Elbow pain / Golfers / Tennis Elbow
Elbow pain (whether inside or outside of the elbow) can be a real pain as it not only can create discomfort when playing sport (often raquet sports, golf, weight training or hit class / circuits), but can also interfere with daily movements including washing, getting dressed, unscrewing lids and generally picking things up! Most elbow pain is triggered through over use and therefore classed as a repetitive strain injury. Understanding the catalyst behind what caused the injury is half way to curing it. Removing yourself from the activity or sensibly / considerably reducing the output is the other half that must be reviewed and implemented. Some of us have great difficulities negotiating with this bit!
Things you can do to speed up recovery:
- Stop doing the exercise or movement that may have caused it in the first place. Continuing on it is more likely to make the injury worse requiring a longer rehabilitation period.
- Mindful that it’s likely to be repetition of something that caused it, it’s probably inflamed. Therefore icing the area in the evening will help reduce inflammation.
- This inflamed tendon (being the end of the muscle which is attached to the bone) is usually triggered by the muscle over loaded hence overworked. Promoting a good stretch to that muscle can really help alleviate that tendon tension.
Elbow pain is something that I've experienced as I'm so hands on and physical on a day to day basis. I'd strip through both flexors and extensors of your forearm and I've got some really good manual 'lock and release' stretches that I'll do with you which you'll instantly value from. I might Rocktape depending on whether you need to be back on court tomorrow!
I find Rock tape / kinesiology tape really helps as it can offset the tension in the elbow by compressing the muscle along it’s direction. That alongside a 45 min deep tissue forearm release which I pride myself on! Forearms always tend to get overused as we spend most time using our hands to grip and carry stuff.
