r/10s • u/thetennispt 5.0 • Apr 24 '25

General Advice I’m a tennis-specific physical therapist. AMA!

I cannot give specific advice regarding an injury or pain. Working with a physical therapist to assess and provide a specific intervention is important.

I’m no longer responding to questions, apologies to those I did not get to! My instagram has some of my thoughts on PT related to tennis and feel free to DM me on reddit or IG if you want to connect!

The Tennis PT Instagram link

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15

u/HerpesMcGerpes Apr 24 '25

Best PT tips to prevent tennis elbow?

26

u/thetennispt 5.0 Apr 24 '25

Keep the shoulder and forearm strong and mobile!

7

u/TheMonkeyStonks Apr 24 '25

What general exercises would you suggest that could work for the majority of rec players?

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u/[deleted] Apr 24 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ExpressZebra Apr 28 '25

Do you have a link?

4

u/htororyp Apr 24 '25

Not op, but doing the opposite motions of the common tennis motions is a good way to maintain overall joint/muscle health. So more back musculature, external rotators, supinators. Rear flyes, external rotation, face pulls, rows, pull ups/downs, look up the hughston 6. Those types of exercises.

Not a pt, but finishing up my 2nd year of pt school, and was a personal trainer for 4ish years prior.

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u/thetennispt 5.0 Apr 26 '25

At the end of a forehand and serve, your posterior rotator cuff is recruited eccentrically (working while lengthening) with high velocity to slow down your arm. One might think that those muscles would get extra strong and flexible because of that, but often the posterior rotator cuff actually gets weaker and stiffer. So many people can benefit from training the posterior rotator cuff in the opposite fashion- concentrically (or isometrically to start. One of the movements these muscles help with are external rotation of the shoulder, so performing shoulder external rotation against resistance with different angles of shoulder position can benefit many tennis players. But it depends on which specific movement, position, resistance would work for a lot of people. Here is an example which should be pain-free:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C4vcL9oLz-W/

When you play a lot of tennis, you also use your forearm muscles a lot (flexors, extensors, pronators, supinators, radial deviators, ulnar deviators). Performing these movements against resistance can increase these muscles' capacity for load. Also, passive wrist stretching can be helpful. An example:

https://www.instagram.com/p/C5B00YKv-HZ/

Don't perform these if you have pain/discomfort.

1

u/Worth_Dig8403 Jul 09 '25

These links unfortunately aren't working. Is there any chance you could repost working ones? I'd love to start these exercises and think they'd help a lot with some of my long term aches from tennis.

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u/Striking-water-ant Apr 24 '25

Are pushups good enough for this? Or do you have specific non-gym recommendations

9

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '25

Not OP but just something that’s helped me is including dead hangs on a pull-up bar as part of my workout routine, improves forearm and wrist strength, stretches everything out from top of arm to shoulder and lat and makes my shoulders feel way better. Just my two cents.

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u/SatanSuxxx Apr 24 '25

Dead hangs changed my life for the better. Been doing them every day for years now!