I am a very new forum member. Please forgive me if, perhaps, I speak a bit too boldly given my unfamiliarity with the forum. This is a subject dear to my heart, though, and I wanted to participate in this great discussion. Please feel free to correct me if I have made any mistakes in this post.
I am seventeen years old, and planning to take physical therapy courses in college to eventually earn my doctorate (I enter college this fall!
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There are a lot of great points and posts in this discussion, but I wanted to add that if you ask some of the best physical therapists (Dr. Kelly Starrett or Pete Egosque, for example) or probably any physical therapist worth his weight in salt what cause Tennis Elbow or other such typical athletic "overuse" conditions, his/her answer will probably be that these injuries are caused by the following:
1) Improper biomechanics (i.e. somebody uses poor form that presents too much stress on the major muscles, tendons, or ligaments such that the body is forced to use "sideline" muscles to compensate for the major ones that are not able to handle the stress. The "sideline" muscles are forced to compensate which pulls the joints out of their regular position, which starts its own cascade of problems and improper compensations.)
That's generally it (at least as according to what I've read in Pete Eqosque's book, "Pain Free" so far). As far as I've read thus far, the most common cause of the so-called overuse injuries or even many of the sudden sport injuries are caused or influenced by
A) bad biomechanics, which is caused by
**a) weakness in the major moving muscles of the movement,
**b) stiffness in strong joint effecting muscles that are pulling the joint out of proper place, or
** c) just plain inappropriate form (which is why it is so incredibly important to learn things right the first time, so that you can begin enforcing the appropriate biomechanics)
A lot of the time, and for most people, there are things in people's past (various forms of biomechanically incorrect movement or non-movement) that cause them to enter a sport already in a bad position. They may have failing arches (in their feet) which causes supination in the foot to compensate for the lack of rotation and support that the arches give, which turns the knee medially (inwardly) into an entirely improper and unsupportable position while walking around every day, on or off the court. When this person enters the court to learn tennis, he is automatically predispositioned to suffering a knee injury during a lunge or jump.
The body is like a scaffold, if it is not balanced properly in ALL joints with every one of them in its proper place, it will all come apart. There is no such thing as an isolated joint...
I do not know much of tennis elbow yet, but from what I hear idly, it is strongly related to the condition and health of the shoulder. I expect that I will encounter a description and analysis of the condition in Pain Free, but I have not yet.
From what I can surmise, though, I would not be surprised if it is a combination of the following.
1) More people live a sedentry lifestyle today than ever before. Because of this, people are much less adept at moving. They move less and less, and because of the lack of use, muscles atrophy. When they enter the court and...
2) start trying to hit heavy serves, FH, BH, and who knows what else like the pro's with very poor form, they are not only presenting stress to the body in that the movement pattern is already corrupt, but the body is already having to pull other muscles out of their regular position to compensate for the major ones that have atrophied and are no longer able to perform their function without help. This pulls everything out of position, and then no matter what they do besides going back and correcting the original biomechanics, they will suffer pain, be it in the form of a dodgy hip, back, knee, or elbow.
Lack of movement = bad biomechanics (move it or lose it, right?
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Bad biomechanics + good form = Injuries
Bad biomechanics + bad form = much worse injuries
Let me know if this makes any sense, I've been up since 5 am and I need sleep.... ha!