What’s the go with tennis and golfer’s elbow, and what you can do to recover from these painful conditions.
There are a number of common causes of elbow pain. The elbow can be injured in some contact sports like rugby, cycling and grappling sports. You can have ligament tears or fracture/dislocations which require surgery. A period of physical rehabilitation after surgery is important to get your elbow back to tip top shape. Our Osteopaths can help with this.
Overuse injuries are also common in the elbow. Here the most common injuries by far are the misleadingly named golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow. The clinical names for these conditions are medial and lateral epicondylalgia respectively. These conditions occur when you overuse the forearm muscles. These muscle groups go all the way down to your fingers. They can become irritated and inflamed with repetitive actions.
There are also some less common overuse injuries like muscle avulsions, bursitis and nerve entrapments that affect the elbow. If you are worried you might have one of these or have been misdiagnosed, contact the clinic.
Elbow pain symptoms
Elbow pain is felt either over the outside (lateral) or the inside (medial) epicondyle. These are the names for the bony bumps on the inside and outside of your elbow. In golfers elbow or tennis elbow they will be exquisitely painful to the touch. Mostly this pain is brought on by activities that use these muscles – especially grip related activities, but can also be typing related actions for lateral epicondylalgia. Any repetitive sports activities that cause repeated gripping and releasing can cause this condition – tennis, golf and rock climbing being a notable few. Sometimes there will be a notable stiffness symptom, especially in the morning. If the problem is prolonged, it can lead to weakness in grip strength. You might find yourself dropping things inadvertently.
Elbow pain causes
The causes of most types of elbow pain are mostly fairly benign: overuse without enough rest and repair time. Big jumps in activity over a small amount of time can cause it, like the office worker who paints an entire house over a weekend off! Any trauma you’ve suffered to the elbow region can predispose you to ongoing issues, pain and further injury. Make sure you have good treatment plan and understand what has happened to your elbow.
Elbow pain risk factors
In the elbow overuse injuries there are slight increases in risk if you are female because of the different shape of your elbow joint. Occupations with repetitive activities of the forearm are more at risk – such as hammering, painting and drilling in the trades and typing for office workers. Any kind of significant elbow trauma can lead to the risk of developing overuse injuries over time.
If you have been suffering from elbow pain or have recently injured your elbow, make an appointment with one of our Osteopaths today.
How our practitioners help
Osteopath
- Relieve stiffness from tendon irritation and joint issues
- Improve muscular strength and control for prevention of future episodes
- Reduce pain and inflammation in the elbow
Massage
- Soften tight, tense and painful muscles
- Reduce pain
- Manage ongoing stress in your arm, shoulder and neck