Tennis is undoubtedly one of the best sports and can be an entertaining way to get your heartbeats pumping and the most out of your competitive spirit. It is also a great way to keep your body moving especially if you have a desk job. However, some injury-related risks could be involved if you don’t know what you’re doing.
Preventing a tennis back injury is important for every player, even if you’re just starting. By learning how to prevent one from happening in the first place, you can avoid missing time on the court. Here are some essential tips to help prevent getting tennis back injuries and playing hurt.
Warm-Up Properly Before Playing Tennis
The primary step in preventing tennis back injury is warming up properly. You should warm up your back muscles with light exercises for about ten minutes before playing a game. For instance, the lower back is one of the most critical parts of your body that will take a lot of strain if you play tennis for any length of time. In that regard, doing some lower back exercises such as back extensions, side planks, glute hamstring raises, and rack pulls before you get your racquet out of your bag is always a good idea for tennis enthusiasts. These basic exercises can help strengthen your core muscles and improve your posture, especially if you’re playing regularly.
Make Sure To Never Overextend Yourself
When doing stretches or exercising, make sure that you don’t overextend yourself by lifting weights too high or making a move that causes too much stress on your upper body. This will put extra pressure on your muscles and cause them to become tight again quickly.
Keep Your Weight At A Healthy Level
Tennis players need to watch their weight because the heavier they are, the more force they put on their spine when they swing the racquet or hit balls. To avoid injury, try eating right and getting plenty of exercises to feel energetic during matches and practices. Additionally, drink water throughout the day to prevent dehydration and muscle cramps in your back and legs.
Take Breaks From The Court
A heart rate monitor can help monitor your heart rate during play, which can help you understand when you should take a break from the court. Lengthen your breaks by taking walks around the court, stretching, or cooling down with water or ice packs after matches.
Wear Proper Shoes For Matchplay
When playing singles matches or doubles matches with other players, wear shoes made specifically for tennis that have padding in them so that your feet don’t get sore from walking around all day long on hard courts or grass courts in certain weather conditions without proper footwear on hand.
Final Thoughts
For many, sports—including tennis—is a great way to stay fit, build community, and have fun. But it can also increase your chances of back injury if taken too far or improperly. Unfortunately, many athletes try to play through pain until they get to a point where they are unable to move without feeling pain in the affected area. This can lead to chronic inflammation and lead to further injuries down the road.
So, if you have ever had tennis back injury before, you know how painful it can be! You probably also know that healing can take months or even years, so you will want to avoid this type of injury in the future by taking some preventative measures now!
What a great article! I can relate to this as I had back injury before. This is very informative. Thanks for sharing it to your readers!
I remember a friend who had back injury. He was forced to retire. It’s too bad. Thanks for the reminder that we need to properly warm-up. It does help minimize tennis related injury.