Australian Rules footballer Michael Hurley believes that the ease and accessibility of Cardio Tennis is a great way to get people off the couch and leading a healthier lifestyle.

Aussie Rules footballers are some of the fittest elite athletes going around. The demands of the sport require an extraordinary commitment from players to training both on the track and in the gym, in order to get themselves in peak condition for their battles on the football field.

Essendon forward Michael Hurley is no exception. The 21-year-old, who last year finished third in his club’s Best and Fairest, was at Melbourne’s City Square recently to participate in a Cardio Tennis demonstration. He says that with the intensity and focus required to train as an elite footballer, Cardio Tennis was a good option for possibly adding a new element to his training.

“I think you could put it in there. You’d have to make it a touch more vigorous for an elite athlete but I think something like that (would be good) to change it up and get a bit of a sweat up, so it’d be good,” he says.

“I think the boys down at Essendon would love it.”

Tennis is something Hurley has become increasingly familiar with, as both he and teammate Dyson Heppell are currently undertaking a sports management traineeship at Tennis Australia.

Exposed to areas such as high performance training and talent identification and management, as well as Tennis Australia’s various programs for introducing the sport to people of all ages and backgrounds, Hurley says the traineeship is a great opportunity to learn about a different sport and how it’s run.

“It’s quite easy to get caught up in footy and it’s always nice to have something different,” he says.

“The pathway for a tennis player is so different to a football player. (In tennis) they’re identifying kids from around ages six to 10, and they’re almost elite athletes at age 12 … It’s a unique sport, it’s one that I think anyone can play and it’s very enjoyable.”

Unlike tennis’s elite player development pathway, Cardio Tennis is an exercise program open to people of all playing standards and fitness levels.

The accessibility of the program, and the fact that you don’t need a sporting background to enjoy the benefits, is one of the things about Cardio Tennis that appeals to Hurley.

“It’s pretty easy. All you need is a racquet and a ball, so you don’t need much, just a bit of spare time and a few friends together and it’s pretty simple,” he explains.

“I think the aerobic exercise side of things is fantastic. It’s a good way to get people off the couch and into some activity.”

Currently nursing a hamstring injury, Hurley says he’s looking forward to getting fit again and participating in a Cardio Tennis session.

“It looks like a bit of fun,” he says.

“I think Dys (Dyson Heppell) and I will get out when we’re both fit and have a bit of a run around and see how it all works.”

An extraordinary athlete despite a genetic heart condition, aspiring Olympic archer Christian Williams believes Cardio Tennis is an excellent program for shoring up the health of his heart.

Rarely do you see an example of someone determined to succeed and achieve their dreams when facing the most unlikely odds.

This determination is exactly what has characterised the sporting career of 25-year-old Christian Williams, an aspiring Olympic archer training at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS).

Archery was never initially in the plan for Williams, who originally captained Australia’s under-21 Lacrosse team. But after being diagnosed with a genetic heart defect in 2007, he was forced to abandon the sport and navigate a road full of obstacles to arrive where he is today.

Williams suffers from heart failure, causing his heart’s left ventricle to struggle to effectively pump blood around his body. It’s a condition that has given him an irregular heart rate and seen him hospitalised on several occasions.

It’s also stalled his promising pathways as a Victorian representative hammer thrower and a member of the Australian Winter Olympic development team in the luge event, both of which he pursued after giving up lacrosse.

Refusing to relinquish his sporting dreams, he contact Simon Fairweather – individual archery gold medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics and now head archery coach at the AIS – about his options for taking up the sport. After intense testing and trials, was accepted into the AIS program.

Having had corrective surgery in 2007, Williams now enjoys good health and a promising long-term prognosis. But the condition still affects him – Williams missed the trials for the Australian archery team at the 2012 London Olympic because of a stint in hospital.

“I end up in there (hospital) fairly regularly,” he laughed, chatting at a Cardio Tennis demonstration event in Melbourne on 10 May.

It’s this remarkably upbeat attitude that has helped him to get where he is today, despite the constant sporting setbacks and threats to his health. And even though Cardio Tennis represents a challenge for someone with his condition, Williams threw himself into it, despite having no tennis background.

“I had so much fun. Even when I didn’t know what I was doing, the coach was amazing, she showed me what to do and just being in a group environment was fantastic,” he said.

“It’s great because it lets you choose what level you want to (work) at. So even though I can’t catch up with everyone else, there’s an intensity for everyone, which is fantastic.”

With archery requiring a high level of hand-eye coordination, Williams said Cardio Tennis was a great way to hone those skills and incorporate the workout into his routine as a form of cross-training.

Working with kids all over the world who suffer from heart disease, he added that it was important to have programs like Cardio Tennis available as a way of improving cardiovascular health.

“That’s why I love Cardio Tennis, because exercise is the best way to prevent heart disease,” he said.

“I just have to do everything I possibly can to keep my heart working, and something like this (Cardio Tennis) is perfect, because it keeps me alive.

“It’s trying to make exercise fun and it’s something that’s going to save your life. For me that’s critical, and for the people that I work with that’s our reality every day – if we don’t take care of our hearts, they’re going to stop.”

Keep your heart rate monitor clean and hygienic to ensure it performs to its maximum capacity for longer.

Heart rate monitors are a valuable addition to your Cardio Tennis armoury.

They give you an excellent measure of how hard your heart is working during a session, allowing you to increase or decrease the intensity of your workout as needed. They also provide hard and fast measurements like maximum and average heart rate and calories burned, which you can use to assess your performance and monitor your progress over time.

For your heart rate monitor to continue functioning as such a valuable tool, it’s important you keep it clean and hygienic.

Suunto heart rate monitors are the recommended models for Cardio Tennis, and according to Sunnto Brand Manager Sam Robinson, it’s easy to keep them hygienic.

“The fabric strap can be hand-washed in either room temperature or warm water. We don’t recommend putting it in the washing machine,” he says.

“The whole heart rate monitor is water proof, and the wrist-top unit can also be submerged in water, as long as you’re not using detergent. There’s not much else (needed in terms of hygiene steps) beyond washing in water.”

Robinson says that it’s important to wash your heart rate monitor after every Cardio Tennis workout.

“If people have their own device, they can rinse it in the shower, which we recommend,” he explains.

“The benefit of keeping the belt washed is that the contact pads used to pick up your heart rate will work better and last longer, and perform to a higher level.”

For more information on Suunto heart rate devices, visit www.suunto.com/global/en or contact Amer Sports Australia on 1800 651 872.

To celebrate national Heart Week (6-12 May), sports stars and media personalities grabbed a racquet and enjoyed a heart pumping Cardio Tennis workout at Sydney’s Circular Quay.

To celebrate national Heart Week (6-12 May), sports stars and media personalities participated in a Cardio Tennis workout in Sydney today with similar workouts to follow in Melbourne on (10 May) and Brisbane (22 May).

Dual Olympic swimmer - Elka Whalan, 2009 Biggest Looser winner – Sam Rouen, 2011 Biggest Looser runner-up -Leigh Westren and the Editor of Women’s Health Magazine -Felicity Harley, were put through their paces in a fast-paced workout to promote its many health benefits, including a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

“I had a lot of fun today, I met some great people and enjoyed a total body workout,” Westren said.  “Anyone can enjoy Cardio Tennis, even if you’ve never played tennis before.”

The benefits of exercise for heart health have long been recognised.

Professor Garry Jennings, a Cardiologist and Director of the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, says that if we had a pill that did everything exercise did for cardiovascular health, it would be a highly valuable commodity.

“It has been shown that people who exercise regularly live longer, and have less instance of stroke and cardiovascular disease,” he said.

“We see benefits (in people including) lower blood pressure, a better blood fat profile, lesser likelihood of developing diabetes, and lower blood glucose. So there are all sorts of physiological benefits.”

Intense exercise programs such as Cardio Tennis can have wider-reaching health benefits for a healthy heart.

A typical Cardio Tennis session lasts for 60 minutes, with participants using a heart-rate monitor to guide them towards working consistently at 70-90 per cent of their maximum heart rate.

 By being constantly on their toes, put through a variety of drill-based and play-based activities and working out to high-energy music, the results can be impressive for participants – women can burn 300–500 calories in a single session while men can burn over 500–800 calories on average.

Professor Jennings says that the good news is that any form of physical activity is better for cardiovascular health compared to none at all.

“You get benefits that come through (even from) quite light exercise programs … (but) not surprisingly, the more you do in terms of the frequency and intensity of physical activity, the greater the benefit,” he explained.

“We (even) see quite good benefits from exercise programs at about 50-60 per cent max heart rate. There is an incremental benefit if you go to higher levels, but essentially it’s a matter of tailoring the program to the capabilities of the individual.”

Tony Thirlwell, CEO of the Heart Foundation NSW, echoed Professor Jennings sentiments.

“Encouraging all Australians to participate in enough physical activity to gain a health benefits and reduce their risk of heart disease is important,” Mr Thirlwell said.

“Heart disease and stroke kills an Australian every 12 minutes, but physical inactivity is a major health problem in its own right,” he added.“ In general, Australians, in particular those with a desk job, are spending too much of the day sitting and too little moving which increases risk of heart disease.”

Michele Krause could be considered somewhat of a Cardio Tennis guru. The American, based in Sarasota, Florida near the famed Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, has been involved with the program since its inception seven years ago.

Yet her work in the Cardio Tennis field almost never came to be, after her town was hit by a Category 4 hurricane which left her home and tennis club ruined.

“It was a tough time for everyone as so many people lost their houses. I was strongly considering pursuing something outside of tennis when this opportunity presented itself,” she recalls.

“When I read the job description it was the perfect fit for many reasons but mainly because I had taught tennis ‘cardio’ style my entire career. Out of more than 100 applicants, they chose me, and the rest is history.”

It proved a wise move for Krause, as Cardio Tennis, and tennis in general, is enjoying increasing popularity in the United States.

“There are hundreds of stories that focus on how Cardio Tennis has impacted people’s life. For a lot of them the testimony is that they stopped playing tennis for different reasons but Cardio Tennis brought them back,” she says.

“From a numbers standpoint, in the US there are approximately 1.5 million players (doing Cardio Tennis)  … Cardio Tennis beats squash in participants, (which) is significant because squash has been around for over a hundred years.”

Part of Krause’s role in Cardio Tennis is the promotion of the program in countries outside the United States.

Through her work with the TIA – the global owner, operator and manager of Cardio Tennis – she deals directly with tennis federations in several countries to ensure that the Cardio Tennis program is introduced and managed correctly through education, quality control and promotion.

“Our mission is to increase tennis participation and the economic vitality of all stakeholders in the business,” she explains.

“It is my responsibility to ensure that if someone takes a Cardio Tennis class in either Sydney, London or New York, it should be a very similar experience.”

It’s this work that saw Krause come to Melbourne during Australian Open 2012 for the Coaches Conference at Hisense Arena.

There she demonstrated “Super Size”, a Cardio Tennis format featuring between 16 and 36 people on one traditional-sized tennis court. To successfully fit that many people on the one court, the set-up involves having six smaller courts, with four to six people playing on each.

Krause says that one coach could handle up to 24 participants – the ideal number for Super Size – with two coaches needed for larger groups to ensure the highest-level safety, visual demonstration and hearing, and to make sure players keep moving.

“We had 24 participants in the demonstration and the amount of touches that they get on the ball is off the charts. We use the lower compression red ball and modified racquets for safety. The calorie burn is equal to the calorie burn that they would get with traditional cardio tennis that uses eight or 10 people,” she says.

“So I think the Australian coaches are excited to see that and understand that it’s a unique format that they wouldn’t use all the time.  But if they got into that situation where they have a high number of participants they have another option.”

Krause says one of the beauties of Cardio Tennis is its accessibility for people of all fitness and ability levels.

This was evident when she was involved with the 12th season of the Biggest Loser on United States television, which featured former Russian tennis star Anna Kournikova as a trainer.

“We had the opportunity to take the contestants through the paces of a full Cardio Tennis class with Anna Kournikova. People might think that these are Biggest Loser contestants, they weigh 100 pounds, they can barely move, so they won’t be able to do it,” she says.

“But that’s why it’s the perfect product – anybody can do it. You have the modified balls and you work participants to their ability level.”

Geoff “Coxy” Cox, former musician and now television personality, talks about his re-dedication to health and fitness and how Cardio Tennis effectively promotes a healthier lifestyle.

Geoff “Coxy” Cox knows how to live the good life. Rising to fame as the drummer for Brian Cadd and The Little River Band, the Victorian has since turned his pursuits to travel and lifestyle, hosting the Channel 7 program Coxy’s Big Break and giving viewers a taste of the attractions Melbourne and Victoria has to offer.

But a few years ago, that life was threatened by bowel cancer. Following the removal of a tumour and several bouts of chemotherapy, the one-time smoker thankfully survived, and resolved to live more healthily from then on.

“Over the last three or four months as I’ve started to go to the gym three days a week, and I didn’t find it near as hard (as I would have previously),” he reveals.

Part of his moves toward a healthier lifestyle has been playing some tennis.

Coxy recently came to Melbourne Park to take part in a twilight Cardio Tennis session, which aired on Coxy’s Big Break. Under the watchful eye of Cardio Tennis coach Troy Murrell, he was put through his paces along with the rest of the group, and loved the experience.

“It’s so totally different to tennis, but you wonder with the real good boys like Federer and Nadal, they must do a lot of this sort of stuff, because I can’t believe they get out there for five hours and go as hard as they do … it’s staggering,” he says.

“This can only help your fitness. And everyone tells you, if you want to get fit, get your heart-rate up.”

The inclusive, social nature of Cardio Tennis, available to people of all fitness levels and playing standards, was something that impressed Coxy.

Still in the early stages of improving his fitness and describing himself as “rusty as all-get-out” on the tennis court, the Victorian says this had no effect on the value and enjoyment he got out of the session.

“Troy is very aware of where your fitness is. I mean the girls in our group who were pretty fit, he threw the ball a bit shorter (in the court to retrieve) so they had to work a bit harder … and he was always checking your heart-rate,” he says.

 “This bunch (of people) were fantastic … they were all really supportive, and saying ‘yeah, come on, we’ll have a go, you’ll be right’, so I thought the whole social thing was fantastic.”

Coxy believes the program has heaps of benefits and will appeal to a broad range of people.

“Once people start to do it … they’ll be queued up for this, because it’s fun, and it’s social. As long as you don’t go and have 16 beers when you’re finished.”

Coxy’s Big Break stopped by Melbourne Park to swing into shape with Cardio Tennis.

Cardio Tennis has been on offer at Onslow Park Tennis Club (OPTC) in Perth since October 2011, and has fast become one of our most popular programs.

Traditionally our club runs a large junior coaching program but only a small adult program, so to help grow our adult participation, we jumped at the idea of offering Cardio Tennis in the mornings and evenings … and four months on, Cardio Tennis is pumping at OPTC!

As coaches, it’s exciting to run a program that’s completely different from our regular lessons. The music creates a fun and dynamic atmosphere – motivating, making it easy to keep everyone working hard, moving and hitting, throughout the session.

The feedback from our participants indicates they love the variety and social aspects of Cardio Tennis, as well as the high calorie burning workout benefits!

Cardio Tennis has fast became our most popular adult program, with twice as many people regularly participating when compared to our mixed and ladies’ drills and coaching sessions.

It’s important to note that Cardio Tennis is not drawing people away from our existing adult programs; almost all of our Cardio Tennis participants were either completely new customers or players who had participated only occasionally in other sessions.

One word that really sums up our Cardio Tennis experience to date is FUN!

For coaches it adds a new dimension to the weekly schedule, and for the participants it’s a whole new way to get out and enjoy tennis.

Wish you had access to professional equipment for a better-quality workout? Love exercising to music? Want to keep track of the effort you’re putting in? Keen to play tennis without worrying about your skill-level?

Cardio Tennis offers you all of these opportunities, making it a unique fitness program for people of playing abilities and fitness levels.

Heart-rate monitors

These give you a clear measure of exactly how hard you’re working. Cardio Tennis coach Belinda Colaneri says people love this element and that it helps coaches gauge the need to increase or decrease the intensity of the workout for individuals in the group.

“Coaches should ensure everyone is working at 70 to 90 per cent of their max heart rate, and participants can communicate with the coach using a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to show whether or not they’re being worked hard enough,” she says.

“Heart-rate monitors also have a calorie-burning counter, and they itemise how much time your heart has spent in particular zones. If you find that your heart-rate is spending too long in a high zone, it means you probably need to work on your fitness a little bit. As the sessions go on, you should start to see that you spend less time in the high zones.”

You can use heart-rate monitors provided by your Cardio Tennis coach, or bring your own along.

Low compression balls

Tennis Australia’s strength and conditioning coach Aaron Kellett says these slow the pace of the rally and increase participants’ control over their shots. “There’s an increase in rally duration and this helps keep your heart-rate elevated for a longer period,” he says.

Low compression balls come in several different colours, indicating different speeds. This way, the type of ball used can be tailored to your standard, making Cardio Tennis a great activity regardless of your playing ability.

Agility ladders

Several activities are included during the cardio segment of a Cardio Tennis session that ensure your heart-rate is elevated. One is the use of agility ladders, which Kellett says provide a whole host of benefits.

“You’ll experience improvements in your coordination and your speed and agility. You’ll be better able to use the elastic energy in your muscles and tendons for more explosive movements, and it helps with fast-twitch fibre recruitment, also very effective at generating power and speed,” he says.

Colaneri says that while agility ladders are popular, coaches can choose a range of activities – such as push-ups, sit-ups and step-ups – based on what players want. “Whatever the activity, they’re designed to ensure there is no lag time during your session, and to make sure you’re moving constantly,” she says.

Music

Up-tempo music is a feature of Cardio Tennis that helps to fire you up and increase your enjoyment levels when you exercise. “Statistics say that everyone will work 33 per cent harder when they have music,” Colaneri explains.

The music used during a Cardio Tennis session falls between 120 and 150 beats per minute, with faster beats matching the increase in intensity you experience in the cardio segment of a session.