How to protect your game’s most important allies.
Your joints work overtime to keep you moving, so you need to treat them right. Joint injuries and pain cause many cancelled matches, but most injuries could be prevented if athletes only knew how to take better care of their joints. Here’s the best joint advice you’ve never heard.
Break your painkiller habit. Stuart Warden, an assistant professor in the department of physical therapy at Indiana University, warns that the ritual of taking ibuprofen or aspirin, a.k.a. non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, before activity does more harm than good. “These agents are treatments for the symptoms of an injury, not the injury itself,” Warden says. Using medications unnecessarily can interfere with your ability to heal and adapt after exercise, causing joint injuries in mild cases, and stomach ulcers and cardiovascular problems in severe cases. Next time you reach for over-the-counter painkillers, take only the recommended dosage for no more than a week following a serious injury, and never use them as a replacement for seeing your physician.
Try tai chi. Researchers at the Tufts University School of Medicine in Massachusetts have discovered that people over 65 with knee osteoarthritis can use tai chi to boost physical performance and reduce pain. This martial art encourages slow, rhythmic movements that relax the mind and body while enhancing balance, strength and flexibility. San Francisco-based tai chi instructor Tina Chin-Kaplan, the 2001 women’s national champion in tai chi, recommends twice-weekly 60-minute practices for at least three months. You should see joint improvements and “improved balance, and stronger quads, glutes and hamstrings,” says Chin-Kaplan, who’s also an acupuncturist and graduate of the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Include tai chi moves in warmups, too. Just be sure to learn proper technique from an instructor. “A video or book can’t correct you if your form is wrong,” Chin-Kaplan says.
Be flexible. Players who only exercise by playing tennis are at greater risk for injuries, says Dr. Neeru Jayanthi, a USPTA-certified teaching pro and medical director for primary care sports medicine at the Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago. A study he led that analyzed 3,366 matches in USTA junior tournaments found that players who played only tennis were more likely to withdraw from competition for medical reasons, including injuries to joints. It’s necessary for tennis players to cross-train to prevent overuse injuries. Jayanthi says you should play other sports, such as basketball, soccer or Ultimate Frisbee, and do exercises that enhance flexibility and core and upper-body strength. “Examples include yoga, Pilates and maintaining aerobic fitness through cardio tennis instead of just playing as usual,” Jayanthi says.
Originally published in the June 2010 issue of TENNIS.