Is It Tennis Elbow or Golfers Elbow
The common terms thrown on very complex diagnoses, tennis elbow and golfers elbow are quite different! Society will commonly describe all elbow pain as one of these, but it isn’t always that simple. Let’s dive into how physical therapy can help both tennis elbow and golfers elbow.
Tennis elbow is pain commonly described as lateral elbow pain along the top side of your forearm if your palms were facing the floor. Condensed pain at the elbow, this usually would be painful with gripping, opening doors/jars, and long computer or phone use if typing is being performed. The actual sport of tennis can flare this up, but arguably one of the activities that is least likely to cause the issue. We have discussed tennis elbow and the treatment of it in a past post here, but lets touch on it again briefly. This is commonly a tendon problem, so we need to treat a load intolerance problem with exactly that; load.
Golfers elbow is then the opposite side of the forearm, medial aspect or inner side of the arm as it presents if the palms were face up towards to sky. Golfers elbow will also present with pain at this isolated spot with gripping and utilizing the wrist and fingers to flex towards making a fist.
The commonalities surrounding the two is that they are BOTH tendon problems. Again like I mentioned above, tendons become painful when they have a load intolerance to activity. That can be because of an acute spike in activity or a chronic degradation. We heal tendons by re-approaching how we load them, and then do it properly!
Between tennis elbow and golfers elbow, both can be treated very successfully with physical therapy. We at Loon State Physical Therapy specialize in elbow pain with the advanced knowledge to address these tendon load imbalances. Best recommendation immediately is to dial back one of these variables; volume of activity, frequency of activity, or intensity of activity causing the pain. Reach out to us and we will help you with the rest!
Looking for assistance in treating your elbow pain? Do you believe you are experiencing tennis elbow or golfers elbow? Let’s chat! I would be happy to discuss further how Loon State Physical Therapy can be a teammate in getting you back to moving and feeling your best! Our convenient Minneapolis physical therapy, Stillwater physical therapy and Edina physical therapy locations will happily see you to get you back to moving at your best. Call us at (612) 405-8503 or book with us online at www.loonstatephysicaltherapy.com for an in-person or virtual appointment.
Keep striving to move at your best!
Andrew Eccles
Owner and Physical Therapist at Loon State Physical Therapy
