Tennis Elbow Treatment
Tennis elbow is one of the most common causes of elbow pain. The pain is usually on the outside of your elbow and can vary in frequency and intensity depending on the person and the extent of your injury. Tennis elbow pain rarerly occurs due to a one off incident. Pain due to tennis elbow slowly slolwy builds up over time with repetitive tasks. This can be work related, sports related and can also be caused due to everyday house hold tasks.
What exactly is tennis elbow?
The term ‘tennis elbow’ itself is actually the everyday wording for a very common injury called ‘lateral epicondylitis’. Lateral epicondylitis refers to inflammation and micro tears of tendons in our elbow that connect our forearm muscles to the outside of our elbow. These forearm muscles are long and travel all the way down our forearm into our hand and fingers. We use them whenever we are using our wrist, hand, elbow and especially when we are gripping.
What has caused my tennis elbow pain?
Tennis is not the only cause of tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is simply caused by the overuse of your lateral (outside) forearm muscles and tendons. When we suddenly increase our overuse and overstress of these muscles and tendons we begin to develop micro-tears that increase with time. As these micro-tears worsen, we eventually develop pain and inflammation and thus tennis elbow. Almost any activity that has led to you suddenly overusing your forearm muscles and tendons can cause your tennis elbow pain. This includes sports with regular gripping like tennis, squash, badminton, and weightlifting. But also jobs and certain leisure activities that involve lots of wrist and hand work such as painters, plumbers, carpenters, cleaners, and many more. Age is another factor which can cause our tendons go through phases where they weaken or degenerate. This process can mean a greater risk of developing tennis elbow (even without a change in use) as our tendons are more easily overworked due to becoming weaker.
Tennis Elbow Treatment
Home remedies:
- RICE: Rest, Ice and Compress
- Cold therapy over the sore areas
- Heat over your forearm muscles if they are tight
- Over the counter anti-inflammatories and pain medications.
- Gentle forearm stretches and movement exercises.
- See your Physiotherapist for a full assessment and treatment plan.
Contact Us:
Do you need assistance with your injury? Experienced Physiotherapists with essential knowledge. You can call us anytime to have a confidential discussion with our expert Physiotherapists. For more information on how we can further assist you, please call our clinic number on 0479 080 800 or send us an email on [email protected] for further details. Our Physiotherapists are Medicare, NDIS, DVA and Work Cover approved, specialising in injury management and rehabilitation to get you back on track.
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