Taking Care of Tennis Elbow with Physical Therapy
The most common term thrown around when discussing elbow pain, tennis elbow or lateral epicondalgia, can be a significantly limiting issue. This pain often presents as a deep ache at the outside elbow (think top side of forearm when your hand is palm down), but can have sporadic sharpness present when using your hand. This could be with actually playing tennis, but more commonly when holding onto things or grabbing something.
When considering the risk factors for tennis elbow, we can usually do our best to prevent this by maintaining adequate mobility through our forearm muscles as well as, and more importantly, sustaining adequate load tolerance to activity. Tennis elbow is a muscle AND tendon diagnosis. The tendons in our body act like springs, needing to be able absorb load and disperse it appropriately. Similar to in the sport of tennis, the ball connecting with the racquet transfer force into your arm, this is the absorb phase. Then pushing back against the ball, which all happens instantaneously, is the dispersing of force. If the tendon itself doesn’t have the capacity to do this, pain can become present.
So, how do you treat it? There are numerous resources online, but as always my first recommendation is to seek a trusted healthcare professional to assist you in gaining the optimal results you desire and deserve to get back to moving at your best! Though the diagnosis is an umbrella term, everyone’s elbow pain can present differently and therefore need different treatments. An easy place to begin though, is stretching your forearm muscles and begin a sustainable resistance training program for the wrist and elbow. These will include motions into wrist extension and supination/pronation, but again this just touches the surface. With tendon pain, this can be a stingy diagnosis. Don’t get frustrated if it doesn’t improve in the first couple of days. Historically, tendon healing can take as long as months, but with the appropriate program and plan in place you should be able to speed up this process!
Have more questions about how physical therapy can help elbow pain? I would be happy to chat further about how Loon State Physical Therapy can be your teammate in getting you back to moving and feeling your best! Call us at (612) 405-8503 or book with us online for an in-person or virtual appointment.
Until next time!
Andrew Eccles
Owner and Physical Therapist at Loon State Physical Therapy
