The Best Table Tennis Workout Routine!

Hello there! If you took a look at the workouts above and are confused, check these tabs out! Don’t bail!

I explain everything in detail. If you want serious results, you need to get SERIOUS about your training.

Trust me. You can do this!

In this tab I’ll go over some basic terminology in case you aren’t familiar with standard workout lingo. If I miss something, shoot me a message and let me know. I’ll clarify whatever I need to!

Rep: A “rep” is a single execution of a particular exercise (short for repetition). If you perform a single squat, that’s one “rep.”

Sets: A “set” is a collection of reps performed one after another. So if you did 10 pushups in a row and then stopped, you did one “set” of 10 reps!

2-4 x 4-6 | 2-3 x 8-15 | etc.

The above notation represents the number of sets x reps you are supposed to perform for a given exercise. So “2-4 x 4-6” means you are supposed to perform 2-4 sets of 4-6 reps each. 

Compound Movement: A compound movement is an exercise where you are using more than one muscle group at a time to move a weight, and where multiple joints are being taken through the range of motion. Examples include squats, push-ups, pull-ups, rows, overhead presses, deadlifts, etc.

“Isolation” or “Single-joint” Movement: These movements primarily target ONE muscle group and only a single joint (generally) is moving through the range of motion. Examples include calf raises, bicep curls, tricep extensions, wrist curls, etc.

“Primary” Movements (Lower Body, Upper Body Push, Upper Body Pull): Primary movements are compound movements that are selected because they are easier to overload and/or are difficult enough on their own so you can only get 4-6 reps (or as close to that as your situation allows). We are looking to build maximal STRENGTH with these primary movements, so if you can do 20 push-ups in one go, the standard push-up would not be a great choice as a primary movement. Instead, you should either modify the push-up (add load, elevate feet, etc.) or choose a different pushing movement where you can get the reps down closer to 4-6 (a dumbbell press could work).

Auxiliary Movements (Lower Body, Upper Body Push, Upper Body Pull): Auxiliary movements are additional movements that target the same/similar muscle groups as the primary movements, but typically from a different angle or plane of motion. Importantly, *any* movement that could be chosen as a primary movement could also be utilized as an auxiliary movement, the primary difference would be the rep range used. With auxiliary movements, we are typically performing them for moderate to high rep ranges. So if you were really focused on improving your pull-ups, you could choose a weighted pull-ups as your “primary upper body pull,” and then later in the week perform pull-ups with just your body weight (allowing you to get the rep range higher). Typically, however, I would recommend choosing an exercise that hits a different plane of motion than your primary pull.

So if you were performing weighted pull-ups are your primary, since that’s working in the vertical plane, you might opt for a row of some sort as your auxiliary movement since that’s a horizontal plane exercise.

Primary Power Movement: A primary power movement should match your ability level and allow you to produce force in a fast and explosive manner while maintaining control. I have included a variety of max effort jumps (even low impact options like a box jump), but if you are able to, moving towards a weighted jump and/or a modified Olympic lift with a dumbbell is ideal. We’re aiming to build strength-speed with this movement. Notably, even though the prescribed reps are low, the movement itself should be performed quickly. If you notice the speed slowing down significantly, end the set.

“Pogos” or Pogo Jumps: Pogo jumps are springy plyometric movements where the aim is to bounce off the ground as quickly as possible. You’ll notice there is not a lot of deep bending at the knees like you would do for a single-effort max height jump. Instead, pogos work on the more elastic qualities of your leg, utilizing the stored energy of your tendons.

“Light Tier” Pogos: Light tier pogos are NOT maximal in terms of intent and effort. Think small but quick bounces. You should try to minimize the time spent on the ground and stay bouncy, but don’t go for max height/distance. These can be done for higher reps and are a good “first rung” of the ladder for getting started with plyometrics because the ground impact forces are low.

“Medium Tier Pogos: Medium tier is a step up in intensity from light tier, but is still sub-maximal. You are reacting off the ground quickly and gaining more height / distance but these are not “all out” maximal efforts.

As you gain comfort and experience with the various leaps, bounds, and hops, you can start to modulate the intensity of them over the course of a training cycle. Start with performing everything as “light tier,” then start experimenting with adding some height and distance without going “all out.” If you notice your landing quality begins to suffer, end the set and/or regress to a lighter tier.

Core: “Core” exercises are movements that focus on the abs and/or low back primarily.

Technical failure: Technical failure is when you can no longer perform a rep with proper technique. If you have to start “cheating” to hoist the weight up, you should stop the set. Using technical failure as the benchmark to end a set helps maintain proper form and avoid injury. That said, we don’t always need to train to failure to see results.

RIR = “Repetitions in reserve.” RIR is a system for controlling the “intensity of effort” in a given set. It instructs you on how close you should approach technical failure.” An RIR of 1 indicates that you should leave one good rep “in the tank” at the end of the set instead of taking the set to failure. An RIR of 2 means you are TWO reps shy of technical failure.

AMRAP = “as many reps as possible”

ALAP = “as long as possible” 

Volume = The amount of “work” a given muscles has to do during a given week. I like to quantify volume as the number of “hard sets per week.”

So if you did 3 sets of squats on Monday and 2 sets of walking lunges on Friday, the “volume” for your quads that week would be 5.

CIRCUITS / SUPERSETS: To save time, some of the movements in this program can be grouped into “circuits” or “supersets. I will let you know which movements you can group up in each particular session.

In a circuit, you complete one set of an exercise and then move on to the next one without rest (unless otherwise specified). Once you’ve completed one set of each movement in the circuit, you should rest until you feel recovered and then repeat the process until you’ve completed the prescribed number of rounds/sets.

Supersets are very similar. Do one set of the first exercise and then move right to the next exercise. Once you’ve completed one set of each exercise, go back and do another set of the first exercise. Repeat until all sets are finished.

You can always rest between sets as needed. You want to ensure your MUSCLES are the limiting factors during a given movement, NOT your aerobic capacity. So if you are too out of breath, rest until you feel recovered. Your conditioning is NOT the focus, so make sure you are able to put forth a high quality effort!

Exercise Regression / Progression: An exercise regression means moving towards an easier variation. If you can’t perform a push-up from the ground, for example, a regression would be a high incline push-up where your hands are elevated. This makes the movement easier. A “progression” would be a modification that makes the exercise more difficult. So you could gradually lower the incline of the push-up to progress it, or add load. via bands or weights.

Progressive Overload: Progressive overload is the manner in which we ensure the muscles are continuing to receive a sufficient stimulus. Each time you workout you should write down what weight you used for a given exercise and how many sets and reps you got. The next week you should attempt to “beat the logbook” by either getting an extra rep or two or by adding load (see double progression model below).

So you are “progressively overloading” the muscles by slowly adding reps/weight/sets over time.

“Double Progression”: On most resistance training movements, we’ll be using a double progression model to progress:

– Find a weight that is challenging within the prescribed rep range.

– Stop a set when you hit the top end of the rep range and/or when you hit the prescribed RIR.

– Once you can hit the top end of the rep range in all sets, increase the weight by the smallest increment possible.

– Until then, focus on adding reps each session until you hit that top end.

Deload Week:

If you’re starting to feel a bit rundown and beat up, you may need to take a week of “active recovery” to allow your body to drop some fatigue.

You can reduce your training frequency on a deload (do 2 sessions instead of 3), and reduce the load and volume of the workouts you do perform: take 10% off the load, perform 1-2 fewer sets, and/or increase the RIR by 2-3.

These workouts should feel intentionally EASY and are just meant to help promote blood flow and keep your form sharp (as opposed to complete rest).

Deloads can be taken “as needed” every 4-8 weeks or so. 

If you feel the need to take them more frequently than that, you may need to reduce your training volume as that’s a sign you are doing more training than you can recover from.

Taper:

A taper can be used to “peak” your performance for a particular day or week. Like a deload, the intention is to drop fatigue as much as possible.

A notable difference, however, is that for a taper you want to keep the training intensity a bit higher than you would during a deload.

So you might drop your volume by 30-50% and add an extra day or two of rest, but still train with your normal loads at the prescribed RIR.

Tapers are ideal to use if you have an important tournament coming up on the weekend.

They can also be used at the end of a training cycle to test your performance on your primary strength, power, and speed movements.

As you’ll see in the section below, I have a bunch of video playlists with a range of exercises that you can choose from. In general, the exercises at the beginning of the playlist are easier to perform and/or are a lower intensity. As you get closer to the end of the playlist, the movements get more difficult.

Why did I set the routine up this way?

I created the program this way so each individual can pick a movement that is suitable for his/her ability level and access to equipment. If I simply prescribed a “split squat” as your “Lower Body Primary Strength Movement,” for some athletes this would be too difficult (they need a squat variation performed on two legs), and for others it would be too EASY (they might need to elevate the rear foot and/or add load).

Your job when picking an exercise is to note the required equipment, understand the prescribed rep range, and pick a movement from the playlist that gets you as close to that rep range as possible.

If you’re supposed to get only 4-6 reps per set, but you don’t have a way to overload an exercise enough to get the reps that low, just choose the hardest variation you can perform with good form and let the reps fall where they may. Even if you’re doing more like 8-12 reps per set (or higher) you can still get some strength building benefits!

How many sets should I perform?

If you are new to training and/or are coming off an extended break from following an organized physical training routine, stick to the lower end of the set range. So if you see a range of 2-4, just start off with TWO sets at first.

More is not always better!

When you first start training, you will be extra sensitive to the stimulus so a little goes a long way. 

If you are more experienced, I would start with three sets and go from there after a few weeks. Monitor your recovery first and see how well you’re progressing before deciding to add volume.

Important Note: 

When you choose an exercise from each category, you are supposed to STICK WITH THAT EXERCISE for the entire training cycle (4-12 weeks). You are NOT meant to choose a different movement each time you perform that session.

If after a few weeks you notice a movement is not agreeing with you. that’s different. But don’t change just for the sake of change.

You want to take time to master an exercise and add reps / weight to it over time to achieve progressive overload.

There are a number of ways you can approach creating a “workout split” from this routine, and the manner in which you do so will depend on your personal goals.

Notice “Session C” is optional…there are two reasons for this:

1) Endurance adaptations tend to be pretty durable, so if you’ve already built up a pretty decent “engine,” and you don’t feel like this is an area of need, you’ll likely be able to maintain your stamina via your normal table tennis play; thus, you can just focus on Sessions A and B.

2) Even if improved stamina is a goal of yours, the BEST way to improve this will be through tactical metabolic training session on the table. There is nothing more “sport specific” to do! So Session C could just be subsumed and incorporated into your current TT practice schedule, again, leaving just sessions A and B to schedule throughout the week!

If that is the case for you, I recommend alternating between sessions A and B like so:

Week 1: A | Rest | B | Rest | A | Rest | Rest

Week 2: B | Rest | A | Rest | B | Rest | Rest

*If you can only train twice per week, simply alternate between A and B with a day or two of rest in between.

If you DO feel like you need to include session C to help build your stamina, you can do the following:

Option 1 (Simple Option): 

A | Rest | B | Rest | C | Rest | Rest

Option 2:

“Floater” Option: Insert workout C as a floater day in between sessions A and B. The important thing is you hit workouts A and B at least once per week each. Workout C can be placed on your off days “as needed.” So you could do something like…

Week 1: A | C | B | C | A | Rest | Rest

Week 2: B | C | A | C | B | Rest | Rest

That would be a fair amount of physical training, so don’t start with that option unless you are already accustomed to exercising a lot in addition to playing table tennis.

Ideally, you should try to hit session A or B every 5 days or at least once per week. Fit in session C where you can.

Final Option: The Flexible “Rollover” Option:

Train when you can, but try to rotate through ALL THREE workouts before repeating. When possible, keep one day of “rest” between sessions (you can still play TT on a rest day). This works well if you can’t have “set days” of the week where you train.

So if you can only train two times per week, simply pick up where you left of on the rotation:

Week 1: Perform workouts A and B

Week 2: Perform workouts C and A

Week 3: Workouts B and C.

Week 4: (Back to the top –> A and B)

So you’re always maintaining the A -> B -> C flow.

Session A focuses on building acceleration / change of direction speed and maximal strength. The description below will walk you through the workout:

WARMING UP

Each session will start with a general warm-up. Always start with a low-impact cardio option (light jogging/cycling/elliptical/etc.) for 3-5 minutes or so, and then move into some dynamic stretching, mobility work, and movement prep. I’ve provided some recommendations and specific mobility drills in the video playlist below, but you can personalize your warm up as needed.

If you see a bunch of movements you don’t know and are overwhelmed, you can simplify the warm-up to something you know works well for YOU. 

Don’t take more than 5-10 minutes to warm up.

LIGHT/MEDIUM TIER POGOS (2-4 movements, 1-2 sets of 10 landings each)

After your warm up, we’ll move into some light plyometrics. These will help prep your lower body and ankles for the speed work. Stay bouncy and really focus on your mechanics on these. Remember, light tier is sub-maximal and extensive in nature, don’t go for max height/distance!

Aim for 10 landings per movement and use a brief rest of 10-30 seconds between them.

If you notice your landings are getting sloppy, end the set and/or rest a bit more. 

You aren’t supposed to feel excessively tired from this–it’s not conditioning.

After you’ve been consistently training for a while you can begin to scale the volume and intensity of the pogos up a bit and move more towards the “medium tier,” bouncing a little higher/farther progressively as you gain skill and confidence.

Note: Unlike your main exercises, you can swap out your plyometrics a little more frequently if you’d like. So if you pick two movements for session A, rather than repeating those same two movements the whole cycle (4-6 weeks), you can swap them out after a couple weeks for a bit of variety. 

ACCELERATION / CHANGE OF DIRECTION SPEED WORK (2-4 drills, 2-3 sets each)

I have a wide variety of athletes running this program–young national level athletes all the way up to club level players in their 60s and 70s, so I realize that sprinting may not be in the cards for some of you. 

Please do not attempt something just because it is listed!

If you haven’t sprinted in years, don’t move right into max-effort 40-50 meter sprints on flat ground week one!

If you’re new to speed work, stick to the drills at the beginning of the playlist that cover shorter distances. 

Hill sprints are also lower impact and less risky from an injury stand point.

If you’re physically able, gradually build up to sprinting on flat ground over the course of 4-8 weeks by progressively increasing the distance over time.

Remember, speed is relative and the *intent* is what’s key here. So when I say fast, I mean fast for YOU.

A good rule of thumb is approximately 1 minute of rest per 10 meters sprinted.

For some of the shorter distances and/or lateral work, play it by ear and make sure you aren’t so out of breath that you can’t hit your top speeds.

When you’re slowing down, that’s a good sign to stop!

Again, this is NOT meant to feel like a conditioning workout or “running suicides” at the end of practice.

Speed work is short and sweet–high effort, QUALITY over quantity.

STRENGTH WORK

Now it’s time to focus on building strength!

Warming Up:

After your general warm-up and plyos/speed work, you still need to perform a specific warm-up for the first compound exercise for a given muscle group. This will reduce your injury risk and will help improve performance.

These warm-up sets aren’t meant to be recorded, so don’t log them. They are not meant to tire you out. They should feel easy.

Example Warm-up:

– Set 1: 50% of working weight for 6 reps

– Set 2: 70% for 4 reps

– Set 3: 90% for 2 reps

– Rest ~1m and then begin first working set.

Do this for your primary strength movements. You can move right into your working sets for the core exercise at the end of the workout.

If you are performing a body weight movement for your strength exercise and/or aren’t loading it excessively, start with an easier variation first to ease into things.

Example:

– High incline push-ups: 6 reps (easy)

– Medium incline push-ups: 4 reps (still easy)

– Low incline push-ups: 2 reps (a bit harder but plenty left in the tank)

– Rest and then perform max effort push-ups from the ground.

Intensity of Effort

We will train using the “reps in reserve” (RIR) method to manage intensity of effort. An RIR of 1 means you stop when you have ONE good rep left in the tank. An RIR of 3 would be THREE reps left in the tank. Always keep form tight and consistent rep-to-rep. If you’re starting to cheat, you need to stop the set.

For your 3 primary strength movements, start with an RIR of 2-3 per set. As you dial in your form and get stronger, you can begin training closer to technical failure, but I still recommend leaving one good rep “in the tank” to stay safe.

Research shows you don’t need to train to failure to get stronger and build muscle!

As long as you are putting forth a high quality effort, you’ll still be recruiting the necessary muscle fibers, especially in these lower rep ranges.

Rest

Rest 2-3 minutes between sets of your lower body primary strength movement.

For your upper body strength work, I recommend pairing your push and pull and performing them as a superset. 

You can still rest 30-60 seconds, “as needed” in between sets of your upper body work to ensure you’re not too out of breath.

For your core exercise, rest a minute or so between sets.

Progression

After you perform an exercise, always record your results (notebook, app, etc.). When you train again, you should try to beat your previous performance.

On most resistance training movements, we’ll be using a “double progression” model to progress:

– Find a weight or exercise variation that is challenging within the prescribed rep range.

– Stop a set when you hit the top end of the rep range and/or when you hit the prescribed RIR.

– Once you can hit the top end of the rep range in all sets, increase the weight by the smallest increment possible.

– Until then, focus on adding reps each session until you hit that top end.

*If you are training from home and don’t have a way to load an exercise enough to get the reps down to the prescribed 4-6 reps, just get as close as you can. Even if you end up doing 10-15 reps for your lower body because that’s as heavy as you are able, you’ll still get a benefit!

Still, your focus needs to be on improving your performance over time! Progressive overload is key!

Volume

If you are new to training, stick to the lower end of the set count recommendations. If you are more advanced, you can hover closer to the top. Remember, more is not always better! Don’t add volume unless you’ve been consistently stalled out and you feel like your recovery can handle it.

WRAPPING UP

That’s it for Session A! Try to rest a day or two before moving on to Session B. If you are new to training, you may be more sore than usual and need a few extra days. Don’t worry, once you start training consistently, the soreness will lessen dramatically.

Session B focuses on POWER along with some auxiliary hypertrophy work. The description below will walk you through the workout:

WARMING UP

Each session will start with a general warm-up. Always start with a low-impact cardio option (light jogging/cycling/elliptical/etc.) for 3-5 minutes or so, and then move into some dynamic stretching, mobility work, and movement prep. I’ve provided some recommendations and specific mobility drills in the video playlist below, but you can personalize your warm up as needed.

If you see a bunch of movements you don’t know and are overwhelmed, you can simplify the warm-up to something you know works well for YOU. 

Don’t take more than 5-10 minutes to warm up.

LIGHT/MEDIUM TIER POGOS (2-4 movements, 1-2 sets of 10 landings each)

**These can be paired with the med ball throws and performed as a circuit if you’d like. 

Example:

– Lateral pogo leaps (10 landings)

– Rotational med ball slam (6 slams)

– Slalom bounds (10 landings)

– Front Rotary Scoop Toss (6 throws per side)

– Rest “as needed” and repeat for 2-3 total rounds

**For the pogos, you can pick different movements than Session A, or if you feel like you need more practice, you can keep the movements the same!

Stay bouncy and really focus on your mechanics on these. Remember, light tier is sub-maximal and extensive in nature, don’t go for max height/distance!

Aim for 10 landings per movement and use a brief rest of 10-30 seconds between them (or pair with the med ball throws)

If you notice your landings are getting sloppy, end the set and/or rest a bit more. 

After you’ve been consistently training for a while you can begin to scale the volume and intensity of the pogos up a bit and move more towards the “medium tier,” bouncing a little higher/farther progressively as you gain skill and confidence.

MED BALL THROWS (2-4 movements, 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps each)

**If you don’t have a med ball, instead pick 1-2 movements from the “Primary Power” playlist and perform 2-3 sets of 3-6 reps each. If you do so, pick a movement that is a little lower in intensity than your main “primary power” choice that comes next.

For med ball throws, maximal velocity is key. A 4-8 pound ball works best for athletes who are between 100-200 pounds, with 6 pounds  being a good sweet spot for most.

Terminate the set if you notice the speed is dropping off rep-to-rep. Rather than incrementally adding weight/reps week-to-week, just focus on throwing harder and better. Achieve progressive overload through form improvements!

If you don’t have a masonry wall to slam against, just throw the ball out into an open space and perform the throws as “singles.”  You could also have a partner catch it for you.

Rest 1-2 minutes or so between sets and movements (unless you’re pairing it up with the pogos as described above).

PRIMARY POWER MOVEMENT (2-4 sets of 3-6 reps)

Now it’s time to focus on building some POWER!

Warming Up:

If you are doing a weighted movement, warm up similar to how you would warm up for your strength work. This will reduce your injury risk and improve performance.

These warm-up sets aren’t meant to be recorded, so don’t log them. They are not meant to tire you out. They should feel easy.

Example Warm-up:

– Set 1: 50% of working weight for 5 reps

– Set 2: 70% for 3 reps

– Set 3: 90% for 1 reps

– Rest ~1m and then begin first working set.

If you are performing a body weight movement for your power exercise and/or aren’t loading it excessively, start with an easier variation (or do a few submaximal sets) first to ease into things.

Intensity of Effort

When training for power (strength-speed in this case), your intent is high and the reps must be fast and explosive. Because of this, we must remain fairly far from failure. You don’t want slow and grindy reps like you might do during max strength work.

So rather than prescribing a specific RIR, just stay within the rep range and END a set if you notice your reps are getting slow.

Rest

Rest 2-3 minutes between sets of your power movement.

Progression

This will depend on what movement you choose. For a jump, aim on improving mechanics and/or jumping higher/farther over time. If it’s a weighted movement, you can still use the double progression model to increase the training stress over time, but don’t add a rep or load unless your form is dialed in and the speed of the movement is staying high.

Here’s the double progression model again:

– Find a weight or exercise variation that is challenging within the prescribed rep range.

– Stop a set when you hit the top end of the rep range and/or when you hit the prescribed RIR.

– Once you can hit the top end of the rep range in all sets, increase the weight by the smallest increment possible.

– Until then, focus on adding reps each session until you hit that top end.

AUXILIARY WORK

Your auxiliary work serves as a contrast to your primary strength-based movements from Session A.

Remember, any movement that could be chosen as a primary movement could also be utilized as an auxiliary movement, the primary difference would be the rep range used. 

With auxiliary movements, we are typically performing them for moderate to high rep ranges. So if you were really focused on improving your pull-ups, you could choose a weighted pull-ups as your “primary upper body pull,” and then later in the week perform pull-ups with just your body weight (allowing you to get the rep range higher). 

Typically, however, I would recommend choosing an exercise that hits a different plane of motion than your primary movement.

So if you were performing weighted pull-ups are your primary, since that’s working in the vertical plane, you might opt for a row of some sort as your auxiliary movement since that’s a horizontal plane exercise.

Also, just like with your upper body strength work, you may pair up (superset) your upper body auxiliary push and pull movement to save time if you’d like.

For your auxiliary work, train to an RIR of 1-2 and rest 1-2 minutes between sets.

Use the double progression model to add reps and weight over time.

VOLUME

If you are new to training, stick to the lower end of the set count recommendations. If you are more advanced, you can hover closer to the top. Remember, more is not always better! Don’t add volume unless you’ve been consistently stalled out and you feel like your recovery can handle it.

WRAPPING UP

That’s it for Session B! Try to rest a day or two before moving on to Session C (or returning to Session A). If you are new to training, you may be more sore than usual and need a few extra days to recover. Don’t worry, once you start training consistently, the soreness will lessen dramatically.

Tactical Metabolic Training

The best way to improve your stamina for table tennis is through something called “tactical metabolic training” (TMT).

If you’ve ever done, H.I.I.T. (high intensity interval training), you should be familiar with the concept of work:rest ratios. The intermittent nature of interval training is well suited for table tennis players because that’s exactly what happens in a match–brief bursts of activity followed by a short rest period.

Only ~10% of points are won after the 7th ball in table tennis and 4-5 shots per rally seems to be the most common number. The average rest time between points is around 8-20 seconds. 

We can use that as a starting point to develop our work:rest ratios so they are specific to TT:

1. Decide on a good drill that gets you moving with your partner/coach/robot.

2. Perform the drill “all out” with 100% intensity, focus, and power–just as if you were playing a match.

3. Keep the drill short and intense–5-10 shots or so.

4. Stop the drill and rest for 10-30 seconds. Collect your thoughts, refocus, and engage your pre-performance routine (PPR).

5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you’ve reached the desired number of sets

6. Rest 3-5 minutes (perhaps YOU switch to feeding, or practice serves, etc.) and move onto the next drill.

As your conditioning improves, you can manipulate the work:rest ratios to keep the drills challenging. So you might move from 5 shots per drill with a rest period of 20 seconds, to 7 shots per drill with only 10 seconds rest.

Try to keep your TMT at HIGHER intensity than your average TT match. This will help ensure your physical conditioning isn’t a limiting factor during match play.

Perform 1-3 TMT sessions per week as part of your technical training. If you are aiming for a two-hour technical training session, don’t attempt to make the entire two hours TMT. 

Intersperse some serve practice and lower intensity drills (pushing, serve return, etc.) as needed.

OFF THE TABLE CONDITIONING WORK (Backup Option)

If you can’t get your conditioning in through table tennis (or you’d still like to supplement), you can do interval work on bikes, rowers, ellipticals, and/or by performing repeat sprints on the ground. The former options can be good if you’re looking for lower impact ways to improve stamina so you can preserve your joints for your table tennis matches.

1-2 sessions of 10-20 minutes per week is a good place to start. 

Here’s what one such session might look like on an elliptical:

– Warm up: ~ 5 minutes at an easy pace

– 10 second “sprint” using max effort

– 20-30 seconds “active rest” at an easy pace

– 10 second “sprint” using max effort

– 20-30 seconds “active rest” at an easy pace

– Repeat until desired time is reached

Endurance adaptations can be built pretty quickly and are more durable than strength/power adaptations, so one tactic you could employ is to take a month or two where you focus on building your stamina with 2-3 sessions per week, and then REDUCE your stamina focus to a maintenance frequency of once every 7-10 days.

Quick Note: 

As mentioned in the “Scheduling Your Sessions” tab, Session C is optional. Preferably, most of your conditioning work for table tennis will occur through DRILLS and tough matches.

If you never practice longer/harder than you would during a long tournament day, of COURSE your stamina will be an issue!

Still, I realize your “table time” may be limited, or maybe you’re in a busy club where doing drills for extended periods of time isn’t an option.

If that’s the case, you can certainly opt for the backup option and use high intensity intervals to increase your stamina.

Okay, so now that you know how to pick your exercises, create a workout split, and perform each session, how do you modify your training so you get results long term? How do you even know if the program is working? What do you do if you plateau on an exercise?

I’ll cover all that and more in this section!

How to Get the Best Results

1. What Gets Measured Gets Managed!

This keeps you honest and ensures that even if you start off by “sandbagging it” at first, you’ll eventually end up pushing yourself pretty hard in order to improve!

So keep a logbook and look to beat it each week.

You could also include “testing weeks” to evaluate progress before and after a training block.

Pick a handful of movements that you can use as a benchmark to test your strength, speed, power, and change of direction ability. After acquainting yourself with the proper form, do a test and record your results. 

For example:

– Acceleration speed test: 30m sprint

– Change of direction speed test:  Lateral barrier touch

– Upper body power test: Med ball throw (scoop toss, granny throw, chest pass, etc.)

– Lower body power test: Broad jump

– Lower body strength: Rear foot elevated split squat AMRAP (ideally reps should be sub 10)

– Upper body strength: Pull-ups AMRAP (weighted if needed) and push-ups AMRAP (weighted if needed) *ideally reps should be sub 10

Record accurate times, distances, and reps/weight used and then retest after your training block (ideally after a deload/taper)

2. Avoid “Program Hopping” and “Muscle Confusion”

Don’t start playing pick-up games of basketball or soccer.

If you are serious about improving your TABLE TENNIS game, then you should just be focusing on this program and your TT sessions.

This is TRAINING, not mere “exercise.”

We are working towards specific goals, and using a certain amount of volume, frequency, and intensity to reach those goals in the most efficient way possible.

“Mixing it up” and doing random extra exercises/activities muddies the waters and saps your recovery.

After 4-6 weeks of consistently following a set program, you can consider making some changes and swapping certain movements out*, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! 

If you are making consistent progress on most of your lifts, week-to-week, there’s no need to change things!

*Obvious exceptions would include any movement where you realize it’s causing pain and/or you are unable to master the form and need to regress it. The take-away is you should not be changing just for the sake of change.

3. Consistency and Patience are KEY

At first you may be able to add reps or weight every workout. Eventually you will only make progress every couple of weeks or so. Then it may be months before you see significant improvement for a given exercise. That’s normal!

Just like with table tennis, it gets harder and harder to improve the higher your level.

You do not need to “beat the logbook” every session in order to see progress. That should be your goal, but if you are putting forth an honest effort, you can still get an effective training stimulus even if progressive overload isn’t achieved on that particular day.

Over the course of months, however, you should see your performance improving across most of your key lifts.

4. Monitor and Adjust Training Over Time

A good time to evaluate your progress is at the end of a training cycle. 

Take a deload or taper week to allow your body to recover from the accumulated fatigue, and then test your main lifts to see if you can get a “personal best” using something like an AMRAP. 

If performance is improving, GREAT, there’s no need to change anything.

If you’re stalled out, here are some thoughts:

– If you’ve been consistently feeling rundown and beat up halfway through a block of training, you may need to reduce your volume/frequency to allow for more recovery. Take a set or two off across the week for the stalled muscle group and see if you start seeing progress again.

– If your recovery has been good, and you feel like you can handle more, try adding a set to your primary lift. As your “training age” increases, you may need to do more in order to get the same stimulus you did as a beginner.

– You may need to swap a stalled exercise out and revisit it later. Sometimes a certain degree of “staleness” sets in and you should attack the muscle from a different angle for a period of time.

This should be done at the end of a training cycle. The new exercise should be utilized during the entirety of the next block. You can then come back to the stalled exercise and see if you’ve improved.

– Outside Factors: You may need to evaluate your nutrition, sleep, stress levels, etc. All of these factors can impact your training performance quite a bit! See my book for a deep dive on how to optimize those areas!

As you go through this process, you should notice yourself getting faster, stronger, and more powerful over the course of the year.

The evidence of this will be in your recorded performances in your logbook!

Reach out for help!

If you’re doing all the above and still not seeing progress, you may need an outside perspective to evaluate things and give you more targeted advice. I’m happy to help in that area, so shoot me a message and we can set something up.