No matter whether you play at an exclusive tennis club or a public park, you’re more than likely to see at least a few players wearing a forearm brace. Maybe you are one of these people wearing a forearm brace and are wondering if it’s actually helping. “I have a tennis elbow” frequently sounds like “I have a death sentence” when said on the tennis court, because it usually means that you can’t play as often or as actively as you’d like to play.
Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is caused by tension of the forearm muscles that are attached to the elbow by broad tendons. The forearm muscles bend and straighten the wrist and turn the forearm. Tennis elbow develops when the tendons at the elbow become inflamed and later, scarred. This condition mostly happens due to faulty or excessive wrist movement. “Ninety percent of people with tennis elbow develop pain at the outer side of the elbow,” writes sports injury expert, Dr. Edward Staub, MD, on his website. Linda Joy Nelson, a chiropractor says, “With tennis elbow, the major error is usually the smaller less powerful forearm muscles being forced to accomplish a job best done by the more powerful shoulder muscles. This creates a high injury potential as well as poor sports performance.”

While the American Medical Association suggests anti-inflammatory drugs and steroid injections to relieve tennis elbow pain, I strongly believe that yoga poses can offer less drastic solutions to alleviating tennis elbow.

Wrist-strengthening poses, such as the push up pose offer more control of the wrist muscles, therefore releasing the pressure of the delicate tendons that connect the wrist to the elbow. To try this pose, lie down on your stomach, with feet together and toes tucked under. Place your palms next to your chest, with fingers separated wide. Bend your arms, directing your elbows to point straight back and putting more weight onto the thumb and the index finger. Look straight ahead of you and not down. On the inhalation, lift your body off the floor for a low push up. Keep pushing your shoulder blades towards each other. Stay for three to five deep breaths through the nose and release. In addition to the wrists, this pose also strengthens the shoulder muscles, the legs and the stomach muscles. Another important element in preventing and reducing the pain of the tennis elbow is focusing on opening up the shoulders. When the shoulders are hunched forward, they are not taking the pressure they are supposed to take and the tension goes to the elbow joints. Yoga offers multiple backbend poses to open up the shoulders and the chest area. Cobra pose and its variation by the wall are excellent shoulder openers to try before your next match. They are also fun to do after the push up pose, making your yoga practice a beautiful flow.

Ideally cobra pose variation should be practiced prior to the full cobra pose. Lie down on your stomach next tothe wall, with feet and legs together. On an inhalation, begin to walk your palms up the wall, as much as they go. Make sure your arms are straight. When you can’t walk your palms any higher, stay there, look at your fingertips and breathe for ten slow deep breaths through the nose. Feel your shoulder joints opening up. For a variation of this stretch, you can try looking down, which puts more pressure on the shoulder joint.

Now you are ready for a full cobra pose, which is not only great for tennis elbow, it also improves posture, strengthens the back muscles for a powerful serve and strengthens the arms. Lie down on your stomach, with feet and legs together. Tops of the feet are on the floor. Press your palms down next to your chest, bending the elbows straight back. Put more weight on your thumb and your index finger. On the inhalation, slowly begin to roll your chest forward and up, while drawing the shoulder blades towards one another. Make sure that your shoulders are rolled back and not lifting towards your ears. If you can maintain this openness in the chest, while keeping your shoulders down, go ahead and straighten your arms. Do not straighten the arms, until you are able to fully open the shoulders, because this way your shoulders will roll forward and your lower back will lose its mobility for this pose. Look at the tip of your nose and stay for five to ten deep breaths through the nose. Simple stretches can also be beneficial, if performed often and correctly.

Finger-to-wrist side body stretch can be used as a preventative or a healing measure for the tennis elbow. To try it, stand up with your feet hip width distance apart. Inhale and lift both arms straight up above your head and hold your left wrist with your right thumb and a second finger, then stretch the whole left side of the body up and finally lean toward your right side on the exhalation, while looking forward and maintaining your body on one plane (as if you are in between two glass doors, with one in front of you and one behind you,) and then repeat the same thing on the other side. If you’d like to buy a new prop for your tennis elbow, let it be a yoga belt, available at yogaaccessories.com and other yoga-related websites. Standing with your feet hip-width distance apart, grab a hold of the belt on top of your head. Your arms should be straight. On the exhalation, take the belt back to your rear end. On the inhalation, take it to your front thighs. The most important thing is to keep your arms straight. If you are unable to do so, don’t fear, yoga always offers an alternate solution. Simply take your hands wider apart and continue circling the belt.

This stretch greatly opens the shoulders and the chest. Trying these stretches and poses even for a few minutes on the tennis court before you play can make a difference. Make sure to never strain yourself if you are in pain and always consult with your doctor before starting this or any other new exercise program.

Anastasia Dorohova is an experienced tennis player and a certified yoga teacher. She has produced and stared in a series of Yoga for Tennis DVDs, available at: www.tennislife.com. One of the DVDs is very helpful Yoga for Tennis Elbow and Bad Knee. Anastasia’s yoga for tennis program was featured in multiple magazines and her yoga for tennis show appears on The Tennis Channel. She teaches yoga for tennis workshops internationally and her website is: http://www.yogaforgreattennis.com.