Golfers Elbow

“Medial Epicondylitis” A.K.A Golfer’s Elbow. A common condition in…yes, you guessed it, Golfers!! This medical condition elbow pain on the inside of the arm due to inflammation of the tendons of forearm muscles. It is also known as “throwers elbow” or “little league elbow.” This medical condition is very painful and may cause worse conditions in the future if not treated properly. This condition and Tennis elbow are common in people that participate in specific activities such as racket sports and throwing sports and office workers too, however, this condition is still relatively rare with minimal research done for it.

Golfer’s elbow is caused by repetitive wrist flexion or bending the wrist. Golfer’s elbow is repeated overuse of the forearm muscles that causes a lot of elbow pain. The tendons of the wrist on the inside of the elbow becomes inflamed at the attachment point of the inner elbow and cause this pain.

Golfer’s elbow can occur in people who also work in carpentry or computer workstations; it also happens in activities requiring throwing actions like baseball.

Golfer’s elbow is much more common on the outside part of the elbow. It is more popular with rock climbers than golfers.

The typical symptoms for Golfers Elbow are elbow pain and tenderness in the bony bit on the inside of the elbow. This can also lead to weakness in the wrist muscles and pain also occurs when bending your wrist down towards ground or twisting your hand towards the ground against resistance.

The elbow pain can also limit your ability to grip everyday objects, and you may feel the muscles in your fingers becoming weaker than what they used to be. This case may also cause stiffness in the elbow and may cause a lot of pain when making a fist.

The elbow pain can become worse when you do specific activities throughout the day such as turning a doorknob, shaking hands with someone and even lifting weights.

In treating golfer’s elbow, you need to ice it and elevate it, and most importantly you need to rest those muscles from the activities that bring on the pain.

Rest your elbow; this is very important in elbow treatment. If you do not rest it, your pain may become chronic and harder to manage in the future. After three days of cold compression, try switching to using a heat pack with the use of an elbow brace to minimise your elbow pain. The heat will help stimulate blood flow and using the brace will take the strain off the tendons which need to rest and should help reduce your pain.

Your physiotherapist can also use other techniques at their disposal to help reduce your pain and manage your symptoms more efficiently with deep tissue massage, dry needling, ultrasound therapy and TENs. All these treatment options and more have been shown to help relieve elbow pain. However, your physiotherapist will know which treatment option will best suit your case.

For all your Golfers Elbow needs, feel free to give us a call on 02 9793 8840 or Book Online