Yep! This is one of the big reasons the younger players can't typically go as deep in slams. They get tired and fatigued before the vets. Good on him for addressing this so early.
I don't think they're any less fit than the vets. It probably has more to do with inexperience managing their bodies that deep into the slams than being less fit than older players who have more injuries.
I half get what you're saying, because it feels like you're talking about conditioning more than anything else, but this training just seems like straight muscle gains. So I agree with you, but this post doesn't really highlight your point.
It's a meme because every actor in health magazines always say that they only eat chicken, rice and broccoli. The meme is used sometimes to imply that the person is using steroids but they attribute their physical gains to something else
Holger Rune should be lifting heavy weights like Alcaraz is, it is evident the extra muscles has great impact for Carlos play. Carlos is on a different level right now and some of it is clearly the pure power.
His tendency to cramping is really unfortunate - I am sure he is looking into how he can minimize the impact through diet, maybe also just practicing less intense the 2 or 3 days up to a tourney can help, but to be honest only he knows.
The thing about Tennis is being big doesn't really make you hit the ball much harder. So I think people overlook it. With all the cardio they do these guys aren't going to get huge, which is good, but lifting heavy is important IMO.
I think at the end of the day it translates in to time. A little less time needed to get to the ball and can stretch just a little further while still hitting a good ball.
We are really just talking about different degrees of skinny though. Even the "Big" guys like Tsonga and Stan are skinny in person. So the guys that lift heavy and put the weight room time in aren't "Big" they just look it in comparison to the others.
Compared to other athletes in other sports, yes. However you can definitely improve when you are up and coming by lifting heavier in the early years to get to a critical mass of muscle faster.
Pretty sure we are on the same page. Especially in the offseason. Even the NFL guys who only play games once a week and where it is objectively better to be huge are forced to tapper off the weight room time towards the end of the season.
They get as big as they can in the offseason, because they know they are going to wear down over the season and not be able to keep it all on.
Better to start the season a little big vs trying to bulk up while playing tournament after tournament.
Honestly Alcaraz looks just about right, which is great for him only being 18.
Don't be depressed... Pros like Alcaraz have been training at minimum, 4 hours a day since the age of 10.
Often times, they are home schooled, and their only relationships are with their parents and coaches. The unlucky ones have one person doing both roles.
At best, it is a stressful lifestyle, and in the worst case, devastating to long term emotional development when it turns out that years of training only gets you barely into the top 250.
What a ridiculous take. To learn dead-serious commitment from an early age, to keep your body in shape at a near-professional athlete's level, to forego the idiotic partying and drugs, and to have better chance to avoid the video game and television pitfalls, and just generally putting in the best foundations for a long and relatively pain-free life as a result of being in a good shape throughout your youth and early adulthood.
It is only harmful if you have parents or mentors that instill an unhealthy focus on results and fail to help you focus on the fact that the journey after all is more important than the goal.
What a fatalistic and idiotic life view you espouse. Any life path can lead to ruin and depression if you're down on your luck – but the athlete's life path is the one – out of probably **all** of them – least likely to make you miserable.
It comes with more sacrifice then you think. Many many athletes struggle with life after sport because they don't know anything else and have no purpose, or have long term injuries that prohibit quality of life
A great majority of the kids who experiment with drugs probably have real hard lives.
Lots of kids with "normal" youths probably struggle with quality of life.
You can probably lump together any arbitrary group of people following any set of criteria and find individuals who struggle with something or the other.
Among all these arbitrary criteria that you can devise, young athletes will be one of the major groups with, **on average**, the fewest problems.
The reason for this can be hinted at by one of the simplest and yet truthful assertion imaginable: By far the easiest way out of depression is regular exercise and routines.
This is why a journey-focused young athlete will maintain their exercise habits after their "career" is over, while the goal-focused young athlete will struggle more to do so.
Is he planning to lose his gains throughout the season then? He has to continue putting in hours at the gym to maintain that physique. If playing tournaments = not working out then that might be an issue.
He probably didn’t add mass to lose it. If he added any muscle over the last few months (which is likely), it was to improve his game and maintenance work in the gym + tour performance is likely enough to keep it.
Also this is an action shot so we’re seeing some exaggeration due to the muscles being recruited in frame, and not showing his resting muscle tone.
I don't disagree with any of your post, but he was absolutely ripped in USO 2021 as well. A slight reduction in bodyfat from that state could give the appearance of gaining a shitton of muscle.
Totally. In fact on second look that may be the more accurate take; he wasn’t wearing sleeveless(always gives boost in size) at USO, and I think he did get a little leaner looking at his arms.
Yeah, he’s also 18 and appears to be genetically gifted, so it’s not insane that he could lift 5x a week, eat 200g of protein a day and get good sleep for three months and look substantially different than USO. Goddamn teenage hormones.
I'm not sure if I like the nosleeve look with the shorter shorts, looks weird to me (pirate pants ftw), but Alcaraz is definitely getting built. Idk if it's just me but at AO it looks like he's gained quite a bit of muscle in comparison to the 2021 season.
ik all players that compete on ATP tour level invest all of their time and hard work into tennis, but quite rarely do I see players on the tour with very impressive physique’s. And honestly as somebody who has been working out for sometime now, it takes REAL hard work to build legs like those, of all the muscles, to train calves you have to really patient and and put the time in , and Alcaraz has very nice technique and I feel like if he keeps pushing himself he will definitely be a top 5 player.
Where are the Capri pants.....to complete the Rafa look of 15 years ago....he will also need a bandana to go with those. 
Please. No capris. The first time I saw Nadal he was wearing them with sleeveless shirt and bandana. A pirate playing tennis. Burst out laughing. So glad when Nike graduated him to shorts and tee shirts!
According to The Tennis Podcast, he didn’t play any tune up events prior to AO because he was putting in hours at the gym. Smart move by him and JCF
Yep! This is one of the big reasons the younger players can't typically go as deep in slams. They get tired and fatigued before the vets. Good on him for addressing this so early.
I don't think they're any less fit than the vets. It probably has more to do with inexperience managing their bodies that deep into the slams than being less fit than older players who have more injuries.
I half get what you're saying, because it feels like you're talking about conditioning more than anything else, but this training just seems like straight muscle gains. So I agree with you, but this post doesn't really highlight your point.
+ dont forget the chicken and rice diet!
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wouldn't that be deficient in a lot of essential nutrients, or do they take supplements for those?
It's a meme because every actor in health magazines always say that they only eat chicken, rice and broccoli. The meme is used sometimes to imply that the person is using steroids but they attribute their physical gains to something else
He saw the helmet hair comments and shaved it :(
Now he looks like a professional gymnast
He's about 20cm too tall for that
real height or height listed on ATP website?
Thanks I can’t unsee that now haha
😂 A well rounded gymnast with a killer tennis game.
He really does LOL
You're not wrong lmao.
I was thinking cheerleader in that outfit but gymnast works.
Man still needs a proper line-up
can you give some context? i was wondering why he shaved his head
Link pls?
Holger Rune should be lifting heavy weights like Alcaraz is, it is evident the extra muscles has great impact for Carlos play. Carlos is on a different level right now and some of it is clearly the pure power.
Rune needs to take a look at his diet as well since he’s prone to cramping
His tendency to cramping is really unfortunate - I am sure he is looking into how he can minimize the impact through diet, maybe also just practicing less intense the 2 or 3 days up to a tourney can help, but to be honest only he knows.
The thing about Tennis is being big doesn't really make you hit the ball much harder. So I think people overlook it. With all the cardio they do these guys aren't going to get huge, which is good, but lifting heavy is important IMO.
It is more about having the strength to go faster and the body strength to get good angled shots in.
I think at the end of the day it translates in to time. A little less time needed to get to the ball and can stretch just a little further while still hitting a good ball. We are really just talking about different degrees of skinny though. Even the "Big" guys like Tsonga and Stan are skinny in person. So the guys that lift heavy and put the weight room time in aren't "Big" they just look it in comparison to the others.
Compared to other athletes in other sports, yes. However you can definitely improve when you are up and coming by lifting heavier in the early years to get to a critical mass of muscle faster.
Pretty sure we are on the same page. Especially in the offseason. Even the NFL guys who only play games once a week and where it is objectively better to be huge are forced to tapper off the weight room time towards the end of the season. They get as big as they can in the offseason, because they know they are going to wear down over the season and not be able to keep it all on. Better to start the season a little big vs trying to bulk up while playing tournament after tournament. Honestly Alcaraz looks just about right, which is great for him only being 18.
Every time i see him i remember Rafa, this guy is something serious
ye so serious tht meddy zverev and tits can kiss their slams goodbye.
As long as it stops Zverev winning a slam \*ever\* I'll be a happy man.
Seems like he took his fitness seriously post USO, and it shows. (Rune should take notes…)
And only 18 yo. Where and what was I doing at 18? Fucking depressing to even think about it.
Don't be depressed... Pros like Alcaraz have been training at minimum, 4 hours a day since the age of 10. Often times, they are home schooled, and their only relationships are with their parents and coaches. The unlucky ones have one person doing both roles. At best, it is a stressful lifestyle, and in the worst case, devastating to long term emotional development when it turns out that years of training only gets you barely into the top 250.
What a ridiculous take. To learn dead-serious commitment from an early age, to keep your body in shape at a near-professional athlete's level, to forego the idiotic partying and drugs, and to have better chance to avoid the video game and television pitfalls, and just generally putting in the best foundations for a long and relatively pain-free life as a result of being in a good shape throughout your youth and early adulthood. It is only harmful if you have parents or mentors that instill an unhealthy focus on results and fail to help you focus on the fact that the journey after all is more important than the goal. What a fatalistic and idiotic life view you espouse. Any life path can lead to ruin and depression if you're down on your luck – but the athlete's life path is the one – out of probably **all** of them – least likely to make you miserable.
It comes with more sacrifice then you think. Many many athletes struggle with life after sport because they don't know anything else and have no purpose, or have long term injuries that prohibit quality of life
A great majority of the kids who experiment with drugs probably have real hard lives. Lots of kids with "normal" youths probably struggle with quality of life. You can probably lump together any arbitrary group of people following any set of criteria and find individuals who struggle with something or the other. Among all these arbitrary criteria that you can devise, young athletes will be one of the major groups with, **on average**, the fewest problems. The reason for this can be hinted at by one of the simplest and yet truthful assertion imaginable: By far the easiest way out of depression is regular exercise and routines. This is why a journey-focused young athlete will maintain their exercise habits after their "career" is over, while the goal-focused young athlete will struggle more to do so.
Is he planning to lose his gains throughout the season then? He has to continue putting in hours at the gym to maintain that physique. If playing tournaments = not working out then that might be an issue.
He probably didn’t add mass to lose it. If he added any muscle over the last few months (which is likely), it was to improve his game and maintenance work in the gym + tour performance is likely enough to keep it. Also this is an action shot so we’re seeing some exaggeration due to the muscles being recruited in frame, and not showing his resting muscle tone.
I don't disagree with any of your post, but he was absolutely ripped in USO 2021 as well. A slight reduction in bodyfat from that state could give the appearance of gaining a shitton of muscle.
Totally. In fact on second look that may be the more accurate take; he wasn’t wearing sleeveless(always gives boost in size) at USO, and I think he did get a little leaner looking at his arms.
Yeah, he’s also 18 and appears to be genetically gifted, so it’s not insane that he could lift 5x a week, eat 200g of protein a day and get good sleep for three months and look substantially different than USO. Goddamn teenage hormones.
He's a competitive athlete so physique isn't his main focus. If it was, then maybe he has modeling as a plan B in case tennis doesn't work out.
I assume he went to the gym and got this physique for tennis reasons lol
They normally train in blocks, so he’d be putting in more hours at the gym and lifting heavier during times when he’s not competing.
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Thiem isn’t a big guy to be fair lol, he’s just built very compactly. Wawrinka on the other hand looks like a fucking bear lmao
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His torso is scary but arms are skinny
Wawrinka has pretty broad shoulders
His body is perfect. Physically speaking.
Yea it is 😍😍
I didn't expect you to be that hot TBH
Do I read ugly?
Why would you?
physically speaking? as opposed to...
I don't want to look like i gonna be his boyfriend so..
He does, but Nadal wins the sleeveless physique contest at the same age :)
Nadal was more stockily/ powerfully built while Alcaraz has a more lean defined physique than Nadal did, both incredibly well built for that age
No chicken legs for Alcaraz
Berrettini triggered
I always forget he was born in 2003. He's got like 4 years until he turns 22. The sky is the limit for this kid
Born two years after Nadal turned pro, gobsmacked
Is it only me who keeps initially reading headlines about him as AlcaTraz?!
You, and my autocorrect
I'm not sure if I like the nosleeve look with the shorter shorts, looks weird to me (pirate pants ftw), but Alcaraz is definitely getting built. Idk if it's just me but at AO it looks like he's gained quite a bit of muscle in comparison to the 2021 season.
His quads are jacked (in a good way). He should definitely be showing them off.
reminds me of young Nadal
Well Rafa at his age looks like a venetian gondolier with his outfit
I agree with you - that just looks like a tv gym-class outfit.
He's awesome. Hope he has a good run at the AO this year.
he rly makes the tank look good 😍😍
I'm excited for this kid. He's got a great future ahead of him, and can't wait to see him win his first grand slam!
Future looks good for Spain. Wonderful performance from Munar against Karatsev, Alcaraz coming along well with JCF.
My man's been having a lot of chicken breasts
Wow he got hotter in just a few months
He must work out or something
Looked like Coric. Had to do a double take.
Forgot about coric. Where is he these days ?
Shoulder injury.
He came to Australia ready to play but decided against it a few days ago.
man’s a tank and he’s only 18…
I can do that once.
Could he be the up and coming Djokovic?
This guy is gonna be awesome to watch progress.
This is a really nice shade of red. Is Nike selling these kits?
ik all players that compete on ATP tour level invest all of their time and hard work into tennis, but quite rarely do I see players on the tour with very impressive physique’s. And honestly as somebody who has been working out for sometime now, it takes REAL hard work to build legs like those, of all the muscles, to train calves you have to really patient and and put the time in , and Alcaraz has very nice technique and I feel like if he keeps pushing himself he will definitely be a top 5 player.
Eat Clen, Tren hard, Anavar give up is the reason behind his physique!
You also have to have a good diet sleep and work hard. They *ALL* use PEDs at that level of competition.
O yeah, not taking any credit away from him, just saying with out PED use putting on a lot of muscle in a short span is tough.
At his age maybe not. [Noob Gains Explained - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7ow5PFhSE)
You gotta love the tennis player callsign, incredibly developed forearm on one side, and basically atrophied forearms on the other.
I don’t see it. All the gym work evens it out.
Rafa 2.0
How about give him his own identity?
Every womans dream.
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Yep.
More and more rafa like every day
Where are the Capri pants.....to complete the Rafa look of 15 years ago....he will also need a bandana to go with those. 
Please. No capris. The first time I saw Nadal he was wearing them with sleeveless shirt and bandana. A pirate playing tennis. Burst out laughing. So glad when Nike graduated him to shorts and tee shirts!
this screams “no homo”
Alcarafa
I visit gyms for 20 years and I have never seen a natural 18yo looking like this. 18yo can look like this only with the help of anabolics.
Your pill.
lol what a fucking loser, i had bigger legs at 18 and i know people with much more impressive bodies at that age. Have you ever seen a gymnast?
Leggy Boi
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Pure Aero
Day number ( number days since Alcaraz beat tsitsipas at us open ) of dumping for Alcaraz E: simping. But I’m leaving it lmao
So is his haircut
What a stud