Why Are Tennis Injuries So Common?
As mentioned above, tennis is undoubtedly one of the most popular sports among young and adult populations worldwide. It ranks 5th, being surpassed by soccer, basketball, volleyball, and swimming. Although it is not a contact sport, these people may suffer an endless number of injuries that can occur in any joint of the body.Tennis is a sport that requires adequate equipment and technical mastery to reduce injuries significantly. However, it is common to find professional and amateur athletes starting the activity without doing a proper warm-up or not complying with muscle recovery times.It is, therefore, necessary to understand a little about the sporting gesture and which joints are mainly involved during the practice, which can include the following:Shoulder Joint Complex
The shoulder joint is important for daily activities and tennis movements like serving and racket handling.Elbow Joint Complex
During tennis, the complex joints can perform important movements for achieving the backhand and driving. Injuries are common in this area.Wrist Joint Complex
This complex is also essential for the drive and backhand actions, and passive stabilizers such as ligamentous tissues must participate.Trunk and Hip Joints
These are particularly necessary to achieve balance and control during changes of direction that occur during sports movements, which generally involve rotational movements of the trunk and hip.Ankle Joints
One of the most damaging is the great stabilizing demand required by the external ligaments and muscles that prevent the foot from twisting when making sudden changes of direction or zigzag movements.As you can see, tennis is a sport that involves the use of practically the entire body, requiring a high functional demand that includes not only the movement of muscles as mobilizers and stabilizers along with ligaments but also requires a strong cardiac and energetic expenditure, which involves the cardiovascular and cardiorespiratory system to guarantee the arrival of oxygen to all the structures in use. That is why, to ensure the health of tennis players, especially those in high competition, it is crucial to have a sports health specialist and clinics such as sports physical therapy in Orlando to guarantee the optimal performance of athletes.Common Injuries Suffered by Tennis Players
Now, it's crucial to establish the concept of an injury. From the perspective of physiotherapy and rehabilitation, an injury is considered an alteration in the homeostasis of one of the body's tissues. In other words, we are talking about a change at a morphological or structural level that takes place in one of the body's tissues due to internal or external damage. This causes not only pain but also significant limitation and restriction, affecting the correct development of daily activities.We are talking about a morphological change in the tissues due to internal or external damage due to trauma.Therefore, based on the above, it is essential to be aware of all those injuries that can occur after playing tennis and that can significantly affect the health and physical well-being of the athlete. Sports physical therapy clinics in Orlando usually treat the following injuries:- Tennis elbow or epicondylitis: This is one of the most common injuries resulting from playing tennis. It is caused mainly by inflammation of the extensor muscles of the wrist and hand. It usually manifests a characteristic clinical picture that includes pain situated at the level of the external side of the elbow.
- Ankle sprains: Where a sprain is a partial strain or total tear of the collagen fibers of the ankle ligaments, mainly affecting the anterior talofibular ligament. It can also affect the posterior talofibular ligament and the calcaneus fibular ligament, causing a severe state of inflammation and edema located on the outer side of the ankle.
- Achilles tendonitis: Like tennis elbow, this condition involves inflammation of the muscle tendons, in this case, the Achilles tendon located at the heel. It is usually caused by overloading and is basically an inflammatory and painful process similar to epicondylitis. It usually occurs in middle-aged adults.
- Hamstring tear: The most common tennis injury is muscle overload, which can cause micro-tears or even a complete tear. This can lead to intense pain, difficulty moving the affected area, and inflammation with fluid retention due to high vascularization of the muscle tissue.
- SLAP or frozen shoulder: This condition affects the labrum that borders the glenohumeral joint of the shoulder. It causes micro-tears that can lead to instability and pain.
- Shoulder dislocation is defined as the loss of bone contact between the articular surfaces of the shoulder. It happens when the humeral head loses contact with the glenoid cavity of the scapula since the shoulder is known as the most unstable joint in the human body.
