Despite the name, people get tennis elbow for a wide variety of reasons. This irritation of the tendons connecting your forearm to the elbow can be caused by repetitive arm motions used by people like carpenters, plumbers, painters and butchers. Whether you’ve dealt with this condition before and want to avoid a recurrence or you consider yourself at-risk due to your profession or love of tennis, wanting to prevent this condition is more than understandable. 

While there’s no way to completely injury-proof yourself, certain targeted exercises can give you a better chance of avoiding problems. It’s highly recommended to work with a trained professional when learning any exercise designed for injury prevention. To help you take a more proactive role in this process, we’re happy to share the following brief guide of the benefits and objectives of therapeutic exercise to help prevent tennis elbow. 

How can exercises prevent tennis elbow

Tennis elbow can develop due to a number of underlying causes. This includes posture, muscle imbalances, body mechanics and possibly even genetic factors. Targeted exercises can help to address these contributors in the following important ways: 

• Improving your posture and balance 
• Strengthening the right supporting muscles
• Correcting mechanical issues
• Increasing range of motion 
• Improving blood flow to the area

Specific exercises can include stretching and extension exercises that target the fingers, wrists and extensors. The complexity of the structures in the elbow, forearm and wrist means that an experienced professional is often best able to provide the training required to perform these in a way that can effectively lower the risk of developing tennis elbow. 

It’s also important to practice body awareness and proper technique in any of your daily activities. If you’re a tennis player, enlist the aid of a coach or other qualified professional to help you learn proper racquet technique.

Trust Continuum Wellness for your therapeutic exercise needs

Whether you’re trying to prevent tennis elbow or are currently recovering from this injury, physical therapy and rehabilitation can help. At Continuum, our experienced clinicians can provide a comprehensive evaluation and recommend the exercises, therapies and healthy lifestyle choices that are right for you. 

Ready to get started? Contact us today to schedule your initial appointment.