Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is a common repetitive stress induced condition. Don’t let the name fool you, tennis elbow can occur outside of just tennis. It frequently occurs with people who repeatedly straighten and raise their wrist and elbow. Any repetitive task including painting, sewing, computer work can aggravate the wrist over time. When the elbow tennis can no longer withstand the amount of repetitive load placed on it then tendons undergo small tears in the forearm muscle which causes pain and tenderness especially around the elbow joint. This process is what we call a tendinopathy which is essentially a fancy word for tendon pathology.
Tendon Basics:
In order to heal, we need to understand the basics of the tendon process. Tendons connect muscle to bone and when you move your elbow you contract your muscles but its not your muscles that pull on that bone, its in fact the tendon. All the force of the movement goes through the tendon.
Your tendons are designed to withstand a lot of repetitive stress. When a tendon gets stress, it creates micro tears, most of the time the body does a great job at repairing itself. However, when the load exceeds the body’s capacity to adapt to the load then a tendinopathy occurs. In other words, if the excessive load creates micro tears and your body is not given enough time to heal itself then it may lead to a tendon injury
Signs and Symptoms
People with tennis elbow may experience the following:
- Pain and tenderness near the outside of the elbow
- Pain when you repeatedly straighten and raise the wrist and elbow
- Difficulty typing and lifting objects due to pain
- Weakness in gripping items e.g. grocery bags.
Treatment
Rehab is about finding the optimal load so we can induce beneficial adaption to the tendon and create more fibers to help support the tendon.
- Activity modification: You don’t have to completely stop the activity, you just have to lessen the load to allow healing to occur. A physiotherapist can guide you on ways to decrease the load on the tendon.
- Rehab exercises: there will be a lot of focus on eccentric exercises. Research has shown that maximal load is placed on a tendon during the eccentric phase. These are specific exercises that let the muscle lengthen.
- Manual therapy: often the forearms muscles can get ‘tight’ when they are overused. A physiotherapist can provide soft tissue massage on muscles around the tendon to reduce the pain.
- Taping: Rigid taping can help offload the tendon and reduce your pain.
A Myphysio physiotherapist can perform a detailed assessment to find out the underlying cause of your elbow pain. Our friendly physiotherapists can provide you with a personalized and structured treatment program. Book an appointment today to sort out that tennis elbow. You can also follow us on Instagram for tips on managing elbow pain.