When you focus on specific areas of your body during a workout, you’re more likely to be able to prevent injury. Remember that stability and strength can only come from your muscles, so building those stabilizing muscles that surround each of your joints can help to decrease the injuries you’ll see on the court. Many players struggle with tennis elbow more than anything else, and strengthening your forearm can help prevent that issue. The more strength you build in those muscles, the less likely you are to experience that elbow injury. What can you do to build strength? Check out these ideas. 

Squeezies: For this exercise, you’ll need a rubber ball or a rolled-up t-shirt or sock. With your palm up and the object in your hand, squeeze twenty to thirty times. Switch sides and do it again. The goal here is to do two to three sets. 

Wrist Extensions: Grab a resistance band for this one. With your palm facing the floor, pull up slowly, then return to the same position. You’ll want to do fifteen to twenty reps, then repeat it on the other side for around two to three total sets. If you have more than one resistance band, though, you can do both arms at the same time. 

Pull It Tight: This is almost the opposite action of the wrist extension. You’ll have your palms facing upward this time, and slowly pull your hands up, then return to the start. The same number of reps and sets as the wrist extension work best here. 

Working your forearms isn’t always an easy task. As you master these, you may even want to add some dumbbells to the exercises to help. Talk to a personal trainer to see about additional workouts you can do to strengthen your forearms and begin preventing on-court injuries.