You know, you don’t have to play tennis to have tennis elbow. So, what is tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis as it is technically called.
Really it just means pain or inflammation over the outside of your elbow, over the bony lump (the lateral epicondyle). This is not to be confused with pain on the inside which is called ‘Golfer’s elbow’ which you don’t have to be a golfer to get either but that’s another topic for another post.
Tennis elbow usually happens because you have overused the muscles attached to your elbow/s which also help to straighten your wrist, this can cause tiny tears in the muscle which then causes pain and inflammation.
This can happen due to overuse or repetitive movements like, well, playing tennis or even cleaning the windows or decorating. It’s usually best to avoid the activity which is causing you the issue in cases of tennis elbow and there are also things you can try like applying something cold (like a bag of frozen peas) a few times a day or taking over the counter pain relief in the first instance.
The key to resolving these, and preventing them happening again, is a specific strength (loading) programme. This can be tricky to structure on your own, and that’s where we come in with the know how to progress you slowly with the right exercises!
If you want a little help on relieving the symptoms or you’re just having no luck and they aren’t going, then Physiotherapy is great for sorting it out and getting the movement back in your arm and relieving the stiffness.
