So You’ve Got Tennis Elbow…
Well, that sucks. But it happens. If your elbow starts hurting on the outside with any activity, you’ve very likely got Tennis Elbow.
What is Tennis Elbow?
Tennis Elbow is a broad term used to describe pain on the outside of your elbow. The official name is Lateral Epicondylitis or inflammation of the lateral bone of the elbow. Symptoms usually consist of:
At first, a tender lateral elbow that gets progressively more tender
Pain with wrist extension or in other words, lifting the back of your hand upwards
As it gets worse, pain with gripping or lifting heavy (or even light) objects like a cup. The lighter the object which brings on pain, the worse the condition is.
How do you fix it?
1. PROTECT THE ELBOW FIRST
If you’ve just started getting the pain, rest the elbow and manage the load you put on it. This includes stopping tennis for at least a week, avoiding the use of repetitive wrist movements, especially extension. If the pain has been around for a while, you may need to wear a brace to take the stress off the elbow.
The goal at this point is to let the tissue rest and heal.
2. TRY TO STRETCH OUT THE FOREARM
The first self-treatment you can do at home is to try to stretch out your forearm muscles. Here is the stretch, try to do this once every hour. If it causes more pain into the elbow, stop.
3. FIND OUT WHAT THE ROOT CAUSE AND GET TREATED
If the rest completely takes the pain away, that’s great! If it still hurts, then you should seek help. Finding out what caused the pain and getting specialized treatment is key to stopping the pain and preventing it from happening again. Seeking the advice of a healthcare practitioner, like a physiotherapist or chiropractor, can help you identify the root cause and set up a plan to address it.
Common root causes include gripping the racquet too hard, a recent change to a heavier racquet or tighter string tension, playing too much tennis too soon, poor biomechanics in the swing leading to too much wrist action, among others.
Find out specifically why you got Tennis Elbow so you know how to prevent it from coming back.
4. RETURN TO TENNIS / ACTIVITY GRADUALLY
Once your elbow is rested, healed and you understand why you got it, you can slowly return to tennis. No more than 2x/week for 60mins is recommended but can vary from case to case. Your healthcare practitioner can guide you specifically.
Hope this helped you get back to Tennis!
Manni - Physiotherapist
