Pain in forearm

[frenzy]

Hi,

Last week I had some pain in my forearm while playing tennis and also afterwards. The pain is located at the non-palm side of the arm at about 2,5 inches from my elbow (higher upper part of my forearm). Since the pain is not near my elbow itself, I don't think it is a tennis elbow.

But what can it be... It feels like muscle soreness and tiredness. It does not give pain shots when moving, it's more like a continuous pain. I feel it the most when I hold my racket stady in front of my, since I need to counter the racket's head weight.

Could it be related to squeezing the racket whilst playing? Or to tensed muscles while playing?

 

[Jay_The_Nomad]

Is it a dull throbbing pain that is there all the time and you can feel it if you press the area?

If so its probably tendinitis on the forearm section.

I had similar problem a long time ago and added lead tape and the pain went away.

 

[mikeler]

Probably tennis elbow.

 

[tlm]

Its the early warning of TE.

 

[frenzy]

Hi Jay,

Yes, you described it well . Where did you put your lead tape?

Thx!

 

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

Hi Jay,

Yes, you described it well . Where did you put your lead tape?

Thx!

Hopefully he meant to say put the lead tape on the racquet, and not on the forearm.

Otherwise, you'll have another thing to worry about: skin cancer.

 

[mikeler]

Hi Jay,

Yes, you described it well . Where did you put your lead tape?

Thx!

I'm skeptical that lead tape can cure tennis elbow but go ahead and give it a whirl.

 

[frenzy]

Thanks for all the advices so far. Today I will play again and after some reading about TE, I am going to apply the following:

- hold racket loosely
- not breaking the follow through swing
- going for 70% power instead of full power

Hopefully this will get better results. If not, I will try my old racket (I have Babolat Pure Drive GT right now, which is quite stiff).

Meanwhile, I am stretching the muscle a few times a day (6-8 times) by making a fist, straighten my arm and pulling the fist inside. If feel no pain doing this, altough the muscle "feels" a bit less flexible than the one on my non-dominant arm. I hope this helps and does not do any harm, I guess not since I do not feel any pain. I'll keep you posted on the results.

 

[frenzy]

BTW: I am using poly strings now, Tecnifibre Black Code 16 String. I have read that poly strings are not very arm friendly. I have to get a new string on my racket soon, do you recommend switching to another type? And which one would you recommend?

Thanks!

 

[Jay_The_Nomad]

Hi Jay,

Yes, you described it well . Where did you put your lead tape?

Thx!

Applied the lead tape in the throat/handle area to increase overall static weight without affecting the balance. Or You can try some of the suggestions here http://www.tennis-warehouse.com/lc/customize.html

The racquet felt much more comfortable due to the increased weight.

Are you using a very light stiff racquet with full poly strings at a high tension?

If you are then it could be a painful setup. You might want to first increase the static weight of your racquet. If thats still not enough you might have to lower the poly tension, then if that's not enough, switch to hybrid or even non-poly.

If its still bad, you might have to just bite the bulllet and get a more flexible racquet.

And you might want to take a sometime off to let the tendons rest. What you're feeling is overuse injury which is an inflammation of the forearm tendons. And the best cure is rest so your body can heal it. Overuse injury is simply micro tears in the tendon that cause inflammation and pain.

 

[mikeler]

BTW: I am using poly strings now, Tecnifibre Black Code 16 String. I have read that poly strings are not very arm friendly. I have to get a new string on my racket soon, do you recommend switching to another type? And which one would you recommend?

Thanks!

Natural gut is best if you can afford it. Multifilament strings like Mantis Comfort Synthetic (I think Pro's Pro Hi-Tec Multifibre is the same string), Babolat Xcel, Pro Supex Maxim Touch 17 and Discho Microfibre (I think Signum Pro Micronite is the same string) are all very soft.

 

[frenzy]

Well, I have played with my old racket yesterday and the results were positive: no pain at all in my arm. I guess the Babolat's stiffness is the culprit...

I will play a few times with the old one to see if my arm keeps pain free. If that's the case, the Babolat needs to go...

 

[garywsyu]

my arm is breaking because of poly string............go gut or multi fils...........won't be wrong!

 

[ATP100]

Very simple and common, you are holding racquet too tight.