Tennis Elbow

Physio Elements provides a range of treatments for sufferers of tennis elbow, which is, basically, an overuse of the wrist extensor muscles that attach to the outside of the elbow. This overuse occurs because you have been putting an excessive load on the muscles in your forearm and whilst playing tennis is one of the causes, it’s not the only one that might be responsible for your pain.

In fact, you might be surprised to learn that whilst 3% of the U.S. population suffers from tennis elbow at any one time, only in 10% of these people is the problem caused by playing tennis (these statistics are from an American study, but it’s likely that they apply just as equally in Australia).

What causes tennis elbow?

Tennis elbow can be caused by playing tennis, squash or badminton. It can also be due to weight training, painting, carpentry, sewing, knitting, hammering or just using the computer. In fact, any activity that overloads the forearm muscles and is continually repeated can cause this condition.

Tennis elbow usually occurs as an acute pain in your elbow that can be relieved with ice and rest. However, if you persist in the activity that has caused the pain, it will become a chronic problem that can be mild or quite severe. Apart from pain, you may also experience muscle weakness and be unable to grip anything with the hand on the affected limb.

How do we treat your tennis elbow?

Our treatment is aimed at improving the functionality in your elbow, once we have reduced the pain and inflammation with ice, rest and analgesia. We can then move onto taping, massage and dry needling to assist the soft tissues to heal. Long term functionality is improved by teaching you how to correctly perform the activity that caused the problem, so that you don’t have to stop playing or working just because you have suffered from tennis elbow. Physiotherapy has proven to be a very effective short and long term solution for this condition.

For help healing your tennis elbow and preventing it happening again, please call us on 03 9729 7777 or send us an email enquiry.