Is tennis as low-key as it seems? 

Short answer: no. Though tennis is used by people of all ages to maintain a high level of fitness, it is generally considered a more gentle sport. But no matter the intensity that you play at, you are still performing a series of movements that cause unique stresses to your body. Lets take a look at the ways that tennis challenges your body, as well as a framework for treating your body that minimizes the risk for injury while maximizing performance on the court.

Chiropractic’s role in tennis

Tennis is also a sport of repetitive movements that places a disproportionate amount of stress on certain parts of the body:

• Shoulders: shoulder joints perform ballistic movements akin to a baseball pitch or a quarterback’s throw.
• Core network of muscles: the core stabilizes your movement; as forces are transfered across the body during serves, strokes and pivots, core muscles prevent such powerful and aggressive movements from causing injury.
• Joints in the lower body: the ankles and kness receive a lot of stress from striking the ground during runs, as well as the stop-and-go nature of movement on the court. 

Put together, these local stresses create systemic stress, the kind that threatens spinal alignment and reduces motor control efficiency. Lastly, in order to perform your best, you need full range of motion throughout the body. If we can therefore treat the muscles and joints involved in these unique tennis motions, we will mitigate wear and tear, reduce the chance for injury, increase range of motion and boost the coordination of nervous and musculoskeletal systems. But how do we do this? 

Staying ahead of the competition with chiropractic

Tennis, like golf, requires a high level of coordination between the nervous system and musculoskeletal system- it is a sport that challenges your motor skills. Chiropractic seeks to remove interference in the nervous system by alleviating pressure from spinal nerves. By reestablishing spinal alignment, range of motion in the spinal joints is improved. Finally we work on providing hands-on support to epicenters of tension in the muscle, releasing painful trigger points and increasing circulation throughout the body. If you are interested in finding out more about how chiropractic can improve your tennis game, give our office in Sacramento a call to schedule an appointment today.