Tennis Elbow – What is it and what can we do to help?

Tennis elbow – or lateral epicondylalgia – is inflammation of the tendon which connects the forearms muscles to the elbow. Although it is called ‘Tennis Elbow’ you don’t have to have played the sport to get it. It is usually associated with highly repetitive activities that require a lot of gripping, or wrist and hand movements.
Pain is the most common symptom that people experience, however you may experience a loss of grip strength, reduced ability to lift heavier objects, tingling or pins and needles in the forearm and hand in more extreme cases, and loss of fine motor control movements.
The above symptoms mean that tennis elbow can really start to affect your ability to perform activities of daily living and work-related tasks.
Although it is usually self-limiting – that means that it will eventually go away – it can occasionally last for weeks and even months before settling unless an intervention is made.
Some of the things that your therapist may suggest to help your symptoms include:

1. Activity modification – reducing how much of an activity you do or the way in which you do it
2. Soft tissue therapy – by massaging some of the muscles which are affected, it can reduce the severity of symptoms and allow you to perform a task for longer before pain limits you.
3. Provision of a brace – Using a brace can help to unload the affected muscles and allow you to perform daily tasks with reduced discomfort
4. Provide an exercise program – Exercise is one of the best ways to help reduce the severity of your symptoms and expedite the healing process while also helping to prevent reoccurrences of your symptoms in the future.

Below are some of the best exercises we have found to help improve tennis elbow symptoms and speed up recovery:
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1. Forearm Stretch

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​Forearm stretches help to reduce some of the tension in the muscles which develops as we use them for everyday activity. Increased tension in the muscles puts added stress where the muscles connects to the bone, thus causing your symptoms.

2  Eccentric forearm exs

Eccentric exercises help to strengthen the connective tissues in our bodies, which is the main tissue affected in tennis elbow.
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3  Wrist Pronation/Supination

We use our hands to do movements in all different directions, that’s why it’s important to strengthen our wrist and forearms the same way. The pronation/supination movement helps to mimic some of the different ways we use our hand everyday
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Give these exercises a try and see how they can improve your elbow pain! ​

by Matthew Calabrese
Activ Therapy Clemton Park