Do you know that more than 90% of tennis elbow patients don’t play tennis? They can be housewife, piano player, hair dresser, carpenter.
A wide array of different activities can cause Tennis Elbow.
Tennis Elbow is technically known as Lateral epicondylitis. It means inflammation usually caused by overuse, where the common extensor tendons originate from at the outer elbow joint. In this condition, the tendons of the forearm extensor muscles insert inside the humerus causing pain in the elbow joint.
This condition arises when the tendons are under stress due to repetitive movements such as clenching tools like racquets, power tools, screwdrivers, hammers, etc. The strain on the soft tissue structures causes small tears, leading to the disease condition.
Some of the symptoms include:
· Elbow joint pain, aggravated when straightening the arm
· A dull ache when resting
· Sore feeling around the elbow
· Pain at the elbow when opening the fingers/hand or resisting extending the 3rd finger
· A weakened grip
· Problems grasping objects, worse with the arm in an extended position
Contributing factors:
· Poor strength and flexibility in forearm and shoulder muscles
· Poor sporting technique
· Poor sports equipment quality
· Repetitive movements of the hands and arms
· Continuously lifting and straining
· Neck pain, Shoulder pain, Nerve problems
Treatment for Tennis Elbow
· Soft tissue massage
· Cupping
· Dry needling
· Joint mobilization
· Flexibility and strengthening exercises prescribed by a Myotherapist
· Electrotherapy modalities such as TENS
Prevention and Management
· Soft tissue treatment to help the forearm muscles function freely.
· Strengthening exercises with hand weights.
· Stretching regularly, especially the chest and arm muscles.
· Using ice post-exercise.
· Get coached if playing competitive sport.
· Get ergonomic advice at work.
The Benefits of Myotherapy
The common symptoms that our patients’ experience is inflammation, knots, and muscle tightness. Our remedy procedure involves gentle massage/cupping/ dry needling and rehabilitation procedures.
The primary focus of our myotherapy remedy is to reduce pain and soreness so that you can carry out your daily activities without trouble. Our therapists with extensive experience use gentle massage techniques to reduce knots in your muscles and trigger points that surround the elbow.
Keep in mind that muscles do not work independently; it’s not an isolated issue around the elbow.
Please refer to the diagram of Thomas Myers’ anatomy trains.’
To show the arm line. So, for instance, your rounded shoulders from sitting too much at work shorten your pec muscles which cause the rest of your arm muscles to change the way they lengthen contract.
Hence, we need to treat the shoulder, arm and wrist other than elbow area. We focus the treatment on the shoulder and arm muscles to help reduce knots and tightness.
The next procedure involves Dry Needling the shoulder, upper arm, forearm, elbow and wrist. Targeting the trigger points/knots, and a few critical acurpresure points around the elbow such as LI 11（曲池） and 10 （手三里）near the elbow. LI 11 is at the fold of the elbow at the outside of the arm. Bend your elbow to find the point. LI 10 is about one inch below LI 11 towards the wrist.
The needling procedure provides pain relief and healing because it gently penetrates deep muscle fibres and reduces strain in such regions.
Over time, we added isometric exercises into the solution sequence. This exercise helps strengthen your forearm and increase its range of motion while the healing procedure continues. Increasing strength is a vital aspect of tennis elbow treatment and rehabilitation, and it also helps prevent injury relapse.
It is essential to start treatment as soon as you notice a problem. The longer it is left, the more likely to develop a permanent injury.
Click on this link to book an appointment with one of our Tennis Elbow experts.
