How to Help Elbow Pain

Elbow pain is commonly caused by repetitive stress to the muscle groups that extend or flex your elbow. Here we will go through the different causes of the pain, explaining both Golfer’s and Tennis elbow, and what you are able to do to help yourself.

Golfer’s Elbow

Golfer’s elbow is the common name for Medial Epicondylitis. This condition involves repetitive stress onto the muscles that work during wrist flexion and pronation (rotating your forearm and palms down). This repetitive stress causes a change to the tendons of the wrist flexors and pronatorteres at their attachment point at the elbow. This is known is a tendinopathy. Patients with Medial Epicondylitis will often present with pain in the inside or medial aspect of the elbow and forearm. It may be accompanied by tingling into the medial forearm and into the ring and little finger if the ulnar nerve is irritated as well.

Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is the common name for Lateral Epicondylitis, a condition that involves repetitive stress onto the muscles that work during wrist extension. This repetitive stress to the wrist extensor muscles causes a tendinopathy near their attachment point at the elbow. Patients with lateral epicondylitis will often present with pain on the outside or lateral elbow and along the outside of their forearm.

These conditions aren’t always caused by sport. We often see desk-based workers with them, as well as full time mums. Often those with manual jobs or physical hobbies present with these conditions too. As well as patients that use iPads, tablets, kindles or phones a lot.

Test to see if Medical Epicondylitis could be the cause of your pain:

–        Do you have pain in the medial elbow?
–        Is it painful if you apply a gentle pressure into the muscles just below your medial elbow?
–        Does it hurt to flex your wrist, moving your palm upwards?
–        Does it hurt to hold items with your wrist flexed?

Test to see if Lateral Epicondylitis could be the cause of your pain:

–        Do you have pain on the outer side of your elbow?
–        Is it painful if you apply a gentle pressure into the muscles just below your outer elbow?
–        Does it hurt to bend your wrist backwards if your palm is facing down?
–        Does it hurt to hold items with your wrist extended?

If you have the above findings, it is possible that the cause of your elbow pain is Medial or Lateral Epicondylitis. You should speak to your practitioner about this, so that they are able to help you manage this complaint. Despite constantly using our hands and these muscles, with the right care your pain will get better and there are things that you can do yourself to help.

So, to help yourself try the following tips:

Rest

Whilst we love keeping our patients as active as possible, sometimes it is important to avoid those activities that are causing your pain. This rest won’t last forever, and you should be able to get back to doing what you love soon enough, but you might find that giving yourself a few weeks off from the aggravating activities will help speed up your recovery time.

Ice

Using an ice pack on the inner or outer elbow can help to give you pain relief and speed up the recovery process by reducing some of the inflammation. Make sure you don’t put an ice pack straight on your skin. Use a tea towel or t-shirt between your skin and the ice pack. Hold it on the area for about 15 minutes, and aim to do this at least 3 times a day – as well as after any activity that has aggravated your pain.

Medical Epicondylitis

With your elbow straight, use your opposite hand to gently stretch the wrist back into extension. You should feel a stretch along the under surface and medial forearm. Hold this position for 20 seconds and repeat 3 times a day.

With your hands flat on a table, gently load part of your weight onto your hands until you feel a stretch along the under surface and medial forearm. Hold this position for 2-0 seconds and repeat 3 times a day.

With a massage ball between you and a desk, roll along the medial forearm forwards and backwards until you find a tender point in the muscle. Keep on working along the muscle for 2 minutes and repeat this a few times each week.

Lateral Epicondylitis

With your elbow straight, use your opposite hand to gently stretch the wrist down into flexion. You should feel a stretch along the outer and lateral forearm. Hold this position for 20 seconds and repeat 3 times a day.

With a massage ball between you and a desk, roll along the lateral forearm forwards and backwards until you find a tender point in the muscle. Keep on working along the muscle for 2 minutes and you can repeat this a few times each week.

Ktape and padded tennis/golfers elbow straps

Kinesio taping methods help to alleviate pain and aids lymphatic drainage. In turn this helps to reduce inflammation in affected areas.

Additionally, you can also buy elbow straps with pads that apply pressure to the muscles below the involved sight. The aim of the elbow strap is to reduce stress on the affected tendons to aid in the recovery. These straps can be useful for manual workers that aren’t able to rest these muscles.

We recommend speaking with your practitioner before using any straps or taping, to ensure that they are indicated and applied correctly.

Please feel free to email me on mccoy@tivolichiropractic.co.uk if you have any more queries surrounding elbow pain.

Why not read our other article by Phillipa, is my posture the cause of my pain?