Lower Tricep Pain

[tarheels2323]

To start off, I've never had any arm pain in my life associated with playing tennis but in the past week I've experienced pain in my lower tricep on my dominant arm, two or three inches above the elbow. We hold practice for two hours a day, every day except Saturday and the past four or five practices have been marked by gradually increasing pain followed by me taking a few Advil or whatever I have in my bag. The pain goes away and only hurts when I'm hitting, but I'm worried it may be more than a muscle strain. With the start of the semester, I haven't been lifting on a regular basis so I don't believe that could be the cause. Anyone have any ideas?

Edit: Last practice I played with my Redondo mid instead of one of my kFactor 90s (now strung with BB Rough on the mains @ 56 lbs. and Isospeed Control on the crosses @ 58 lbs.) to be a little nicer to my arm and there was no pain but I had already taken a few mild painkillers so I can't be sure that it was the more flexible racquet as oppose to the wonder of modern over the counter drugs.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Icing or ice massage is probably a good idea after your workout sessions, even if it doesn't hurt any more when you stop playing. Your playing pain could be an early sign of tendinitis of the triceps.

Does the service motion bother you more than groundstrokes? The arm extension on the serve probably represents the most forceful use of the triceps. If this is the case, try to generate more of your power from your legs (with a knee bend) and proper body/stroke mechanics.

If you use a 1-handed BH, be sure that most of your power is not generated from an exaggerated arm extension.

 

[tarheels2323]

My stroke mechanics are pretty solid, so that isn't the problem. I'm betting that it's just a minor muscle strain from starting to play a good bit again after a month-long layoff for Christmas break where I only hit twice the whole time. It didn't hurt too bad at practice yesterday so hopefully it will be alright tonight. The ice is a good idea, though. I'll try that if it acts up again tonight.