Chiropractic Care for Tennis Players

Tennis is a sport you can play both competitively and recreationally well into your later years. But even though tennis is lower impact than many other sports with shorter playtimes, it is not without risks.

Explosive stopping and starting on hard court surfaces, and continual twisting and torquing during fast-paced play, requires speed, strength, flexibility, and mobility. Proper technique and regular conditioning can help players prevent injury. Sports chiropractic care can help even more.

We regularly see tennis players experiencing pain during play. While tennis elbow is the most well-known tennis injury, others, such as tennis leg and jumper’s knee, are actually more common reasons players seek chiropractic care. In fact, injuries to the lower extremities — foot, ankles, and knees — comprise the majority of tennis-related injuries we treat.

Other injuries common to tennis players are those related to the rotator cuff, pain in the lower back, and imbalance in the shoulder area from overhead swings. Tightness in the shoulder area from play is often the cause of neck pain and headaches as well.

Chiropractic for Pain and Prevention

Repetitive motions and previous injury often result in the build-up of scar tissue that limits mobility by constricting the movement of ligaments, tendons, and muscles. The manual manipulation provided by chiropractic care can be used to identify and break up scar tissue for a greater range of motion.

Along with spine and limb adjustments, sports chiropractic care includes myofascial release, instrument-assisted soft tissue technique, acupuncture, dry needling, and more, to not only reduce pain, inflammation, and soreness associated with training and play, but help to keep muscles supple and unrestricted to improve flexibility and range of motion.

Chiropractic care is extremely effective in helping and rehabbing old or existing injuries, but it can also be key to injury prevention. Regular adjustments to the neck, knee, spine, shoulders, and ankles, along with deep tissue work, and custom rehab and stretching programs are not only successful techniques for preventing injury and other pain during play, but they also offer increased mobility, flexibility, and agility that can improve your game.

If you’re already playing through pain or even mild discomfort that doesn’t go away, and you haven’t tried sports chiropractic care, now is the time — before real damage occurs. Ignoring mild but recurring pain can lead to lasting damage to soft tissue structures, ligaments, tendons, and muscles that may cause you to abandon your game.

Like most sports injuries, tennis-related complaints are much easier to reverse if treatment is initiated early, but even if you are dealing with a nagging pain from an old injury, sports chiropractic care has many therapy options to keep you on the court.