Tennis elbow is the most common site of elbow pain and is an overuse injury. It involves the muscles of the forearm that extend the wrist. It often occurs from activities that are repetitive in nature such as typing, heavy lifting, movements that involve twisting the forearm and activities involving vibration and gripping. This condition gets its name from tennis but it also commonly occurs in other sports such as badminton, baseball, squash and field throwing events can also lead to this pathology.
So how can a physio help?
As Physiotherapists we first take a thorough history. We ask the patient where the pain is, the severity, if there are pins and needles and if there have been any changes in training load such as a sudden increase in weight in the gym. We then observe for any inflammation, palpate the area and assess the range of motion in the elbow and wrist. After this, a comprehensive strength assessment is completed involving manual muscle testing and grip strength.
At Central Rehab, we pride ourselves on being thorough in our assessments. Therefore, the cervical and thoracic spine will also be assessed as they are often associated with tennis elbows.
Treatment involves manual therapy applied to the joints and soft tissues of the elbow, forearm and potential cervical and thoracic spine (if found to be positive upon our assessment). Dry needling of these muscles has also proven to be very effective. Prescription of the appropriate tennis elbow brace is essential to the recovery process and we will prescribe one that is best tailored to your elbow. The brace should be worn during the performance of pain provocative tasks, such as returning to an aggravating activity like tennis. The brace should be correctly applied approximately 10cm below the elbow joint.
The next stage of recovery is strengthening exercises which should improve strength and endurance capacity in the elbow and wrist. The program should begin with isometrics only such as towel squeezes. The next progression is to use weights which involves a concentric part (raising the weight) and eccentric part (lowering the weight). Exercises with weights include wrist extensions and hammer curls. The timeframe of when certain exercises are introduced is extremely important to the recovery of tennis elbows. Introducing the above exercises either too early or too late can pose a high risk of delaying the recovery. There is no such stress of that at Central Rehab as our physiotherapists will completely guide you from the start to the end of your journey.
This is just a general guide of what can be done for a tennis elbow. Every elbow and person is different so for more personalised information and advice, please call (02) 9870 0250 and one of our physiotherapists will be happy to provide a complementary phone consultation.
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