1. Selecting exercises: For basic strength training, which you probably need at this point, you should select one exercise for each muscle group. This will maintain your muscle balance. Also, select one or two multi-joint movement exercises, especially for major muscle groups, such as Legs, Chest, and Shoulders. Lunges (Figure 1) are examples of multi-joint exercises that are great way to develop tennis specific muscles. Since you have been playing tennis for most of your life, you probably have already developed some muscular imbalances, such as weakness on upper and lower back muscles. Therefore, it is important for you to work on upper and lower back muscles. Seated Row, Lat Pulldown, Bent Over Rows, RDL (Figure 2a, b) are examples of upper or lower back exercises. Tennis players should include tennis specific exercises, such as Core (Abdominal / lower back) exercises and shoulder prehab (rotator cuff) exercises (some examples of these can be found on strength and conditioning section of the Player Development website.

2.  Arranging exercises: You should perform large muscle group exercise, such as Squat, Lunges, Bench Press, etc, at the beginning of your program.  When you are arranging exercises, make sure to perform smaller muscles groups (i.e. triceps exercises) after larger muscles groups (upper body pushing exercises, such as bench press, chest press, shoulder press, etc). 

3. Determining Exercises Loads: Find out the weight you can perform 12 to 15 repetitions. This means that you should feel your muscles fatigue around repetition number 12, 13, 14, and 15. For your basic strength programs, these are the weights you should use for to start with and should help develop your initial strength levels.

4. Determining the Number of repetitions, sets, and rest: 12-15 repetitions of each exercises performed for 2-3 sets is a good starting program. Take as much as time you need for your resting at beginning. As you establish your foundation and move to more advanced programs, you should be able to perform 6-12 repetitions 3-5 sets and limit your resting time about 30-90 seconds. 

5. Determining the frequency of training: Basic strength training should be performed three days a week, every other day, such as Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.