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As we witnessed in Andy Murray’s gruelling fight to victory at Wimbledon, tennis puts a huge amount of strain on the body and you don’t need to be Andy Murray to feel the effects of this strain. Tennis injuries are very common and that’s why at Octopus Clinic we are highly experienced in treating tennis related injuries and pain.
Here are four of the most common injuries tennis players face and how to overcome them. Make sure you get all injuries fully assessed and treated before taking on board any of the following advice or doing any of the exercises.
This is an irritation of the tendon that runs over the bony bit of the elbow. The pain comes on slowly often after tennis at first, then during the game and when lifting and twisting, like pouring from a kettle or opening a heavy door. It is caused in particular by the movement required to create top spin. To treat it properly the stability of the shoulder needs to be addressed. If the shoulder is moving inefficiently more strain is exerted on the elbow. Treatment should therefore never focus purely on the elbow itself.
An insight into treatment…
Ankle injuries have been particularly prevalent on the slippery surfaces of Wimbledon this year. The risk of ankle injuries, which can range from ankle ligament sprains, ankle impingement, tendon problems and even fractures; can be reduced by training the stability muscles of the ankle and leg and improving proprioception. Proprioception is the body’s positional sense, i.e. how you can control the position of your arms and legs without having to look at them.
An insight into treatment…
Back injuries can destroy any tennis players’ game whether you are social player or a world champion like Andy Murray. Common back injuries are muscle strains, facet joint injuries or damage to the intervertebral discs. Disc injuries include prolapses, which can irritate the nerves coming out the spine and at worse the spinal cord and therefore must be diagnosed and treated properly by your physiotherapist. Please click on the link to learn more about the spine and back pain.
An insight into treatment…
Far too many people suffer in silence with shoulder aches, pains and injuries. The vast majority fall under the umbrella of shoulder impingement and this is fully treatable with the right physiotherapy. The absolute key to treatment is to get the shoulder working efficiently in the positions required of it to play tennis. It might sound obvious, but if you are only working your shoulder muscles with your arm by your side, there is not going to be sufficient carry over into a tennis swing and certainly not an overhead swing. Therefore your Physiotherapist will need to design exercises that safely rehabilitate your shoulder with your arm moving through the motions required to play tennis.
An insight into treatment…
Remember, you must have your injury or pain fully assessed and treated by an experienced physiotherapist or osteopath.
This is often painful through the middle of the range of movement as you take your arm out to the side and then up to above your head. Try this test – stop as soon as you feel pain: stand with your arms out in front of you as if...
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Read MoreClicking or crunching in the shoulder can be caused by a number of things. Most people fear that the clicking is caused by bone hitting bone. However, thankfully nowadays this is rare. If you have this, it is likely that for many years you have been suffering severe pain and...
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Read MorePain behind the shoulder, behind or around the shoulder blade and/or in your upper back/neck is not strictly speaking a shoulder problem because the pain is probably coming from the back or neck. However, lots of people refer to it as shoulder pain because thats where the discomfort is felt....
Read MoreThis is very similar to tennis elbow except that it affects the other side of the elbow. The pathology and treatment are very similar, just directed at these tendons rather than the ones involved in tennis.
Read MoreTo treat elbow problems properly the stability of the shoulder and neck often needs to be addressed, because if the shoulder is moving inefficiently more strain is exerted on the elbow. Treatment should therefore never focus purely on the elbow itself. However, the following exercise is a valuable exercise in...
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Read MoreThere are a variety of exercises that are great for your shoulders including: 1) Train shoulder posture 2) Train your scapular stabilizers 3) Train serratus anterior muscle 4) Stretch the lats (latissimus dorsi) muscles 5) Train the rotator cuff muscles
Read MorePlease click here to learn about lateral ligament strains before reading the following. Proprioception is the body's positional sense. In other words it is what enables your brain to know where your arms and legs are positioned without needing to look at them. If there is a significant difference in...
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