Tennis Elbow

Our Physiotherapist, Neil Goringe, has written an insightful blog on Tennis Elbow

Wimbledon is upon us and naturally we all swarm to the Tennis court but fear not, tennis elbow is rarely caused by playing Tennis.

Symptoms of tennis elbow or lateral epicondyalgia, to give it its proper name, will present as pain with gripping, lifting the kettle or too much work at the computer. Lateral epicondyalgia is the most common cause of elbow pain symptoms but can be effectively resolved with Physiotherapy.

Typically Tennis Elbow is caused by an overload of the tendon that attaches the forearm muscles to the elbow joint causing pain with wrist extension and gripping. Through modification of this load, symptoms will improve. Simple advice such lifting a bag with your palm facing up and changing to a vertical mouse can help in reducing the load and thus decrease pain around the elbow.

Whilst reducing load will improve symptoms, interestingly the way we treat tendon related injuries is to expose it to load. However, this needs to be a controlled load, in a controlled way, depending on the severity of the injury. Physiotherapy has been proven to help manage the pain, guide you through an effective exercise loading programme and restore normal function and activity, maybe even to play Tennis.

If Tennis Elbow, or indeed any other musculoskeletal problems are effecting your daily or leisure activities and quality of life please do not hesitate to get in touch to see if I can help.
neil@ng-physiotherapy.co.uk