BLOG: Why 'tennis elbow' is best rectified through movement, not resting
Tennis is a sport we all enjoy watching and our playing reaches a peak over a two-week period of Wimbledon in the summer.
The Australian Open is the next big major tournament, taking place in Melbourne from mid to late January.
Tennis elbow is a condition that effects many players but it’s a condition that effects many more people than just those who like racket sports.
Tennis elbow is a condition medically known as lateral epicondylitis, this basically means an inflamed tendon on the outside of the elbow when the palm is facing forwards.
Painful elbow joint
It is common for office workers, mechanics and even golfers to suffer this problem.
The reason it is described as tennis elbow is because of the repeated forehand topspin applied during a tennis ground-stroke. For beginners, this repeated action causes the muscles of the forearm and wrist to be repeatedly worked beyond their capacity and therefore causes multiple micro tears.
MD Tom Heeley describes exercises for tennis elbow
It can also lead to a shortened and scarred tendon, progressing to a tender, weak and painful elbow joint.
This condition is easily rectified and needs exercises and not resting. The exercise explained in this video will increase the endurance of the muscles, lengthen the tissue and reduce the micro traumas and scarring that occurred previously.
Grip strength
Watch this video and try these exercises to build some real robustness in the forearms.
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1) Holding a cylindrical object, place your wrist over the edge of a box or table and bend up quickly, before spending four seconds slowly going back down with a bent elbow.
2) To work on grip strength, get a tennis ball or a weighted ball and test your reactions with drops and quick catches.
3) Finally, to work on some shoulder strength and to get to the root of the problem, sit down with an active band stretched out at shoulder width and repeatedly move it up and down.
Read more: BLOG - Use your off-season to build up your strength and resilience