reps help maintain intensity. As fatigue accumulates, reducing the target allows movement quality, bar speed and overall work rate to stay higher than they would if you simply repeated the same number of reps over and over.

It also tends to land in a physiological sweet spot. Most 21-15-9 workouts take between three and eight minutes, depending on the movements and the athlete. That’s long enough to create a serious cardiovascular challenge while still requiring meaningful force production throughout. You’re taxing your anaerobic systems hard while relying on your aerobic system to help you recover just enough to keep going.

Finally, there’s the psychological trick. The hardest-looking part comes first. Once you’ve survived the opening 21, every remaining round appears more manageable. ‘Only 15 left.’ Then, ‘Just nine.’ In reality, you’re becoming more fatigued with every rep, but the shrinking target keeps you attacking the workout instead of pacing too conservatively.

Why it Might be Surprisingly Good for Building Muscle

Perhaps the biggest misconception about 21-15-9 is that it’s ‘just cardio with weights’.

Choose the right load and something interesting happens. Very few athletes complete every round unbroken. Instead, the workout naturally evolves into a series of short, broken sets separated by only a few seconds of rest.

Your 21 might become 11-5-5. Your 15 becomes 8-4-3. Your final nine might stay unbroken – or become 5-4.

In effect, you’ve accidentally turned the workout into a form of rest-pause training.

Those brief pauses allow just enough recovery to squeeze out more high-quality repetitions before fatigue catches up again. By the latter stages of each mini-set, you’re repeatedly working very close to failure, recruiting the high-threshold motor units with the greatest potential for muscle growth.

It’s a similar principle to rest-pause training, myo-reps and cluster sets: all methods used to accumulate hypertrophy-friendly volume while keeping the load relatively heavy and the rest periods brutally short.

You’re basically speed-running a large number of hard, growth-stimulating reps in a very small window of time. Could this help explain why elite CrossFit athletes often carry an impressive amount of muscle despite spending relatively little time performing traditional bodybuilding splits?

It’s certainly plausible, although the ‘elite’ part often selects for athletes with the greatest muscle-building potential.

Much of their training isn’t simply conditioning. It’s high-density resistance training performed under accumulating fatigue, with only fleeting recovery between efforts. In other words, they’re often doing something bodybuilders have deliberately programmed for decades: packing a lot of hard work into a very short period of time.

That’s not to say 21-15-9 is superior to a well-designed hypertrophy programme. If your sole goal is building muscle, there are more efficient ways to do it.

But if you’re looking for a workout that develops fitness, tests your mettle and still provides a meaningful stimulus for strength and size, it’s easy to see why this deceptively simple rep scheme has remained one of CrossFit’s defining fingerprints for more than 20 years.

Best Bodyweight 21-15-9 Workout: ‘JT’

If you’re looking for an interesting twist on the 21-15-9 format, look no further than Hero WOD ‘JT’, which concentrates the muscle-building potential of the format into a brutal upper-body workout.

Created in honour of Petty Officer 1st Class Jeff Taylor, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2006, the workout strips away barbells altogether and relies solely on three bodyweight movements:

21-15-9 reps of:

Don’t let the lack of equipment fool you. The volume – 45 reps of each movement, 135 reps in total – combined with the descending rep scheme makes this a brutal upper-body test, hammering the shoulders, chest and triceps while demanding serious muscular endurance.

Better still, it perfectly demonstrates one of the biggest strengths of 21-15-9. As fatigue mounts and the sets naturally fragment, the workout begins to resemble one giant rest-pause set, allowing you to accumulate a huge number of hard, near-failure reps in less than 10 minutes.

If your goal is building an impressive upper body while developing serious work capacity, there are few bodyweight workouts that deliver quite so much bang for your buck, making ‘JT’ one of my personal favourites.

fitness magazine cover featuring a muscular man with kettlebells

If there’s one thing Kori Sampson knows, it’s how to optimise your body composition for performance. To tap into his knowledge as an elite athlete and coach, we asked him to create a 4-week plan to help you move faster, recover quicker and keep pushing when the fatigue sets in – all while improving your muscle-to-fat ratio.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

Fitness

10 minutes of swimming might not sound worth it – but I tried it for 2 weeks and found the benefits of a quick dip

Published

18 hours ago

July 4, 2026

Press Room

10 minutes of swimming might not sound worth it – but I tried it for 2 weeks and found the benefits of a quick dip

The concept of ‘exercise snacking’ has never been more popular. Not only is it convenient and accessible, but there is solid scientific evidence that short bursts of physical activity can yield real benefits for our health. But can a swimming workout be an effective ‘exercise snack’?

A study published in the European Heart Journal found that just 15 to 20 minutes of vigorous physical activity a week (almost as low as two minutes a day) was enough to significantly lower the risk of heart disease, cancer and early death. The study defined vigorous activity as any exercise that leaves you out of breath and raises your heart rate, including swimming.

But does ‘exercise snacking’ really work in the pool? Unlike a short run, walk, or online workout at home, going for a swim requires a bit of effort beyond the swim itself, so we often want to spend longer in the pool to make the most of it. However, head of swim for David Lloyd Clubs, Nuala Muir-Cochrane, believes short swims are worth it: “If you only have 10 minutes, consistency matters more than volume. Even two or three short swims per week can improve swim fitness noticeably,” she says.

With that in mind, I added some 10-minute swims to my routine of strength training and yoga workouts for two weeks to see if it made any difference to my health and fitness. Here’s what I discovered, plus what experts told me about optimising a short swim to either energise, recover or relax.

Benefits of 10-minute swimming workouts

1. Aids muscle recovery

To make the most of my short pool sessions, I often paired them with a gym visit, realising that I’ll need a post-workout shower anyway, so I may as well take a dip first. According to Francesca Bagshaw, performance physiologist at Nuffield Health’s Manchester Institute of Health and Performance, a short swim is perfect for recovering after the gym, a run or exercise class because it combines low-impact movement with increased circulation.

“After a hard session, muscles can feel stiff and fatigued due to microscopic muscle damage, inflammation and metabolite build-up,” she explains. “Gentle swimming helps stimulate blood flow without placing additional mechanical stress on joints and muscles,” Francesca recommends keeping the intensity low to moderate if recovery is your goal, to promote mobility, relaxation and circulation, without additional fatigue.

Samantha Russo, master swim coach for Virgin Active, adds, “In the pool, the water holds most of your bodyweight, so your joints get a break, but your muscles are still working gently through a big range of motion. Because water gives soft resistance in every direction, an easy swim is like active stretching with a built-in massage for the muscles, so you loosen up rather than lock up.”

2. Supports muscle building

Water is around 800 times denser than air, making swimming (or any movement in water) an effective resistance workout. Your muscles need to work harder to propel the body through the water, and multiple muscle groups will be involved, including those in your arms, legs, back and core.

My fortnight of short swims probably didn’t help me gain muscle – the resistance of the water never changes, so practising progressive overload (gradually increasing the weight, as I can in the gym) isn’t possible. I would have to either increase my speed, distance or duration to do this. But I felt that my short swims did support gains from strength training in the gym. Maintaining muscle has been useful for staying strong, not just for my gym workouts, but also for my yoga classes and occasional run.

10 minutes might not seem like a long time, but if you’re headed for the shower anyway, why not throw in a quick workout?

(Image credit: Kerry Law / Future)

3. Boosts energy levels

While it isn’t my preferred timeslot, I would sometimes schedule a short, pacier swim in the morning to boost my mental and physical energy before work. If you prefer morning workouts, you might find that adding a short, fast swim after the gym or an exercise class will energise you for the day ahead.

Samantha is a fan of morning swims: “In the morning, your circulation and nervous system are still in ‘low power mode’, and a short swim acts like a full-body wake-up call,” she says. “The cold water stimulates your skin and nerves, your breathing and heart rate increase, and more oxygen-rich blood is pushed to your brain and muscles. That mix of oxygen, movement and endorphins clears brain fog and lifts your mood far better than a cup of coffee.”

Francesca adds, “For best results, morning swims should be kept relatively short and refreshing rather than exhaustive, particularly before work or further training later in the day.”

4. Lowers stress levels

Much has been discovered about the effects of immersion in water, and how it can induce an ultra-calming ‘blue mind’ state. This is partly why I favour an evening swim, not just to avoid the busiest times at the pool, but to lower my cortisol levels and put a full stop to the day. This can have a calming effect on the nervous system, explains Francesca.

“Steady, rhythmic swimming encourages controlled breathing patterns and can help shift the body toward a more parasympathetic, ‘rest and digest’, state. This reduces physiological arousal and can lower stress levels after a busy day,” she says.

“Warm or temperate water can reduce muscle tension and promote peripheral vasodilation [widening of the blood vessels], helping the body feel physically calmer. The repetitive nature of swimming has a meditative effect for many people, supporting mental decompression and reduced cognitive stress.”

Samantha adds that some may find evening swims contribute to a better night’s sleep: “Your core body temperature rises slightly in the water, then drops as you shower and dry off, and that drop is a natural signal to your brain that it’s time for bed.”

5. Burns calories

The number of calories you burn during a swim will depend on various factors, including the duration, distance, intensity and your bodyweight. For example, according to Harvard Medical School data, someone who weighs 155lb could expect to burn approximately 200 calories over a 30-minute low-intensity swim, rising to 360 calories for a high-intensity 30-minute swim.

Just 10 minutes of swimming will amount to a third of that calorie burn, but the ‘afterburn’ – or excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) – may help burn a few more. The ‘afterburn’ concept suggests that we consume more oxygen to help our bodies restore and repair following intense exercise, essentially burning calories at a greater rate. However, research suggests this amounts to just a handful of extra calories burnt.

However, I can be confident that spending an extra 10 minutes swimming in the evening burns more calories than my alternative (usually sitting on the sofa watching TV). It’s the same for a 10-minute walking workout.

10-minute swimming workouts to try

Multi-stroke sprint swimming workout

Nuala recommends this swim workout for beginner-intermediate level swimmers. “It improves cardiovascular fitness without the need for a long session, while using different muscle groups through the stroke changes. The easy swim at the end helps recovery and reduces stiffness,” she says.

How to do it:

For the first five minutes, alternate between front crawl, breaststroke and backstroke for one length each.
On every fourth length, sprint at your near maximum effort. Maintain controlled technique even when swimming faster.
For the final five minutes, cool down with gentle continuous swimming with whichever stroke feels most relaxed. Focus on long strokes with steady breathing and low effort.

Maintaining form is crucial, says Nuala: “For front crawl, keep your head still and look slightly downward rather than forwards; in breaststroke, glide briefly after each kick rather than rushing the strokes; and for backstroke, keep your hips high and do small continuous kicks.”

Varied swimming workout

Cheryl Pottinger, swim teacher for Better, suggests this 10 minute routine which goes up and down the speed scale over 300m (in a standard 25m pool).

How to do it:

Warm up with one length of front crawl, followed by one length of breaststroke at normal pace.
For your main set, swim front crawl with a 10 second rest after each practice, starting with one length at your maximum speed.
Follow it with two lengths at 80% of your maximum speed.
Shift down a gear for the next three lengths at normal pace.
Swim the next two lengths at 80% of your maximum speed.
Finish this section with one length at maximum speed.
Cool down with one length in a stroke of your choice at normal pace.

Recovery swim

As a gentle short swim to aid relaxation after a gym session, Cheryl recommends this sequence. It incorporates the lesser known side stroke, which is relaxed, energy efficient and builds core stability as it forces your midsection to engage as you balance on one side.

How to do it:

Warm up with one length of front crawl and one length of breaststroke at a relaxed pace.
Swim the next two lengths in side stroke, one length on the right side and one on the left. This stroke requires balancing on one side of the body, reaching forward with one arm while the other pulls back, and scissor kicking the legs. “Focus on the power in the muscles during the pull and kick, and the stretching of the muscles during the glide,” says Cheryl. Watch a demo here.
Finish with one length of steady-paced breaststroke, and a final length of head-first sculling (lie on your back using your arms to propel you backwards).

Tips for making the most of a 10-minute swimming workout

Make it your post-gym habit: All the effort involved in travelling to and from the pool, let alone changing in and out of clothes, may not feel worth it for just 10 minutes in the pool. So, I often tacked it onto the end of my regular gym session. If your gym has a pool, make the most of it and view it as part of your workout ‘cool down’ and recovery before showering and heading home.
Tailor your swim to the time of day: There are still benefits to be had if you take a relaxing swim in the morning, or a higher intensity swim in the evening, but you might be working against your energy levels. As Francesca recommends, a pacier swim early in the day can boost alertness, while a lighter intensity swim in the evening can aid post-workout recovery and sleep.
Choose quieter pool times: This goes for however long you wish to spend swimming, but having a lane all to yourself allows you to follow a plan without compromise. I find evenings are best for me but check your local pool timetable to avoid sharing space with unexpected aqua aerobic classes or school swimming lessons.
Bring a poolside kit bag: With just 10 minutes in the pool, you don’t have time to keep nipping back to your locker to fetch forgotten kit. Have a small kit bag pre-packed with anything you might need (think spare hairclips and hairbands, anti-fog goggle spray, kickboard and pull buoy if you’re using them), and keep it at the end of your lane (make sure it isn’t a trip hazard).

Fitness

The Fitness Secrets of Wimbledon’s Top Tennis Pros

Published

1 day ago

July 4, 2026

Press Room

The Fitness Secrets of Wimbledon’s Top Tennis Pros

While many of us are far from becoming top-ranked athletes, there’s plenty to learn from the pros when it comes to optimising our health and fitness. From Janik Sinnner’s muscle-building techniques to Novak Djokovic’s devotion to longevity, dig into these tennis pros’ secrets for peak performance.

Joris Verwijst/BSR Agency//Getty Images

CARLOS ALCARAZ

Fitness Game Changer:

Sand Footwork Drills

Any pro tennis player has to play with agility, but Alcaraz can move. To do so at a high level, the 21-year-old performs lateral movement drills in the sand, teaching his feet to drive up from an unstable surface. This can help prevent ankle injuries and build strength in his calves and shin muscles.

Jose Breton/Pics Action/NurPhoto//Getty Images

JANNIK SINNER

Fitness Game Changer:

Landmine Rotations

Sinner has historically lacked the physical prowess of his competitors, so the 23-year-old has gone all in on strength and mobility work. He does landmine rotational exercises such as the hollow body landmine press, which builds upper-body power.

Lintao Zhang//Getty Images

NOVAK DJOKOVIC

Fitness Game Changer:

Devotion to Longevity

He’s been around this long for a reason. Djokovic, 37, eliminated gluten and dairy from his diet, started practising mindfulness techniques like conscious breathing and visualisation, and even brought a hyperbaric chamber to the 2019 US Open.

Cameron Spencer//Getty Images

BEN SHELTON

Fitness Game Changer:

Explosive Strength Moves

Known for his consistently fast serves, Shelton, 22, relies on single-leg training, using dumbbells to do lateral lunges, step-ups, and even Bulgarian split squats. He focuses on exploding upward on every rep so he’s ready to attack the ball on each serve.

Darrian Traynor//Getty Images

FRANCES TIAFOE

Fitness Game Changer:

Overcoming Isometrics

Tiafoe spent last off-season doing overcoming isometrics: exercises that force the 27-year-old to hold a position against a load he can’t move. This aids in boosting power and strength and can improve joint health.

Ready to build muscle, burn fat and come out the other side looking, feeling and performing better? Click here to get 14 days of free access to the plan via the Men’s Health app.

Andrew Gutman, NASM-CPT is a journalist with a decade of experience covering fitness and nutrition. His work has been published in Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Muscle & Fitness, and Gear Patrol. Outside of writing, Andrew trains in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, helps coach his gym’s kickboxing team, and enjoys reading and cooking.