Tennis elbow- what you need to know!

Tennis elbow is the common name for lateral epicondylitis. It falls under the bracket of a tendinopathy (previously referred to as tendinitis).

Tendons are the things which connect your muscles to your bones. This particular tendinopathy causes people to feel pain on the outside of their elbow, which often worsens with exercise/use. It’s common in tennis players, but that doesn’t mean to say that anyone can’t get one! Anyone who puts regular, physical demand on their arms is at risk of this very common condition.

Tendon problems like tennis elbow are considered an overuse syndrome. This means, they relate to a muscle overworking, which then pulls on the tendon and causes it to become irritated. As Osteopaths, we have to try and understand why that muscle is overworking. This means that treatment can aim at both treating the tendon itself, but also affecting the cause- and stopping it coming back again.

Common reasons why the muscles around your elbow might be overworking:

-Poor warm-up/cool-down routine.
-Poor form during racket sports.
-A stiff elbow.
-A wrist/shoulder/neck problem, causing the elbow to compensate.
-A job which overworks the forearm.

Here's what we do to fix the problem:

-Test the impact of loosening the muscles around the elbow.
-Strengthen the tendon which is affected.
-Reduce aggravating factors.
-Help with tennis form and warm-up/cool-down routines.
-Give self-management strategies to people, so they can loosen it at work.
-Find and treat the true cause of the issue.

There are options for treating tennis elbow, but our advice would always be to pursue a non-invasive therapy like Osteopathy, before an invasive one- like and injection or surgery. Why go through invasive therapy if you can resolve the problem naturally?

Tendinopathies often become progressively worse with no treatment and ongoing aggravating factors. The longer you ignore it, the harder it is to resolve. So get it fixed!