Tennis Elbow

Tennis elbow is a common condition that feels like pain from the bony outer part of your elbow that may radiate down your forearm towards your wrist. Technically speaking the pain results from micro-tears in the tendons that attach the muscles of your forearm to your elbow. It's often caused by overuse of the forearm and wrist from repetitive action. Although it's common in tennis players given the way they swing a racket, its also prevalent in professions prone to repetitive manual work like swinging a hammer.

The key to healing tennis elbow is to increase blood flow to the region via exercise without further aggravating the condition. This a delicate balance that is best managed under the supervision of a physical therapist who can design a course of exercises for the exact condition. Your therapist can also show you how to properly use a brace around the infected area to help alleviate the pain. The brace creates what is called a second line of pull, which is a technical term for distributing some of the work across a different part of your elbow to let the injured area heal.

Like most other joint injuries, strengthening muscles in the vicinity of the elbow can help avoid this injury. As we discussed in our earlier post on the proper way to be a weekend warrior, if you are an athlete you need to allocate some time weekly to strengthening and flexibility exercises meant to protect your body while playing your sport.