Why Tennis Players Don't Use Their Back Muscles the Same Way
Muscle Recruitment and Asymmetry in Bilateral Shoulder Injury Prevention Exercises: A Cross-Sectional Comparison Between Tennis Players and Non-Tennis Players
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Tennis players showed *higher* muscle symmetry at 90° than non-tennis athletes, despite being unilateral athletes.
You’d expect tennis players to be more asymmetrical everywhere—but they actually became *more* balanced in the overhead position, likely because serving demands perfect coordination.
Practical Takeaways
Replace standing resistance-band scapular retractions with prone scapular retractions at 90° for tennis players to accurately assess and train their scapular stabilizers.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Tennis players showed *higher* muscle symmetry at 90° than non-tennis athletes, despite being unilateral athletes.
You’d expect tennis players to be more asymmetrical everywhere—but they actually became *more* balanced in the overhead position, likely because serving demands perfect coordination.
Practical Takeaways
Replace standing resistance-band scapular retractions with prone scapular retractions at 90° for tennis players to accurately assess and train their scapular stabilizers.
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Claims (6)
Unilateral resistance exercises can increase neural drive and muscle fiber recruitment compared to bilateral exercises due to reduced neuromuscular inhibition during single-limb contractions.
People who play tennis don't use the shoulder blade muscles as much as other athletes when doing a specific exercise where they lie face down and pull their shoulder blades together, especially when their arms are raised high.
When tennis players do a shoulder exercise lying face down with arms raised high, their shoulder blade muscles don't fire as strongly as in other athletes—sometimes less than half as much.
Both tennis players and other athletes have some imbalance in how strongly each shoulder blade muscle works, but tennis players are more balanced when their arms are raised high, and more unbalanced when their arms are at a lower angle—like during a tennis stroke.
Tennis players activate their shoulder blade muscles much more when doing a shoulder exercise lying face down than when doing the same movement standing with a resistance band.