“I have been doing a lot of house renovations recently and have started to experience pain on the outside of my elbow with opening jars and carrying the shopping. It gets better with the more I move, but gets worse once in have stopped moving. My GP says that I have Tennis Elbow, how can I have this when I don’t play tennis?”
Lateral Elbow Tendinopathy, also known as Tennis Elbow, is a overuse injury to the common extensor tendon at the elbow. Contrary to its name, Tennis Elbow does not only effect tennis players. In fact, they account for only a small percentage of those who are affected. Many common everyday movements can cause tennis elbow. These include painting, using screw drivers, repetitive computer mouse use, cutting up cooking ingredients – particularly hard foods such as meat and pumpkins.
Tennis Elbow is caused by a mechanical overuse or repetitive movements which typically involve wrist extension or places a large amount of strain on the elbow tendons. Your DIY renovations may be causing an increase amount of strain through your elbow muscles causing an overload. There are a number of different risk factors which are associated with lateral elbow pain, these include:
- Being a female between 45-65years old
- Current or past smoker
- Have type 2 diabetes
- Work in jobs that require:
- large amounts of repetitive movements of the hands or wrists
- manual handline of loads greater then 5kg or 20kgs
- use of vibration tools such as jack hammers or grinders
- activities that demand high grip forces.
Signs and symptoms of Tennis Elbow include:
- Tenderness and pain on the outside of the elbow
- Soreness of the forearm muscles
- Pain with grasping or carrying an object
- Morning pain and stiffness which persists
Majority of the time, if caught early enough, Tennis elbow can be treated with rest, ice and activity modification. Some people may require an elbow strap or pain management medication such as anti-inflammatories to help manage their symptoms. In order to prevent a reoccurrence of the injury specific physiotherapy exercises and stretches will help strengthen the elbow muscles and tendons.
Tennis elbow can be quite difficult to manage on your own. A physiotherapy management plan may include taping or bracing with work, loading or stretching exercises and a gradual increase in loads to help you to return to your previous level of activities.