Pain around the elbow. Difficulty grasping objects. Discomfort in your forearm, wrist or hand. The combination of these symptoms most likely means you have one of two common elbow conditions.
These two conditions are golfer’s elbow, or medial epicondylitis, and tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis. Both conditions can lead to the above symptoms. The key difference between them is that lateral epicondylitis causes you to feel pain on the outside of your elbow, but medial epicondylitis leads to pain on the inside of the elbow.
Physical therapists can offer you effective treatment for golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow. One common therapy technique used for these conditions is therapeutic exercises. Here are two exercises that therapists could use for either of these elbow injuries:
- Wrist stretch
Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow can both be caused by overly tense forearm muscles. Even though it’s called the wrist stretch, this exercise can help stretch the muscles in your forearm. As a result, it can reduce stiffness and pain caused by both medial and lateral epicondylitis.
How to do the wrist stretch
- Start by bending the affected elbow about 90 degrees; then place your forearm on a table or other flat surface. Your wrist and hand should extend over the edge of the surface.
- For lateral epicondylitis, make sure your palm is facing toward the floor.
- Grasp your fingers with your other hand and gently pull the affected hand down and toward you until you feel a stretch.
- Hold the stretch for 20 to 30 seconds. Repeat the stretch at least three times daily.
- For medial epicondylitis, make sure your palm is facing up, and then complete all other steps as written.
- Hammer exercise
Strengthening your forearm muscles can also help reduce tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow symptoms. Even better, it can help prevent these conditions from coming back. An excellent strengthening exercise physical therapists use for these two elbow issues is the hammer exercise.
How to do the hammer exercise
- Begin with the affected elbow bent to 90 degrees with the side of your forearm resting on a flat surface. Again, your wrist and hand should extend beyond the edge of the surface.
- Place a hammer in the affected hand.
- For lateral epicondylitis, slowly lower the hammer toward the center of your body.
- Hold this position for one or two seconds.
- Then, slowly raise the hammer back to the starting position.
- Repeat these steps 10 to 15 times.
- For medial epicondylitis, lower the hammer away from the center of your body, then follow the next three steps as written.
Border Therapy Services can help you find more treatments for golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow
Want to use more than exercises to treat golfer’s elbow or tennis elbow? Our therapy specialists at Border Therapy Services can help you find multiple treatment options for your elbow injury. We can evaluate your elbow to determine what injury you’re dealing with. Then, our specialists can build you an individualized physical therapy plan to fit your specific injury. This plan will be designed to reduce pain and prevent reinjury, and it can include therapeutic exercises as well as:
- Joint mobilization
- Soft tissue mobilization
- Dry needling
- Blood flow moderation training
- At-home care
- Virtual therapy
Contact us today for more information about services we offer to treat elbow injuries or to schedule an initial appointment.