Back when I was a competitive tennis player, I was already lifting weights. But at one point I decided to take it a step further and focus more seriously on hypertrophy in order to put on more muscle. I wanted to become stronger, more powerful, and build a more athletic physique while continuing to compete in tennis.

At the time, I was practicing tennis for several hours a day while also trying to build muscle through resistance training. Looking back, this raised an important question that many athletes still face today:

What actually happens to the body when you pursue hypertrophy while simultaneously practicing a demanding sport like tennis?

To understand this, we first need to clarify what hypertrophy really means.

When hypertrophy training is done properly, the goal is to effectively stimulate the muscle so that it adapts and grows. This usually involves applying sufficient mechanical tension and fatigue to a muscle so that the body triggers a rebuilding response. For hypertrophy to occur, this stimulus must also be applied frequently enough over time, typically by training the muscle regularly while allowing adequate recovery between sessions.

But the growth itself does not happen during the workout. It happens during recovery.

After a hypertrophy session, muscle fibers go through a process of repair and remodeling. Because of the micro-damage created during training, the body temporarily increases muscle stiffness and reduces flexibility as a protective mechanism while the tissue rebuilds.

This is also why many people experience soreness and tightness in the days following a hard workout, a phenomenon commonly known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

This recovery phase is essential. Ideally, a muscle is trained with enough intensity and then given enough time to recover so it can be stimulated again when it has reached its peak recovery window.

And this is exactly where I began to notice a problem in my own training.

Resistance training helped me tremendously. I became stronger, and it clearly contributed to generating more power, particularly on my serve and forehand. But at the same time, I started experiencing muscle strains.

The reason became clear over time.

The day after training in the gym, the muscles I had worked were still tight and in a recovery phase. Yet I was going back to the tennis court and practicing for two or three hours, often reaching, stretching, and reacting explosively to shots.

In other words, I was ignoring the recovery process that hypertrophy training requires.

Over time, this experience taught me something important: when you combine strength training and sports practice, you need to prioritize your goals and understand when each type of training should take place.

Today, I often see people doing the exact same thing in the gym, particularly beginners and intermediate athletes who play sports like tennis or pickleball. They want to improve performance in their sport while also building muscle, but they do not always understand how these goals interact with each other.

Advanced athletes usually learn how to structure their training so that strength work, hypertrophy training, sport practice, and recovery complement each other. Beginners and intermediate athletes often try to pursue all of these goals at the same time without understanding how the body responds to each type of training stimulus.

When hypertrophy training is done properly, the goal is to effectively stimulate the muscle and allow enough recovery time before training it again. As mentioned earlier, during this recovery phase the muscles temporarily become stiffer and less flexible while they repair and rebuild.

This is where a conflict can appear for athletes.

Sports such as tennis or pickleball often require reaching shots while the body is fully stretched. Players frequently lunge, extend, or react quickly to balls that force their muscles into long ranges of motion.

If those muscles are still recovering from a hypertrophy session, the increased stiffness and reduced flexibility can make those movements uncomfortable and sometimes increase injury risk.

In other words, two opposing demands can occur at the same time:

• hypertrophy training temporarily reduces flexibility during recovery
• the sport requires explosive movement and large ranges of motion

This is why training priorities matter.

If the main goal is to maximize hypertrophy, the training program should allow muscles to recover properly before being exposed to intense athletic movement. On the other hand, if the priority is sports performance, strength training should be organized so it supports the sport rather than interfering with it.

In practical terms, athletes who want to combine strength training and sport practice should structure their training carefully. For example, demanding hypertrophy sessions should ideally be scheduled on days that allow sufficient recovery before intense sport practice. During periods of high sport activity, it may also be beneficial to reduce hypertrophy volume and focus instead on strength, mobility, or power work that better complements performance.

This is where periodization becomes essential.

Hypertrophy phases are often best placed during off-season or lower competition periods, when athletes can tolerate temporary stiffness and fatigue without it affecting their performance on the court.

As competition approaches, the focus usually shifts toward power, mobility, speed, and sport-specific performance, while heavy hypertrophy work is reduced.

Finally, a good program should never be completely rigid. It should remain flexible and adaptive, taking into account recovery, nutrition, energy levels, schedule, and sport demands.

When strength training is planned properly, it becomes a powerful tool to support athletic performance rather than compete with it.

If you are trying to balance strength training with a demanding sport such as tennis or pickleball, the way your program is structured can make a major difference. Training intensity, recovery timing, exercise selection, and competition schedules all need to be considered carefully.

If you would like guidance and structure in your training so that it maximizes performance while reducing injury risk, you can work with me directly to design a personalized program tailored to your goals, training schedule, competition calendar, and current limitations.

Simply send me an email at moe@smarttraining365.com.

A well-designed program should help your strength training support your sport — not interfere with it.

Written By Moe Larbi
 Founder of SmartTraining365 & Ratel Mentality
Sports Performance Coach
 Helping athletes and everyday lifters train smarter, safer, faster, and stronger under real-world conditions.