Anyone for tennis?

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As the Wimbledon tennis tournament is upon us once again, we would like to share some knowledge and tips on this topic with you.

Have you picked up your tennis racquet during the tournament and felt some elbow pain after the third or fourth session? Any difficulty pouring a cup of tea or pain on gripping after starting tennis again? Do you work in front of a computer? Have you experienced elbow pain after no clear incident?

If the answer is yes to any of these questions, the chance of it being tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is very high.

This frequent complaint happens as a result of an inflammation on the attachment tendon of the arm when raising your hand from the horizontal line. Most commonly, this is due to overuse or unaccustomed activity. Tendons are very strong in terms of tensile strength but have relatively poor blood supply, which makes them vulnerable and recovery can be lengthy if appropriate care or treatment is not sought.

However, there are lots of things you can do to manage it or prevent this from happening:

• Start warming up in the service boxes first before you go back to the base line to get the area prepared
• Pace yourself when starting tennis again - little and often is always a winner
• Apply an ice pack post exercise for ten minutes at hourly interval times three to decrease the elbow micro inflammation
• It is worth having a couple of tennis lessons to improve your technique and ensure the impact is dissipated throughout the whole upper extremity and not just the elbow
• Worth decreasing the size of your racquet grip to soften the impact
• Pre tennis exercise always remember to warm up the whole upper extremity doing circles with your wrist, elbow and shoulder and neck
• Often tennis elbow presents to non tennis players - if desk bound at work remember to use a wrist rest and have your work station assessed so as not to irritate that tendon
• Lastly visit us and let us help you with this if still in pain or discomfort

Differential diagnosis of tennis elbow click here
How to stretch tennis elbow click here 

If you have any questions call our lovely admin angels or you can book on-line here for a 15-min free assessment.

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