How can you prevent common tennis injuries through functional training?

As we know from the fantastic EXPOSS study by Rosedale et al. 47% of shoulder pain and 44% of elbow pain could be coming from spinal source. A mechanical problem in the joints of the spine can manifest as inhibition and pain in the extremity. It’s extremely important to make sure there is no spinal component first BEFORE strengthening or stretching any muscles!

I disagree with “To prevent rotator cuff injuries, you need to strengthen the muscles and tendons that support the shoulder joint, as well as improve your posture and alignment. “ Overhead serves and strokes are not about just shoulder joints, it’s a combination of ankle, hip, thoracic spine, ribs and scapula movement, the whole body parts move together as a team. If any of those part are not doing what they are supposed to do because of joint stiffness, muscular tightness or players’ technique, it will put extra load to the shoulder joint as compensation, therefore pain, inflammation, weakness and reduced range of motion in the shoulder. Analyse the movement, find out what’s not working and fix them.

The best way to prevent common tennis elbow injuries is by improving overall strength, flexibility, and stretches. Some common ways are by first doing warmups dynamically before any bodily activities. After warmups practice common tennis movements with active motion. Strengthen core by utilizing planks, medicine ball throws that strengthen core muscles. Proprioception movments for balance and stabilization. Overall rotational exercises that promote twists, cable wood chops plus drills on unstable surfaces. Overall flexibility routines for shoulder, hips and ankles. Tailor these recommendations based on individual tennis player needs before they lead to injuries.

How about a clean diet. Often over looked but can lead the athlete down a spiral. A healthy body helps not only healing but a clear mind for correct training and recovery periods.

In my experience with training elite and recreational tennis players, arriving to the ball early with ideal movement, agility, fitness and optimal footwork reduces bad biomechanics which lead to poor lower body loading, core stability and ability to generate rotary power and therefore too much upper body required to save the point. Secondly having a physical screen to determine adequate mobility, strength and stabilisation will allow you to focus on an injury prevention strategy.

To strengthen muscles and connective tissue and prevent elbow injuries, I use a routine which is very similar to the one I outlined above for shoulders. The main difference is I keep the arm bent at 90 degrees to perform all these movements. Additionally, I use tiger push-ups to build more strength. A safe variation should be used, and it is better to start at a high angle and gradually progress by lowering the angle. Do sets of 15 to 20 reps and only increase the intensity when you feel very comfortable at your current level. This exercise requires a lot of caution.

If the Tennis elbow is caused by overuse and repetitive stress, why would you strengthen the forearm muscles and tendons such as wrist curls, hammer curls, reverse curls, pronation and supination? Why would you use those muscles more with those exercises when the muscles are overused? The main cause of Tennis elbow are mobility and technique issue, using too much wrist and elbow to hit rather than the thoracic spine and the hips, not weakness of the forearm. Strengthening the forearm will just let a tennis player use more forearm.

Actually I disagree with “To prevent knee injuries, Functional training can help you do that by incorporating exercises such as squats, lunges, step-ups, leg curls, leg extensions and plyometrics.” People usually tell me “When I do squats, my knees hurt”. “When I do lunges, my right knee hurts.” and “When I jump, my left knee hurts.” If the knee pain gets better with those basic leg exercises, what’s the points of physiotherapists? There is far more than “strengthening” to knee pain.

When we look at reducing the chance of injuries, we initially look at three overall buckets; movement ability, strength, and conditioning. In regard to the knees, we want to make sure the individual has good movement ability through the ankle joint and hip joint. We aim to strengthen the individuals posterior chain (glutes and hamstrings), as well as quadriceps, lower leg, and tissues around the knees. For us power lives between strength and conditioning, and in regard to tennis, we want to create scenarios where the individual develops tolerance to explosive lateral movements and can sustain that tolerance over time.

I remember during my early days of training in my mid-thirties, my left knee had a slight teinge of pain. I imediately made adjustments in my diet since there didn't seem to be any seriousness to this 1-2 pain threshold. I began eating more dark green leafy vegetables which was big promo during that era. The miraculously went away. However, now that I'm older, I just terned to my 74th birthday, the pain plus weakness has returned. In January of 2024 I have an appointment schedule with a VA orthopedic spcialist to consider to approach testing for the (Platelet Replacement Procedure) PRP, I'll give a later report of the results.

Based on my experience as a player, more now as I'm wayyy older keeping a flexible body including joints and muscles and a good discipline of exercises like plyometrics and low weights (resistance bands) will keep you more resistant to wear and tear.

I agree but in addition to this, balancing other support muscles for the knee and hip joints ie; lateral and medial muscles of the Quads Vastus lateralis, Vastus Medialus, Vastus Intermedius, the adductor muscles/ aka inner thigh and abductor muscles aka outer thigh muscles must be balanced and strengthened. Many injuries from repetitive side shuffling or forward movement in constant hip and knee flexion, can be prevented or averted by balancing these muscles, so that quads and hamstrings aren’t doing more of the work. It doesn’t do any good to have a client practice functional drills mimicking such movements if these muscles are not in balance as far as strength. Also, I highly recommend stretches or basic modified yoga poses.

Strengthening joints specifically is possible through controlled articular rotations and angular isometric loading. Incorporating joint strength training into a tennis player's programming will benefit the athlete's stability, agility and mobility. Adding global controlled articular rotations or (CAR's) for all joints is the first step in accessing the tendons and ligaments. Once range of motion is established, strength training can begin within the joints themselves. Increasing strength in undertrained joints will reduce the chance of injury during play.

Preventing tennis injuries via functional training involves a holistic approach beyond isolated muscle focus. Addressing global movement mechanics is key. Instead of solely strengthening specific joints like the rotator cuff or knees, understanding overall sport-related mechanics is crucial. Incorporating proper breathing, mindset, and neurophysiological factors is essential to injury prevention. A comprehensive view of movement patterns, rather than isolated muscles, aids in injury avoidance.

Ant injury has a cause either fatigue or movement vice, also lack of miss charge in the blood stream of electrolytes, so is rather important to : Right diet, including all necessary supplements. Right movement hygiene. Relax hours or massage to discharge the muscles. Always better prevent that repair!!

I've always been intriqued by the commercialized slogan, "Mind-Body-Spirit." It is the spiritual benefit in this slogan caused me to want to study more about it's enhancement possiblities and benefit. The benefit of the spiritual aspect of training for strength fosters the resiliency of self-care that empowers us as humans.

Strong muscles and joints, the correct range of motion in the joints is very important, but poor posture and body imbalance can have a very large impact on injuries. It is worth checking your posture, hip position, shoulder position, foot positioning, because all of this affects injuries.

If you want to prevent injuries. Never move again! Obviously, there's risk for injury if you push your limits with any activity. But if the question is to see what can we do to decrease risk for injuries when playing tennis. Improve your strength, endurance, power, mobility of your shoulders, elbows, wrists, spine, hips, knees, ankles, fingers and toes. Perform tennis specific movements: serves, fronthand, backhand, smash with efficient technique stationary and while cutting, dashing. As stated by others, look for compensations due to aforementioned limitations at any joint/muscle during tennis movement and improve it.