Blogs

3 Ways to Manage Tennis Elbow

Elbow, Uncategorized, Blog, / By Koh Peh Chia

Tennis elbow is the most common elbow injury we see here at in the clinic. However, despite the name, very few occurrences are caused by playing tennis. In this week’s blog, we will introduce 3 ways you can manage this injury.

What is Tennis Elbow?

As written in a previous post , tennis elbow is an inflammation of a tendon at the elbow. This tendon is associated with the muscle that extends your wrist and fingers. When you do repetitive activities involving extending your wrist and fingers Over a long time, the tendon gets inflamed, and the result is a pain in the elbow. This is similar to what would happen if you regularly did a tennis backhand, thus the name.

How Do I Manage Tennis Elbow?

Decrease Usage and Load Placed on Muscle

As it is an overuse injury, the first step to manage the pain is to decrease the use and load of the muscle. However, you should not stop using the muscle completely, as it can impair recovery.

Strengthen

Try these exercises that will strengthen your wrist muscles, doing around 3 sets of 15 repetitions. When you reach the end range of these exercises, you can hold it at that position for 3 seconds before you start on the next repetition.

Stretch

Stretch these muscles for 30 seconds and repeat it 3-4 times in the day.

With these steps, you should be able to get back to a pain free elbow in no time. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us or book an appointment with us for an assessment of your elbow injury.

Winsen Citra

Principal Physiotherapist

Sources:
Coombes BK, Wiebusch M, Heales L, Stephenson A, Vicenzino B. Isometric Exercise Above but not Below an Individual’s Pain Threshold Influences Pain Perception in People With Lateral Epicondylalgia. Clin J Pain. 2016 Dec;32(12):1069-1075. doi: 10.1097/AJP.0000000000000365. PMID: 26889612.

Manickaraj N, Bisset LM, Ryan M, Kavanagh JJ. Muscle Activity during Rapid Wrist Extension in People with Lateral Epicondylalgia. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2016 Apr;48(4):599-606. DOI: 10.1249/mss.0000000000000815.

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