Lateral Epicondylitis or lateral elbow tendinopathy commonly known as ‘Tennis elbow’. Starting to get a sore arm or elbow with the increases in DIY projects? The below information will help you get ontop of the pain so you can continue to complete your home projects. People may think due to the name they can only develop this injury if they are playing tennis, however lateral elbow tendinopathy often occurs with repeated activities like gripping or wrist extension. Common activities that can lead to these injuries are tennis, squash, sewing or knitting, carpentry, hammering and painting. For many cases, people may develop symptoms 24-72 hours after completing an activity with repeated actions especially wrist extension. People may be able to recognise this if they have suddenly engaged in a new activity during isolation eg brick laying. Other people may experience a more sudden onset of symptoms where a single effort of wrist extension is too much load or pressure eg lifting a heavy object. Symptoms associated with the injury: - Tenderness over the lateral (side) elbow or along the tendons in your arm - Pain with gripping or resistance - There may be some restrictions in neck movement or neural tension
Treatment: There is a few different hands on techniques that a physiotherapist can complete to get you moving again but the key to improving this condition is exercise. A few simple things to begin with is the use of ice over the affected area to help with pain relief and having some rest. That is, rest from the aggravating activity. If you find every time you complete the hammering if flares up your symptoms you may need some rest from that activity or increasing rests Here are some exercises and stretches you can start at home to kick-start your rehabilitation. Stasinopoulos D, Stasinopoulou K, Johnson (2005) suggest that exercises should be completed 1-2 time daily for around 3 months to help with tendon pain. Some of my favourite exercises to compete are: - Wrist eccentric (lowering) weight, take a light weight, support your forearm on the desk and slowly take the hand down.
Once this is comfortable you can start from a neutral positions (wrist straight) and take your hand up. This is should pain free. Ideally your physio would go through this exercise with you but complete the exercise so you can feel the muscle working but don’t push into pain
Forearm stretches are also great, hold for about 20-30 seconds in each position and repeat a few times. Make sure you aren’t pushing into pain.
Reference: Brukner, P., Khan, K., Clarsen, B., Cook, J., Cools, A., Crossley, K., … Bahr, R. (2017). Brukner & Khans clinical sports medicine (5th ed., Vol. 1). North Ryde, New South Wales: McGraw-Hill Education. Stasinopoulos D, Stasinopoulou K, Johnson MI. An exercise programme for the management of lateral elbow tendinopathy. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2005;39:944-947.
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