Warmup and cooldown for sensitive elbows

[Rd5rdm]

Hi All,

I have been struggling with elbow pain on and off and have been using flexbar daily and doing some stretching exercises before playing. I have seen a few video and read a few articles about doing a proper warmup and cool down if you have tennis / golfer's elbow, but cant seem to find warmup / cooldown routine just for the arm (most of the ones online focus on legs)

I was wondering if someone has warmup / cooldown routine for arm / elbow before playing, I'd really appreciate that.

Thanks

Rd

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

Bursitis? TE or GE?

 

[Rd5rdm]

Bursitis? TE or GE?

GE

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

GE

Have you considered wearing an elbow strap? A major cause of GE in tennis comes from my squeezing the racket handle too tightly -- especially when performing certain actions of the hand (& wrist). It might be too firm too much of the time.

Or it could be your squeeze shortly before contact. While such a squeeze is normal, your squeeze might be excessive. On a scale of 1 to 10, that maximum squeeze should only be about 5 or 6.

Let's say at 0, the racket falls out of your hand so a good pressure of one means your barely holding on to the racket. Your normal grip pressure (when you are not squeezing into contact) should only be about 2 or 3. So most of the time, when you are holding the racket, that would be your relaxed grip pressure. It will firm up a bit, late in your forward swing (or offered swing on the serve, immediately before contact and during contact. After the ball is left strings, your grip relaxes again on the follow thru.

You can use an elbow strap as a feedback mechanism to let you know if you are squeezing too firmly too much of the time. Put the strap on your forearm, near the elbow at the GE location, so that it is a little bit snug, not tight, when you hold the racket handle at that 2-3 grip force.

If you have it adjusted properly, the elbow strap will feel tighter when you increase your grip pressure too much. If you become aware of this tightness, it can serve as a reminder to relax your grip.

Note that the elbow strap will also change the geometry of your forearm somewhat to minimize stress to the inflamed area. The strap might also help to keep the forearm muscle and tendon warn during play. Remove it after play so that that area can cool off.

 

[SystemicAnomaly]

GE

Oh yeah, it was right there in your OP. Because of eye convergence issues, I often just skim written texts and sometimes miss important details.

Onward. You should consider wearing a large rubber band around your wrist (like a bracelet). Periodically, during the day, you can use the rubber band to perform finger extension exercises as shown in the image above and the video below.

Just prior to playing, you might try some finger extension warm up exercises without the rubber band. Start with the hand fairly relaxed in the O shown below. From that position open and close the fingers rhythmically. You should feel some action in the forearm as well as in the fingers as you do this.

This O position of the hand can also be used for dexterity exercises where the tip of the thumb moves from one finger to the next -- slow at first and then more rapidly

Golfer's Elbow: Exercises

myhealth.alberta.ca

 

[movdqa]

I'm pretty good doing the Flexbar daily.

I do have some arm exercises for the arm and elbow but I do them before running.

1) Take arm, place it horizontall across body. Grab elbow with opposite hand and pull the elbow.
2) Arm over head and lower arm horozontal and pull with opposite hand to the opposite side.
3) Elbow in an inverted V above head, pull elbow down with opposite hand.

And that's all I got.

 

[tennisintheeighties]

Have you considered wearing an elbow strap? A major cause of GE in tennis comes from my squeezing the racket handle too tightly -- especially when performing certain actions of the hand (& wrist). It might be too firm too much of the time.

Or it could be your squeeze shortly before contact. While such a squeeze is normal, your squeeze might be excessive. On a scale of 1 to 10, that maximum squeeze should only be about 5 or 6.

Let's say at 0, the racket falls out of your hand so a good pressure of one means your barely holding on to the racket. Your normal grip pressure (when you are not squeezing into contact) should only be about 2 or 3. So most of the time, when you are holding the racket, that would be your relaxed grip pressure. It will firm up a bit, late in your forward swing (or offered swing on the serve, immediately before contact and during contact. After the ball is left strings, your grip relaxes again on the follow thru.

You can use an elbow strap as a feedback mechanism to let you know if you are squeezing too firmly too much of the time. Put the strap on your forearm, near the elbow at the GE location, so that it is a little bit snug, not tight, when you hold the racket handle at that 2-3 grip force.

If you have it adjusted properly, the elbow strap will feel tighter when you increase your grip pressure too much. If you become aware of this tightness, it can serve as a reminder to relax your grip.

Note that the elbow strap will also change the geometry of your forearm somewhat to minimize stress to the inflamed area. The strap might also help to keep the forearm muscle and tendon warn during play. Remove it after play so that that area can cool off.

Great advise for all rec players !!!