Pain in the shoulder and elbow area connected to racket?

Agreed with DivingBirdie,

25lbs is abit high for non-competitive amateur players. Have you been taking lessons and undergoing proper training regime? If not, you should.

Racquets are seldom the culprits for pain, most of the time it's hitting the shuttle with the wrong grip and bad footwork which could cause you to overcompensate by using your back muscles to hit the shuttle down at an awkward angle.

Just because you haven't experience the pain from the start doesn't mean it's not your technique. Chronic pains often stem from over use of one muscle group. In order to balance it out, you need to add in other activities such as working out and/or swimming. Not only that, you need to stretch down after intense games so that you won't get stiff muscles. Badminton alone will hurt you more than help if you don't take proper care.

 

This is very good advice. It's easy to slip into just playing badminton, without adequate fitness training or other activities to help protect yourself against injury. Static stretching after a game is often neglected as unimportant, but it really does make a difference.

 

I wouldn't say that that's the critical exercise to do to prevent shoulder injury.

Look at your back in the mirror, and move your arms around. Look at how your shoulder blade (scapula) move around. Typically, you should be able to protract (slide outwards), retract (slide inwards) and rotate in a couple of directions. Looking for disfunctional movement can give you clues on what is wrong with your shoulder.

Some common problems:

scapula "winging" : your shoulder blade point out at an awkward angle
weak scapula depression: think about how often you pull stuff down with your shoulders versus raising them up
weak scapula retraction: pushing forwards vs pulling back

also, try to avoid exercises where your arm is elevated and your shoulder fully internally rotated. For example, doing the above with your elbows bent inwards. What this does is it decreases the space available in your shoulder available for movement, so there is a strong risk of damage to the nerves.

 

It's an exercise to strengthen you shoulder not to find the pain,

it will help you avoid the pain!

 

Hi stumblingfeet,

How about if I were to do almost the same thing that Patriot mentions, but move my arms (while they are extended out to the sides) in a circular motion? It would be like drawing relatively small circles with my hands...

 

I understand that it is intended to strengthen the shoulder. However, are you aware of all the different movements the shoulder is capable of? When the relative strengths of each shoulder movement is kept balanced, your shoulder is more capable of handling loads and protecting itself against injury.

When one particular movement is overly strong, it tends to take over movements, so you can continue to force a movement past the point when injury protection mechanisms shut off. Just something to be aware of, wouldn't want to aggravate an injury after all.

 

You could use it for practice only. That way, the tension will go down faster than leaving the racquet unused.

 

Well, then you're gonna have those pains for a long time to come. You have heard the advice from us, the rest is up to you.

 

azabaz. I have Tennis elbow for almos 2 1/2 years now. The pain stays but i keep playing badminton. 1 tip. Do a lot of streching. I helps!!!! One particular strech is "hanging". Just grap a steel and hang 1 minute and do it for 2-3 times a day.....Is kind of a sterching. Do a lot of streching.....

Wear a brace when playing

 

There's another exercise called the "YTWL" which works the shoulder motions that tend to be underdeveloped in most athletes.


here's a clip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xck3d8LidME