Tame Tennis Elbow With Physiotherapy

If untreated, tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis, can leave you sidelined for weeks or even months. It’s caused by overuse of the muscles and tendons in your forearm and wrist and can make everyday gripping activities like opening a jar, turning taps or shaking hands incredibly painful.

Don’t let tennis elbow keep you from living your life. With our proven treatments, you’ll be back to doing the things you love in no time. We offer personalised treatment plans, tailored exercise plans, and one-on-one education so you can get back to being yourself as quickly as possible.

Tackle Tennis Elbow Anatomy

Three bones make up your elbow joint: the upper arm bone (humerus) and the two forearm bones (radius and ulna). Many of the forearm’s muscles originate from the epicondyles, which are bony bumps on the bottom of the humerus. The lateral epicondyle is a common attachment site for muscles – responsible for clenching your fist and moving your wrist – on the outer side of the elbow.

Muscles, ligaments, and tendons hold the elbow joint together. Tennis elbow generally affects the muscles and tendons in your forearm that extend your wrist and fingers. Your wrist and fingers are controlled by the muscles of your forearm.

There is usually a place of maximum tenderness just distal to the origin of the extensor muscles at the lateral epicondyle of the forearm. The muscle usually involved with tennis elbow is the extensor carpi radialis brevis (ECRB). However, it may also affect other forearm extensor muscles, like the extensor digitorum, extensor carpi radialis longus (ECRL) and the extensor carpi ulnaris.

The radial nerve is also found in this region. It divides into the superficial radial nerve and the posterior interosseous nerve. This is responsible for the muscles located on the back of the forearm and hand. Muscles that are innervated by this nerve may become weakened if it is injured.

CAUSES

Causes Of Tennis Elbow

Repetitive wrist and forearm activities, like gripping, squeezing and lifting are the causes of tennis elbow. As you extend and raise your hand and wrist, you repeatedly contract your forearm muscles, which pulls on the common extensor tendon attached to the bony prominence on the outside of your elbow. As a result of repetitive motions and stress, you may suffer from a series of tiny tears and inflammation in this tendon, along with tightness in the forearm muscles.

Overuse

Repetitive Activities

Age

Common Symptoms Of Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow symptoms often appear gradually. In most cases, the pain is initially mild and gradually becomes worse over weeks and months. The onset of symptoms is not usually caused by a specific or sudden injury or event, but more so with repetitive actions or activities. Tennis elbow is characterised by the following symptoms:

Activities involving the forearm, such as holding a racquet, turning a wrench, or shaking hands, can exacerbate the symptoms. Most commonly, your dominant arm is affected, although both arms can be affected.

TREATMENTS

Physiotherapy Treatments For Your Tennis Elbow

01.

Ultrasound Treatment

High frequency sound waves via ultrasound therapy machines, can help reduce inflammation in the area, by improving blood flow and relaxing tendon fibres on a microscopic level.

02.

Sports Taping & Bracing

Taping and bracing can help spread the forces placed upon your forearm muscles and tendons, so they are not put under as much strain whilst performing daily activities.

03.

Mulligan's Concept Therapy

Specialised manual therapy techniques around the elbow joint, can help improve pain free range of motion and reduce stiffness in the joint.

04.

Dry Needling

This treatment addresses trigger points that have developed in the muscle fascia. Dry Needling is very useful at reducing pain and muscle tightness and improving blood flow to the elbow tendon and soft tissues.

05.

Hands-on Therapy

Soft tissue massage, trigger point releases and myofascial therapy from our skilled Physiotherapists all assist in reducing tightness in the forearm muscles and remove tension on the elbow tendon.

06.

Electrical Stimulation

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation (TENS) can be used to reduce localised pain in the area, by desensitising the nerves and pain signals around the inflamed elbow tendon.

Frequently Asked Questions

FAQ's About Tennis Elbow

What movements should I avoid with tennis elbow?

You should avoid any activity that triggers shooting or sharp pain in your arm or elbow, such as gripping, squeezing, and lifting heavy objects. For gym goers, it may be advisable for you to take these exercises or workouts out of your regular gym routine until symptoms improve:

Chin-ups, pushups and bench presses.
All of these movements place stress on your elbow extensor muscles, leading to further irritation of your elbow’s lateral tendons.
Wrist exercises.
It is best to avoid wrist exercises, especially dumbbell curls and barbell extensions. Tennis elbow can be aggravated by these moves as well.
Straight-arm exercises.
Your wrist extensor muscles can be overstretched by any exercise that requires your arms to be straight and your elbows extended fully.
Repetitive lifting motions.
Exercising your elbow and wrist repetitively or lifting objects repeatedly can aggravate your injury.

What are the risk factors for tennis elbow?

Tennis elbow can be caused by a number of factors, including:

Age.
Tennis elbow can affect people of all ages but is most common in adults 30 to 50 years of age.
Occupation.
A person with a job that involves repetitive wrist and arm movements is more likely to develop tennis elbow. Plumbing, painting, carpentry, butchery, and cooking are some examples.
Certain sports.
You are more likely to develop tennis elbow if you are involved in racquet sports, including tennis and squash, particularly if your stroke technique is poor or your grip is too small.

How do you know if you have tennis elbow?

The lateral epicondyle is the bony bump on the outside of your elbow. During any of these tests, if you experience pain, tenderness, or discomfort in this area, you may have tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis).

You should use your affected arm for these tests. By testing the non-affected side, a comparison between sensations can be observed.

Palpation

Sit on a table with your forearm extended out in front of you.
Examine the area above and around your lateral epicondyle gently.
Take note of any pain, tenderness, or swelling.

Middle finger resistance

With your palm facing upward, extend your affected arm straight out in front of you.
Pull your middle finger back toward your forearm with your opposite hand.
You must resist this motion with your middle finger.
Flip your palm downwards.
Put pressure on your middle finger while resisting the motion.

Chair pickup test

To take this test, you will need a light chair with a high back.
Stand facing the chair.
Straighten the affected arm straight out.
Bend your wrist so that your fingers are facing down.
Your thumb, first finger, and middle finger can be used to grasp the chair back and lift it.
Maintain a straight arm while lifting the chair.

How long does it take for tennis elbow to heal?

Tennis elbow can get better on its own (known as a self-limiting condition) as your body’s anti-inflammatory processes take place. The average tennis elbow injury lasts between six months and two years, with most people recovering fully within a year. Physiotherapy treatment can drastically reduce this recovery time to sometimes weeks! If your arm is injured, the most important thing to do is to rest, stop performing the activity that aggravated it and seek assistance from our qualified physiotherapists.