Tennis Elbow

‘Tennis elbow’ is the lay term for common wrist extensor tendinopathy, which is also known as lateral epicondylalgia or lateral epicondylitis. Tennis elbow refers to pain on the outside of the elbow which is usually aggravated by tasks that involve gripping, such as playing tennis, doing weights, or day to day tasks such as lifting pots and pans, or pouring from the kettle.

Tennis elbow occurs when the tendon of the wrist extensor muscles gets overloaded and irritated near where it attaches to the bone at the elbow (the lateral epicondyle). This can happen if there has been a change in loads such as an increase in activity or a change in the type of activity you are doing (e.g. taking up a new sport or activity or suddenly increasing your weights at the gym). The tendon can also become overloaded and irritated with repetitive low-load tasks, such as prolonged typing or mouse use, especially if there isn’t much variety of activity or if the ergonomics aren’t very good.

Once the tendon is irritated, all and any tasks that involve the wrist extensors can become painful, which can be very debilitating and frustrating!

Effective treatment of tennis elbow involves identifying and correcting what is causing the tendon overload, and putting in place a graduated loading program to help rehabilitate the tendon. This may involve modifying your current loads and daily tasks to take excessive load off the tendon, taping or bracing to unload the tendon in the short term, exercises to progressively and safely load the tendon and stimulate repair, and massage or dry needling to help the recovery process. Unfortunately rest alone is usually not enough, with the elbow typically feeling better with no loads, but then getting worse again as soon as you return to your normal loads.

If you are suffering with Tennis Elbow, book with our experienced physios to get the help you need!