Well the 2012 Wimbledon tournament is over, many of us may still be wallowing in disappointment after Andy Murray made a heroic effort in an amazing final yesterday, but as we all know Roger Federer proved just why he has so many titles to his name, what a match!
Well done Andy, you made us all proud!
The excitement of Wimbledon often inspires many of us to dust of our trainers and tennis racket and hit the court for a game.
What is often neglected is a warm up and cool down, this useful article gives a guide for this and is worthwhile taking into consideration before playing tennis this summer:
Tennis Elbow
With regard to Tennis Elbow, this is quite an interesting injury as you don’t have to have played tennis to suffer with it. The medical name for this condition is Lateral Epicondylitis, essentially pain in or around the outside of the elbow at the common extensor tendon insertion, located at the part or the Humerus bone named lateral epicondyle.
It’s very common in tennis players (hence the name) and is usually associated with poor technique from back hand swing. But this condition can be seen in office workers, typists, carpenters, gas engineers, plumbers and mechanics.
It is an overuse injury, so it is common with anyone who performs repetitive manual tasks as mentioned above.
Pain arises as a consequence of inflammation of the muscular tendon at the elbow which leads to micro tears of the tendon and subsequent fibrosis of the tissues.
It presents with gradual intermittent pain in the elbow and can be associated with activities such as playing racket sports or working with tools, such as a screwdriver or even typing. Certain movements cause pain like lifting shopping bags or the kettle and even grip strength may be affected.
Tennis Elbow, often responds well to manual therapy and in the early stages it’s a good idea to follow RICE (see earlier blog).
If you think you may be suffering with Tennis Elbow, just get in touch with us.
Don’t forget the warm ups and cool downs, and more importantly enjoy the tennis, even though Andy didn’t quite get to be Wimbledon Champion this year, the Olympics are just around the corner, come on Team GB!
