Simple Methods for Preventing 5 Common Tennis Injuries
Injuries from tennis often occur because players must exert a tremendous amount of force in highly concentrated areas of the body such as the knees, wrists, shoulders and feet. Fortunately, with the right gear, right technique and proper warm-up/recovery, you can prevent common tennis injuries - including tennis elbow, stress fractures and jumper’s knee - from sidelining you.
Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, is a common tennis injury characterized by inflammation of the tendons joining your forearm and outside elbow. While it can occur from many activities, tennis elbow gets its name because of the repeated wrist strain that tennis players exert when they swing a racket - especially during a backhand stroke executed without proper technique.
How to Prevent Tennis Elbow
Switching to a two-handed backhand stroke is one way to relieve some of the stress on the muscles and tendons in the forearm and elbow. Another is to ensure you have a properly fitted and strung racket. If your racket is too big or strung too tightly, you’ll be adding unnecessary strain on your tendons with every swing. Another method of preventing this tennis injury is using a wrist brace or special elbow counterforce brace. These braces help ease the tension on ligaments while you play, reducing your chances of tearing and inflammation.
Shoulder Injuries
The rotator cuff is a group of four muscles and tendons that surround the shoulder joint, allowing for multi-directional motion and stability. Tennis moves such as a “slam” or even a standard overhead serve can aggravate these tendons, resulting in rotator cuff tendinitis. Symptoms include inflammation, pain, swelling, weakness and restricted motion.
How to Prevent Shoulder Injuries
The key to preventing this common tennis injury is allowing your shoulder to rest between games, drinking plenty of fluids and engaging in the right stretches before and after you play. Ice and anti-inflammatories are helpful post-game to help the body recover. Talk with your doctor about your susceptibility to rotator cuff injuries and what kind of stretches and exercises could help strengthen your shoulder without aggravating any existing tendinitis symptoms.
Stress Fractures
Stress fractures are small cracks in the bone. Tennis players typically acquire stress fractures in the feet and legs due to repeated running and jumping on hard asphalt but can also develop them in the lower back from repeated overhead extensions and bending. Stress fracture pain typically flares up during physical activity and can cause causes swelling, tenderness and bruising.
How to Prevent Stress Fractures
You can prevent stress fractures by careful monitoring the intensity of your training. Warm up slowly and steadily. Add plenty of stretching and hydration. Don’t overexert yourself or increase your intensity all-at-once. Adding a low-impact exercise such as swimming and biking to your off-days will also help strengthen your body to prevent common tennis injuries, especially stress fractures. Working with a tennis instructor can also help improve your technique and prevent stress fractures in your back. Your instructor can teach you how to serve the ball without arching your back too much, and how to balance your body weight correctly.
Jumper’s Knee
Your patellar tendon is what attaches your kneecap to the shinbone and aids in all leg movement. Jumping, especially repeatedly, can put excessive strain on this tendon, resulting in pain and swelling. Jumper’s Knee, also known as patellar tendonitis, is what happens when repeated strain or sudden acute force causes microscopic tears and injury. Jumping, kneeling and walking up and down stairs can cause severe knee pain with this condition.
How to Prevent Jumper’s Knee
Much like preventing stress fractures, Jumper’s Knee is best prevented by moderating your workout intensity, warming up properly and adding low-impact exercises to your workout regime. Playing high-impact sports all the time wears down the cartilage in your knees, so it’s important to give your joints the proper combination of rest and conditioning they need to stay healthy. Solid stretching and icing post-game will also help your tendons to heal faster.
Ankle Sprains
Sprained ankles occur when a ligament in the ankle is stretched too far or torn, causing pain, stiffness, and swelling. Ankle sprains are fairly common in many sports, but there are simple ways to reduce your chances of sustaining this injury from tennis.
How to Prevent Ankle Sprains
While some consider it a badge of honor, ankle sprains can best be avoided by lacing up in proper footwear and wearing supportive gear. You should always select a firm, stable, well-fitting tennis shoe with good shock absorption to play in. You can also put on a tape or ankle brace on to reduce the amount of strain that playing will have on your ligaments. Other ways of preventing ankle sprains are to incorporate balance and strength training exercises as recommended by your doctor or trainer.
Common injuries from tennis are preventable with the right kind of preparation and maintenance. Given that this sport continues to attract many players from all different age groups and backgrounds every year, it’s important that experts and novices learn the ins and outs of injury prevention. If you’ve been injured playing tennis and you want to get back out there, or if you want to learn more about injury prevention, there’s no better place to go then NY Orthopedics.
With help from an expert in orthopedic health, you can get personalized advice to help you safeguard the health of your joints, shoulders and back. Here at NY Orthopedics, we offer the latest in surgical and nonsurgical approaches for treating sports injuries.
To learn more about injury prevention or to set an appointment, contact us today at NY Orthopedics!
