Herniated disc tennis can make the sport so much less enjoyable for professional and amateur players alike. Tennis is a physically demanding sport and having a herniated disc can be both a physically and mentally limiting handicap. However, it is crucial to understand the exact nature of your disc injury in order to still participate in the game to the very best of your ability.
The focus of this activity-related disc pain article will center on the physical and emotional effects of a spinal disc bulge on tennis aficionados. We will look at how the game may contribute to pain, both physically and psychologically.
Herniated Disc Tennis Troubles
Tennis involves constant exertion, including using all 4 limbs vigorously and pounding back and forth on the court. This activity can exacerbate any back or neck pain syndrome, regardless of the source.
A small minority of herniated discs can cause chronic pain and neurological symptoms, although most are harmless and completely asymptomatic. For problematic bulging discs, doctors can typically find a good solution which will resolve the pain and allow any player to get back on the court within a defined time period.
Players who suffer treatment-resistant disc pain which defies all attempts at care are virtually always misdiagnosed. These poor souls are doomed to wander from doctor to doctor and therapist to therapist looking for relief from a herniated disc, while all the time, the actual source of agony may be completely unrelated.
A few patients have actually be affected by other undiagnosed spinal issues which are eliciting their pain. However, other cases involve regional ischemia as the true culprit and some of these mindbody pain syndromes are likely to be directly linked to participation in tennis to begin with.
Playing Tennis with a Herniated Disc
Tennis is a competitive and perfectionistic sport. This makes it attract certain personality types and it just so happens that these character profiles are the most susceptible to psychosomatic disc pain.
Achieving a positive diagnosis for a structural causation will play into this emotional stress and allow the person to have a good excuse for not performing up to their own expectations. A positive diagnosis may even make the victim stop playing all together. I have seen this time and time again with all levels of competitive athletes from many sports, including my own beloved martial arts.
Do not be fooled into treatment for an innocent condition. Learn the facts about herniated discs and be sure to take an active role in your own care. To not do so is to surely leave your tennis game and your very life in the hands of doctors who may incorrectly identify the actual underlying cause of your pain. This is what happened to me and it cost me 18 years of my life. This is also what happens to many of the tens of thousands of patients who read this article every year.
Herniated Disc Tennis Considerations
I love the sport of tennis myself and hope that any of you who have been sidelined by a disc injury will be back on the court ASAP. I know it can be scary when you are in pain and a doctor offers a seemingly logical explanation, but the more you learn, the less it might all make sense.
Learn the truth for yourself. There is nothing to buy and nothing to lose. It just takes some research to learn that most mild to moderate herniations are illogical as the source of lasting pain.
If you can get past the nocebo effect of the diagnosis and realize the coincidental and innocent nature of most herniations, there will be nothing from stopping you from dominating on the tennis court for a long time to come. If you are one of the few who may require professional treatment, then at least the results of said therapy should also have you up and around if the disc is the true source of pain.
Herniated Disc > Causes of a Herniated Disc > Herniated Disc Tennis
