What is tennis elbow?
Tennis elbow is a condition that affects the muscles/tendons on the outside of the elbow and forearm. Although they attach to the elbow, the job of these muscles is to actually make the wrist and fingers extend. Symptoms can come on very quickly but more usually we see tennis elbow as a chronic condition, which can go on for several weeks and months.
We usually find that people tend to wait several weeks or months, in the hope that the pain goes, only to find it goes on and on and they develop weaknesses. Sometimes, people can also develop pain/weakness at the surrounding body parts, such as the hand, neck and shoulder.
What are the symptoms?
The main symptom is pain on the outside of the elbow with potentially some referral into the forearm. It might be quite tender to touch but usually, gripping and loading the arm is very uncomfortable.
Things like pouring a full kettle or lifting a pan in the kitchen can become a real issue and be very painful.
Who gets it?
Tennis elbow actually only accounts for about 3% of tennis injuries. In our clinic, we see lots of patients with tennis elbow who have very repetitive jobs, like bricklaying, painters, decorators, desk and office workers, sewers, knitters and people that do DIY regularly.
What can we do to treat it?
This injury is usually related to repetitive overload, therefore,
the first thing we need to do is modify your activities and avoid further continuation of overload. We would then look to progressively load the tendon/arm in a controlled way in order to allow the tendon to respond and repair, so the strength improves and pain decreases. We also need to make sure that everywhere in the arm does its job properly, including the hand muscles and shoulder muscles. This can prevent one area such as the elbow working too hard.
Tendon rehabilitation does often take some time to improve and for symptoms to settle. It is important to trust the process and work through the ups and downs on the journey with this type of injury.
We have lots of experience treating this type of injury and we have helped many people in the New Milton and New Forest area to overcome this pain and get back to doing the things they love.
Contact us to book in or find out more contact@limitlessphysio.co.uk