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Tennis Fitness - Sport Exercises To Burn Calories

Almost everyone has played tennis at some point and it is one of the most universal sports, played by both sexes and all ages.

Tennis has huge impact on cardiovascular stimulation but also can be jarring on the joints with all the impact and pivots. Tennis Elbow is called this because that is a general cause but can be caused by other sports such as golf as well as jobs such as carpentry. They all have 'overuse' as a commonality.

Although severe injuries can be caused during game play such as ACL tears and ankle sprains, you can also cause subtle injury to your elbow tendon which progresses in pain over the hours. Once this syndrome is awakened, it can become chronic and should be taken seriously at first sign.

RICE is the first to be applied.

Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation.

I always suggest physiotherapy but do not use this as a crutch. They are not there to FIX you every time you are injured and then you can go off and be the weekend warrior again until hurt and returning to the clinic. It is up to you to continue the joint conditioning so that this problem does not rear its head again!

You do not have to go into a gym to help this condition. Simple exercise bands or dumbbells will work fine. 5-10 minutes every few days is all the time you need to invest in order to keep this pain at bay and continue enjoying your sport. Work both sides regardless if only one side is sore.

Forearm exercises such as wrist rollers or wrist curls both palm up and palm down will strengthen the tendon attached at the elbow, the culprit behind Tennis Elbow. Ensuring your biceps, triceps and forearms are well stretched will assist in the avoidance of the tendon rubbing the elbow from tightness. Pulling on the tendon with repetitive elbow bending and extending will aggravate the tendon just like a carpet burn and swinging is precisely that.

Wrist rotations done with larger range of motion are excellent done both clockwise and counter clockwise. Pronation and supination work rotationally and are easily done with bands. While seated, lay your forearms on your thigh, palm down, holding the band so that it you step on one end and the other end inserts from the thumb side, rotate the wrist outward so that the palm turns to face up, then return slowly. Now start with palm up, band inserted from thumb area again, rotate your wrist to bring palm downwards and return with control.

The last exercise is deviation, done with dumbbells in hand, arms to side, slowly bend the wrist forward with thumb leading, and then back the other way with pinky leading. This movement is the opposite of the wrist curls. Make sure the arms do not bend through this exercise.

Better your game with these simple exercises while avoiding injury. Perform these with light weight and higher repetitions. Tennis is about repetitive swings so the exercise has to be repetitive with a large number of reps.

By Linda Cusmano