Save your arm – tips for healthy tennis

I know many players are suffering from tennis elbow and other physical issues so I wanted to give you some tips for healthy tennis.

I play a lot of tennis these days and it’s becoming increasingly important for me to listen to my body. Warming-up, physical conditioning, stretching, yoga, massages, and more. I use a massage gun to loosen up stiff muscles, resistance bands to warm-up, and a Flexbar to strengthen my forearm. Besides that, it’s important to consider your racquet and strings in the equation. Below are a few tips for healthy tennis and some suggestions for arm-friendly racquets and strings.

Arm-friendly tennis racquets

Look for a racquet with a low stiffness rating. A thick beam is usually a “tell” that the racquet will be stiff (except for the Wilson Clash. Otherwise, you would want a racquet below 65 RA in stiffness strung. The stiffness rating doesn’t tell the whole story, but a part of it. Some racquets can be comfortable with a high stiffness rating thanks to good dampening materials inside the frame, but it’s pretty rare that the dampening works 100%.

Good arm-friendly racquets are:
Wilson Clash series
Prince Phantom series
HEAD Gravity series
Any ProKennex (thanks to their unique focus on it)
Angell racquets (foam-filled or with aramid dampening)

Arm-friendly tennis strings

Either you go for a softer string like a multifilament string or natural gut. Or you drop your tension. The average tension on the top tiers of the tours today is around 48 lbs. But still many recreational players use 55-58 lbs to control a stiff racquet. A stiff racquet and a stiff polyester string at a high tension is a recipe for disaster.

I like softer polys such as Solinco Hyper-G Soft, Wilson Revolve Spin, Volkl Cyclone Tour, and so on.

You can also go for a hybrid setup with a softer string paired with a stiffer string. Put the softer string in the mains for better comfort and power and put the stiffer string in the mains for better control and durability.

Watch the vlog

[The vlog will be out at 10 pm CET on Sun 24th.]

In the vlog, I also mention working on your technique to make sure you hit the ball well in front with good footwork and mechanics. I have used online coaches like Improves.co and I frequently use both TopCourt and Top Level Tennis as instruction and inspiration.

I also pay attention to what I eat and drink. I don’t drink soft drinks and try to stay away from processed foods and too much gluten. I eat plenty of vitamins and make sure to get vitamin D and Zinc to strengthen my immune system. I also use plenty of superfoods from Your Super.

I hope you find some of this useful. I realize I have been talking about this before, but these things are all close to my heart so I don’t mind repeating :)