Saturday, June 6, 2009

Common Tennis Injuries

There are several things that you need to be well aware of as you consider how you are playing tennis. The body is susceptible to so many different potential injuries in the process of playing tennis that it is very important to be careful about how you play so that you can avoid as many injuries as possible. Yet even the most careful player will likely have an injury at some point in time. Learning to avoid most injuries and also learning which are most common will give you the advantage in a fast treatment, which will ultimately lead to a quick healing process.

Of course true to the name tennis elbow tends to be a very common injury. This is an injury that occurs to the upper arm on the inside close to the elbow itself. This tends to create problems with the way that you use your arm overall and if you are not careful you can badly injure your arm even further. The best for of prevention for tennis elbow is some rest as well as ensure that you are stretching thoroughly both before and after any time that you play. Even if you are only playing for a short period of time while you practice a good stretch is still useful to avoid injury.

Another highly common problem is tendinitis. There are several different types that tend to strike at tennis players and they include shoulder tendinitis, rotator cuff tendinitis, Achilles tendinitis and even wrist tendinitis. Tendinitis itself is defined as inflammation of the tendons. This means that for each area where tendinitis can occur for a tennis player that the tendons have become inflamed, irritated or even swollen. The exact amount of time it takes for tendinitis to heal generally varies greatly but it can be anywhere from a couple of days to several weeks.

Another highly common problem is osteoarthritis that occurs in the knee. Because of the huge amount of impact that occurs to the knees it is very important to ensure that they are as strong as possible as well as the shoes that you wearing are very strong. If you wear shoes without proper cushioning and do not take good care of your knees then you are at a much higher risk for osteoarthritis.

The biggest thing that you need to always keep in mind is that most tennis injuries are either acute or cumulative. This means that either they occur over time due to being over used or they occur suddenly due to trauma. Regardless of the exact type of injury taking the precautions necessary to ensure that you are wearing the appropriate safety equipment will go a very long way to ensure that you avoid as many injuries as possible.  

It is also a wise idea to look into finding a good sports medicine doctor that you can work with in the event that you get an acute injury such as a torn rotator cuff, shoulder separation or even an Achilles tendon rupture. Taking proper care of injuries quickly is very important so knowing exactly who you will see if an injury occurs is a very wise decision to have worked out that will help you ensure that you stay as safe and healthy as possible no matter how long you play tennis.