Tennis Elbow

What is Tennis Elbow ?

Lateral Epicondylitis also known as Tennis Elbow, is a condition that consists of chronic elbow pain on the outside of the arm.
This condition is related to inflammation of the tendons in your forearm. Since tendons are your connection to most muscles, it causes chronic elbow pain when your arm is used repetitively.

You will eventually notice you cannot grip objects and have pain throughout the forearm.

Tennis Elbow

What leads to Tennis Elbow?

The excessive use of your elbow and forearm muscles which straighten and raise your hand and wrist during sport or with daily activity leads to tennis elbow.

The repeated motions and stress to the tissue may result in a series of tiny tears in the tendons that attach the forearm muscles to the bony prominence at the outside of your elbow

Daily activities and sports which can lead to Tennis Elbow

  • Tree cutting
  • Painting
  • Carpentry
  • Musical instrument playing
  • Lifting weights
  • Tennis
  • Squash
  • Badminton

Tennis elbow is also a common condition with butchers, cooks and assembly line workers. These types of jobs are repetitive and would benefit from elbow treatment.

Symptoms

Signs of tennis elbow are mostly an ache on the outside of the of the elbow when you commence an activity but your symptoms reduce slightly when your muscle warms up. If the condition is ignored the symptoms can be constant pain that is tender to touch and it will be difficult to grip objects.

Tennis Elbow

Treatment

Physiotherapy is an effective short and long-term treatment method which includes joint mobilisation, remedial massage, electrotherapy, prescribing a tennis elbow brace, forearm stretches and strengthening exercises. In really stubborn cases, research has shown corticosteroid injections in combination with Physiotherapy are also an effective way to treat severe tennis elbow cases.

Prevention of Tennis Elbow

It is crucial to listen to your body and know when you should slow down during sports or while at work. Stretching and strengthening your forearms before sport or work will help prevent tennis elbow, and if you are an athlete, you may need to modify your technique to reduce the stress placed on your tendons. If your elbow is aggravated, then it’s advisable to wear a tennis elbow brace to prevent your condition from becoming worse. Two preventative tennis elbow stretches you could perform are shown in the video below:

Getting better

Tennis elbow can be difficult to treat because we use our hands repetitively on a daily basis to accomplish many tasks, however with rest, physiotherapy and avoiding aggravating activities non-severe tennis elbow cases should recover in 2-6 weeks.

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