Take a good care of your chest rolling on the ball

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Chest muscles, or pectorals, are very often overused and shortened in a tennis player. They can become stiff from overtraining and cause shoulder problems, poor breathing and hunched back. Stretching of your chest muscle is important, but sometimes doesn’t do the job because it is difficult to reach deep. It is very common that trigger points form in the chest muscles.

Trigger points in the fascia of the muscle can restrict and alter the motion of the joint, changing the feedback to the nervous system which becomes less efficient over time, and you can experience premature fatigue, chronic pain and injuries.

Your best tennis and most powerful shots happen when the kinetic chain functions perfectly and without any restrictions. Kinetic chain is made up from the muscle, tendon, ligament and fascia, nerves and central nervous system, and joints. It works as a functional unit with all components depending on each other. If one component is not functioning efficiently, then the other components have to compensate and that will eventually lead to tissue overload, fatigue, and faulty movement patterns and injuries.

You can get better flexibility and function of your chest with self myofascial release by massaging the restrictions from the tissue, which will improve your muscular balance and performance, and prevent the injuries.

Chest Myofascial Release

Lie down on the ground on your stomach. Place the foam ball or tennis ball under your chest and adjust your body in such way that you would put enough pressure on the ball. Roll slowly around and look for painful spots (trigger points) in your chest. Stay on the painful spot, breathing deeply, until the pain goes away. For more pressure, stretch your arm to the side, away from the body. Roll across the entire chest area: around the sternum, under the clavicle and outside parts as well. Pay attention to the differences between your hitting arm and the other arm. You goal is to get both sides evenly lose and flexible.

See how your forehand and serve will get more powerful when you get well functioning chest.

For more info: ex Ms Natural Olympia Suzanna McGee is an experienced athletic trainer, competitive tennis player and a freelance writer. She lives in Venice Beach, CA and online at www.sixftlion.com

If you liked reading this article, feel free to subscribe with the button above, so you wouldn't miss any future great articles on fitness and injury prevention. Until then, read also tips how to

• Rejuvenate your body in the morning or any time with Sun Salutations.
• Stretch your hips with the Pigeon, Frog, Crocodile Twist, external hip stretch and groin stretch.
• Do the myo-fascial release for your feet, booty, and lower legs.
• Strengthen your legs and booty with lunges, jump squats, windmills, air bench, jumping lunges or one leg squat.
• Strengthen your core with the side plank with leg lift, windmill, plank with arm and leg lifts, plank with hip twists and push up with knee to elbow touch.
• Prevent overuse injuries of your shoulders, wrists and elbows with elbow curls, arm circles, dogs and cats, external rotator strengthening and rotator cuff stretch.
• And if the injury happened and you had a knee surgery, here are exercises for your come back, or how to recover after a sprained ankle.
• Use the beautifully colored kinesio tapes to prevent or heal your injuries.
• Work on your agility, coordination and balance with some fun footwork drills, running the stairs,  agility square jumps or one leg squat.
• And because the weather and conditions in Los Angeles are very hot, don’t forget to drink a lot of water, because it will increase your performance and well-being.
• Learn how to sleep well to feel good and increase your performance.