Tennis elbow

Tennis Elbow

What is it?

Tennis elbow, now more commonly referred to as lateral elbow tendinopathy is a term that is used to describe an often sharp, severe or nagging pain  on the outside of your elbow that is most commonly aggravated by gripping, lifting and carrying things.  There may also be some weakness in the wrist on gripping activities and a feeling of tightness along the outside of the forearm.

Frequently many people who develop this pain have never played tennis, the pain is caused by a problem with the common tendon that attach the muscles that extend the hand wrist and elbow to the bone ( lateral epicondyle) on the outside of the elbow.  

What causes the pain?

The majority of tendon problems (patella tendinopathy, achilles tendinopathy & gluteal tendinopathy) as well as lateral elbow tendinopathy occur insidiously - without an obvious cause such as injury or accident.

As the most recent research has shown problems with the tendons occur when the load to which they are subjected to is greater than the load that they can cope with.  

For Lateral elbow tendinopathy this may be as simple as an activity in the garden such as chopping logs or pruning, increasing weights or starting a new exercise in the gym or a change in job or workstation set up.  It may also occur as a result of deconditioning -restarting a normal activity after a break.

How can I manage it?

Management should follow the same pathway as other tendon injuries

• Offload. Activity modification and pain management to allow the tendon irritation to settle down, which may include acupuncture, soft tissue mobilisation and tape/brace
• Assessment of shoulder control and core activation, work station set up, gym/exercise programme and diet/stress/sleep/other medical conditions as all these factors can contribute to the tendon problem.
• Strengthen using isometric exercises initially for pain relief, then progression to eccentric and heavier loading exercises
• Graded return to loading - this can be SLOW and may take up to 6 months as it can be difficult to offload the lateral elbow tendon especially if it is your dominant arm.

If you are struggling with lateral elbow pain that is not settling it is important to seek further advice from a qualified healthcare professional  - do get in contact to make an appointment.