Squash Boot Camp

By Brett Erasmus

So, you are just getting into the game and find that physically it's almost too much to sustain. Every time you play your legs hurt, and sometimes even your back and butt. Then, once you have become fitter and are a little used to it, you keep pulling your groin, twisting your ankles or falling victim to tennis elbow. Or perhaps you are extremely fit, but still occasionally suffer from calf, achilles or shoulder tears. Yes, squash is demanding on your body and yes you can get injured, but allow me to talk a little about the benefits of squash. I am no fitness expert, so I looked it up.

The old fashioned ways of getting in shape are of course running, cycling, weights training, and swimming. Running or cycling around central park every morning is a great cardio workout, but what does it do for upper body strength. And running can wreak havoc on joints, especially if you are not very light (like me). Weight training obviously improves muscular strength, but it is totally lacking in cardio. Getting bigger muscles is not going to promote a strong heart (or help you get around a squash court either). I know many people who think swimming is the ideal activity for a total-body workout, and I agree with this to a large extent. But, that’s only if you use the proper technique and are actually fit enough (swim specific fitness) to keep it up at a sustained intensity for longer than a few minutes.



When assessing squash against the 4 generally accepted physiological components of fitness it comes up trumps. Firstly, it is great for cardio-respiratory endurance – even if you are on court for only 30 minutes, it is as good as jogging or spinning (if not, then you are not playing hard enough..). I guess you could do 400m sprints on a track, as a good alternative. Indeed, many squash world champions swear by this (I once saw Karim Darwish do several sets of 400M and it became quickly apparent to me why these guys are so fit). Squash also promotes decent muscular strength and endurance (components 2 and 3). Don’t underestimate how important these are to squash. The muscular strength and endurance obtained playing squash is more than you would think. Sure, it is not in your biceps, but is in the part of your body which counts, your core. Squash players play extended rallies and are almost constantly running, so this builds strength and endurance in your core and lower body. There is sport specific weight training you can do to make you stronger and faster. Ask any fitness professional. Finally, the flexibility you gain from squash is not bad at all. There are many lunges, twists and turns which increase flexibility in the back and abdomen. The range of motion is probably not as much as is the case with yoga or pilates, but there is much more inertia build up as you are doing all the movements under pressure.

But the best news is when you put all these factors together, you get a workout where the calorie burn is off the charts. When measured against other sports, the energy expenditure in squash is extremely high and seems to burn a massive amount of calories. Per the American College of Sports Medicine the calorie burn rate of a 190-pound person playing squash for 30 minutes is over 450 calories. And a normal hard game of squash will easily run you about 700-800 calories. I wonder how many calories a 250 pound guy playing 5 games of squash over one hour would burn?

Of course, for professional athletes and more serious squash players, cross training is critical. You can try yoga, or weight training, or do triathlons etc. Or, you could do a boot camp at a gym - they look like hard work too. If this does not get you fit enough for squash, you could just quit your job and join the army. That’ll get you fit.