Archive for the ‘Egoscue’ Category
Do you experience a tight neck and shoulders often and do you get tension headaches? Today’s lifestyle of is “everything forward.” You sit at the desk with your shoulders, arms and head positioned forward, and with your lower and upper back rounded. The posture is similar while you drive your car: your shoulders, head, and arms forward, with rounded back. Then you come home and relax, slouching in the sofa, watching TV with your head and shoulders forward… The majority of your activities is “forward” and only very few activities, if any, put your body in its natural position with the sway lower back, the head positioned over the shoulders and the shoulders retracted back.
Our bodies are optimally functional when the posture is erect, with a slightly arched back, a curvature in the neck and a head positioned directly over the shoulders. The shoulders are aligned over the hips, which are directly above the knees, and they are directly above the ankles. This is the ideal that we always want to strive for, or the joints will experience additional and unnecessary stress during your athletic endeavors.
After many years of the “forward lifestyle,” our shoulders turn forward permanently, where the chest muscles are shortened and the upper back muscles are weak. Then when you play tennis and hit thousands of forehands, backhands, volleys and serves during your practice, the movement of the arm originates in the shoulder for each stroke. And because your shoulders are positioned more forward than they should be, you will experience stress on the shoulder joint every time you hit the ball and over time, you can develop nagging pains and overuse injuries. Taking care of your imbalances now will help you avoid future pain and it will greatly lengthen your tennis career.
The next three exercises — elbow curls, arm circles and cats and dogs — are simple to do, you can do them as often as you want and anywhere. They will re-establish the proper position of your shoulders and back, and make your spine more flexible and supple.
Elbow Curls
The elbow curls exercise doesn’t take much time and no equipment is needed. It strengthens, activates, and balances the shoulder and upper back muscles that are involved with the shoulders’ ball-and-socket proper function. Perform it regularly, even if you don’t have any problems. Keeping your shoulders functional and balanced will prevent future injuries.
- Stand by the wall, with your feet parallel and hip-apart and your ankles, knees, hips and shoulders aligned over each other.
- Keep your heels, glutes, upper back, and head touching the wall.
- Curl your fingers into your palm and put the knuckles on your temples with thumbs pointing down, and push your elbows back until they touch the wall.
- From this starting position, slowly bring your elbows forward until they touch in front of your chest, while keeping your knuckles on your temples. The knuckles will want to move around. Make sure that they stay in place after each repetition.
- Keep your head touching the wall at all times.
- Perform 50 repetitions. It can be difficult in the beginning, but it will get easier as your shoulder joints get more functional.
- Do not hurry with the movement. Breathe deeply while focusing on the quality, and correct form for each repetition. Keep in mind that you are rebalancing your shoulders and teaching them to function properly.
Arm Circles
This simple arm circles exercise is very efficient for reestablishing proper function of the shoulder joint. If you have severe dysfunctions, you will find the exercise quite tough, when done correctly. It will strengthen the muscles of the upper back that are often weak and tight because of the constant pull of the shortened chest muscles.
Stand straight with your head up and feet hip-width apart. Lift your arms to the sides of your body, parallel with the floor. Face your palms down and thumbs pointing forward. Squeeze the shoulder blades together. While keeping your shoulders leveled at all times, perform 6-inch circles forward in the direction of the thumbs and feel every muscle in your shoulders and upper back. After 30 circles, face your palms up and perform another 30 circles backward, in the direction of your thumbs. You may feel more tightness, soreness, and clicking sounds in your dominant arm. Perform the arm circles regularly until both arms feel even and your shoulders retract back.
Cats and Dogs
Your goal should be to adjust your posture to stay more straight and “backward” regularly. This simple cats-and-dogs exercise works your spine, hips, neck and shoulders in coordinated flexion and extension, and loosens up the stiff backs, necks, and shoulders. Depending on your lifestyle—how much you sit—you may need to do this exercise several times per day.
- Get down on your hands and knees, keep your weight evenly distributed, and align your hands, shoulders, hips, knees and feet in one line.
- Visualize a happy doggie: take a deep breath and lift your tail (hips) and your head high up, while arching your lower back as much as you can.
- Now visualize a smooth cat: breathe out and round your back as much as you can while dropping your hips and head low. The middle of your back should be at its highest point, creating a pleasant stretch across all your back.
- Keep repeating the arching and rounding movement in a smooth continuous motion for 20 repetitions while breathing deeply. It will make you feel limber and energized. On the tennis court, a flexible spine will allow for better upper body rotation and your shots will be more powerful. Do cats-and-dogs regularly, and watch your tennis game improve.
In life, keeping your shoulder healthy will improve your posture and prevent tension headaches and other problems. On the tennis court, keeping your shoulders functional will allow you to strike your shots more powerfully. Functional shoulders reduce the risk of injury and you will be able to train hard and improve your tennis game at steady pace. Include the elbow curls, arm circles and cats-and-dogs into your fitness routine, and you will feel great!
Did you like the exercises? Similar and more advice is available in the e-books in the Tennis Fitness Love Store.
The legendary tennis coach Oscar Wegner (modern tennis methodology) has interviewed me about my book “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it.” We were chatting about the importance of fitness and stretching for maximum tennis performance and life. Watch, listen and enjoy!
You can find more of Oscar’s teachings at www.tennisteacher.com
Click to buy on Amazon.com
To make sure that you are completely satisfied with your decision to buy “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it”, you can view sample material from the book in the resources below. Enjoy the viewing.
Amazon’s Search Inside Feature
Sample Chapter 13 — Calf Myofascial Relase
Tags: tennis fitness
I am glad to announce, that the book “Tennis Fitness for the Love of it. A Mindful Approach to Fitness for Injury-free Tennis” that many have been so impatiently waiting for, is available on Amazon.com for $14.95. Get your copy here now! For bulk orders, please contact me.
To all the tennis players of any age and skill level, who always strive for improvement and who never stop believing that the impossible is possible, and who know that there are no limits to growth and performance other than the human mind.
It is Never Too Late to Become Functional, Fit and Healthy
It is possible to play pain-free tennis for the rest of your life. One of the prerequisites is improving your fitness. However, it is not just any fitness. It needs to be mindful, purposeful, and perfectly suited for you. Nobody can tell you what is perfectly suited for you, only your body can. Listen to it because it will ask for what it needs. In your pursuit for maximum fitness and tennis performance, you need to be aware, patient, and disciplined.
Carry this little book with you always and reread the chapters often. Each time you will discover something new. Learn to understand your body. Every exercise you do should be performed with the goal of increasing awareness of your body, and gradually building a new relationship with it. Learn how to free up the tightness and how to balance your strengths. The less pain you experience, the healthier and more functional you are, and the more your energy will increase. Treat the moments of stretching and myofascial release as time for meditation, relaxation, and introspection.
Create daily routines that fit your lifestyle and treat them as essential for your fitness, well-being, and tennis performance. Think of your health and fitness in the long term. Be patient and disciplined in applying the new ways of exercising and treating your body. Remember that even modest effort applied over the long term will bring excellent results. Therefore, do not postpone your fitness until tomorrow and start today, even if it is just a little bit. Treat your body with respect and love. Treat the fitness as one of the necessary elements of your tennis game. Become fit for tennis and you will become fit for life, and tennis will be in your life forever. Practice your tennis fitness, for the love of it.
You practice your shots for hours over and over… It seems to be a “known fact” that repetitive motions cause injuries. Maybe you have developed one too. But is that statement really true? Yes and no. If your joints are stable and functional, and you repeat the same motion over and over, your muscles get tired before the healthy joint would get damaged. But if your joints are not stable, i.e. if they have lost their kinetic connections, and they are not moving properly, then the repetitive motions will cause an injury sooner or later for sure. If you feel like are you developing pain symptoms of repetitive motions, you need to think about the exercises to stabilize your joints, rather then to sedate yourself and your joints with medications, or thinking about surgeries. The medications only mask the underlying problem.
Our bodies are optimally functional when to posture is correct – slightly sway back, curvature in the neck, head sits directly over the shoulders (not forward as we can see everywhere around us). Shoulders should be aligned over the hips that are directly above the knees that are directly above the ankles. This is the ideal that we always want to strive for, or the joints will experience additional and unnecessary stress during the sporting activities. Unfortunately, we spend most of our lives sitting – studying, working at the computer, writing, reading books, watching TV, or playing computer/TV games. Often we slouch a bit, shoulders and head leaning forward, upper and lower back rounded. Imagine what it does to our spine if we spend up to 8 hours a day like this.
How many tennis players do you know who have or have had tennis elbow or painful wrists? Or serious shoulder issues? Maybe you are one of them? Sometimes we blame the new string we’ve just put in our rackets or the string tension, or the racket. Our technique maybe could use some improvement? It could be a lot of things. Very seldom we blame imbalances in our bodies that we’ve created by playing our sport or just plainly living life. Being one side dominant, we often use our dominant arm and leg for most of the activities that we do. When the hips are not balanced, the other joints need to compensate, and we encounter problems with the knees, ankles or shoulders. If the shoulders are not properly aligned or the muscles are unevenly strong, then each motion that starts in the shoulder joint is not as accurate as it should be, and our elbow or wrist takes a lot of beating. By overusing the improperly aligned shoulder joint, we might develop tennis elbow, wrist pain or serious shoulder issues.
The hips are the center of your body. They connect the lower body and the upper body to work as a unity. They provide stability, strength and flexibility to both halves. Misaligned hips will cause you a lot of troubles – pain in your low back, knees, shoulders or ankles, and possibly create some more serious future injuries. If your hips are not properly aligned, your movement pattern is not correct and thus your joins are exposed to extra forces and frictions, especially on the hard, concrete courts of Los Angeles. It is extremely important to take a good care of your hips to keep them strong, flexible and properly aligned.
Tennis is considered to be a hard sport on your wrists, elbows, shoulders and knees. (And as well are other racquet sports and handball). But is it indeed a problem of the hard courts, or the sport itself? Maybe not! Because, most of the times, the body is already dysfunctional from the life style, and the sporting activity is just pushing it over the edge – the edge that one would encounter sooner or later anyway. Our today’s life style is “everything forward” – we sit at the desk, shoulders, arms and head moved forward, rounded upper and lower back. We drive with shoulders, head, and arms forward, rounded back. We watch TV, slouching in the couch, head, shoulders forward… you get the point, right?
Imagine those two small delicate structures – your feet – pounding around a hard surface for hours. It is almost unbelievable that they can take it. Occasionally, every tennis player gets some kind of foot problem – calluses, heel spurs, flat feet, Achilles tendon problems or twisted ankles. Almost all tennis courts in Los Angeles are made from concrete, and it’s almost logical that the pounding and stress on your feet can create future problems. Most of the times, all the above injuries happen because of some kind of dysfunction in the proper movement of your feet.
