How to Prevent Tennis Elbow When Playing Tennis?

This article covers all about tennis elbow. It is a helpful guide to tennis players or players who opt to play tennis. The article discusses what tennis elbow is, symptoms, causes, prevention, and treatment.

Tennis elbow is a condition that can occur due to playing tennis or other sports. The condition is caused by the handball used in place of your hand in the game. This type of handball is specific to tennis and can help prevent the elbow from getting sick. It is essential to avoid getting a tennis elbow if you can avoid it.

The symptoms of the tennis elbow are pain and inflammation that are located at the elbow joint. The pain is usually experienced in the first few weeks of playing tennis. The pain can be felt on both sides of the elbow joint. Sometimes, the person experiencing this problem will feel pain only on one elbow side. A person who experiences this problem might also feel weakness and tingling initially. Your arm will become more swollen and painful to touch or move around with as time goes by. This condition can also cause a feeling of stiffness in your wrist, which is caused by swelling in your forearm muscles.

When playing tennis, it is essential to use good handball. This will prevent your elbow from getting sick. Plus, it is important not to get the elbow if you can avoid it. Try not to play the game standing up. It would be best if you also tried to avoid storing your arm in a bent position for a long time. If you do this, you will increase the risk of developing tennis elbow.

The most common causes of tennis elbow are:

• Improper form in movement and playing: Tennis elbow is caused by improper movement of your arm and shoulder during the game. If you have a hard time moving your arm or shoulder, try to make some changes to your playing habits or movements. You can also use a foam roller on top of your shoulder blades or lower back for better movement and flexibility. （For beginners, you can read this article to learn how to play tennis.）

• Playing too long: If you play too much, you may get pain due to the overuse of muscles inside the arm and shoulder. When playing too long, it is recommended that you use wrist wrap tape so that your wrist does not get injured while playing tennis.

• Playing with too much force: You should also play enough to prevent your elbow from getting hurt. When playing with too much force, you risk getting a tennis elbow.

• Playing with the wrong technique: You should always play with the right technique. If you use the wrong technique, you may get a tennis elbow.

• Bad posture: It is also important to have good posture while playing. If you have bad posture, you may get a tennis elbow.

• Improper equipment: Improper equipment can also cause tennis elbow. For example, if your racket has too much flex, your arm and wrist may be injured when using the racket.

Tennis elbow can be prevented or avoided through:

• It is recommended that we always have wrist wraps to use, especially when you are new to tennis. Wrist wraps can help improve your performance by preventing tennis elbow injury.

• Wear appropriate protective gear when playing tennis( tennis elbow compression sleeve) before exercising. For example, when playing with a racket, you should use wrist guards to prevent injury.

• Warm-up or stretch before exercising or playing. Stretch your muscles before playing. Your muscles last longer than you think.

• Regularly rotate the activity you are often doing (if you are playing tennis, do not practice the same parts of your body during every session).

• Do correct use technique while practicing the sport.

• Use a suitable racket size or have its proper size chosen. Tennis elbow is aggravated by improper technique before the elbow injury. Loose grips should be avoided.

• Don't play too long. After the extended play, first, relax and keep cool with a cold compress to ease the symptoms of tennis elbow.

• When it's time to take a rest, avoid tedious and hard work.

• If you still have tightness, do not play further to avoid the aggravation of the tennis elbow.

Tennis elbow can be treated by using the following treatments:

• Ice: You should ice your arm for about 20 minutes once a day if you have tennis elbow or pain in your arm and wrist from playing. If you are at work, you can ice your arm before going to sleep at night so that you will wake up with less pain during the day.

• Anti-inflammatory medicine: You can take ibuprofen or aspirin. Please don't exceed the daily dose since it can sometimes worsen the condition of your elbow.

• Splinting: You can apply a bone-shaped orthopedic splint to immobilize your elbow for 7 to 10 weeks. You need to make sure that you take anti-inflammatory preparation for at least two days every week if you have tennis elbow to reduce the swelling and pain.

• Shrink Rapide: These reconfigured cells in the tissue swell during an injury to assist inflammation, growth, repair, and function when healing ends. The shrink Rapider effectively decreases pain and inflammation while diminishing swelling and redness in your elbow.

• Anti-fungal creams: The cream kills cells that adversely affect your elbow, so swelling and pain naturally lessen.

In conclusion, treating tennis elbow can be arrested much earlier than expected if the risk factors are recognized and eliminated. However, any sign or symptom should not be ignored as it may be a warning sign of an eventual tear and thus result in irreparable damage.

It is better to practice tennis elbow prevention in playing tennis instead of using over-the-counter pain killers. Identification of the risk factors which cause tennis elbow and correction should decrease your dependency on medication from seeing your physician too often.

Read more: What Does a Compression Sleeve do for Tennis Elbow?