Tennis elbow is a painful condition that affects the wrist and elbow with pain usually occurring on the outside of your elbow joint. Some cases only require minimal treatment, but more severe cases can require surgery.
Tennis Elbow Exercises And Treatments
No one likes to hear the words “tennis elbow.” It’s a dreaded condition that causes painful symptoms and often takes weeks or months to recover. While you’re busy fighting your tennis elbow, remember that you’re not alone. As one of the most common injuries globally, tennis elbow affects everyone from weekend warriors to professional athletes. Fortunately, there are plenty of effective treatment methods for easing your symptoms naturally, even if surgery is the best option for you.
Rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication, and physical therapy are effective treatments. Surgery is sometimes necessary to remove scar tissue from surrounding tendons. Strengthening the extensor tendons that run up the outside of each arm are often injured by overuse of those muscles. We explore treatments for tennis elbow from stretches and exercises to self-care tips along with how much time it typically takes to recover.
Treatment For Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow is a painful condition that affects the wrist and elbow. The pain usually occurs outside your elbow joint, which can impact daily activities like washing dishes or using an axe to chop wood. While many different treatment options are available for tennis elbow, surgery is sometimes necessary to remove scar tissue from surrounding tendons to reduce pain and improve range of motion.
Physical therapy is often recommended as the first line of defense against the tennis elbow because it helps strengthen muscles around the affected area while providing pain relief through manual manipulation techniques like massage therapy or stretching exercises. A physical therapist may recommend wearing a brace during activity or sleeping with your arm elevated at night to limit swelling and inflammation throughout recovery time. Medications such as ibuprofen can also relieve discomfort caused by inflamed joints while they heal over time.
Exercises To Treat And Relieve Tennis Elbow Symptoms
Treatments for tennis elbow include rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medication, and physical therapy. If these treatments are ineffective in reducing pain, surgery may be needed to remove scar tissue from the elbow joint. Stretching the muscles in your forearm and wrist becomes tight due to repetitive use, such as gripping a racket or mouse. This can lead to pain and stiffness in your forearm muscles at night when resting(known as “wrist drop”).
Stretching exercises that gently pull your wrists can reduce this stiffness by relaxing these muscles before bedtime and making you feel more comfortable during sleep. Another solution is strengthening the extensor tendons that run up the outside of each arm.
The extensor tendons are often injured by overuse of those muscles during sports activities like tennis or racquetball. Strengthening exercises will restore strength to these tendons, so they can withstand strain placed on them during exercise again without injury occurring again soon afterward due to insufficient support from healthy tissue surrounding them.
How To Prevent Tennis Elbow: Prevention Tips
- Avoid using the affected arm for daily activities such as carrying groceries and opening doors.
- Use the affected arm only for essential tasks such as driving, eating, and typing.
- Avoid activities that require repetitive elbow movements, such as chopping wood or playing tennis.
- Use a brace to prevent excessive elbow bending if you are forced to engage in any of these types of exercises or hobby activities.
What Is The Recovery Time For Tennis Elbow?
To find out how long it will take you to recover, you need to know the severity of your injury. If you have mild tennis elbow, then there’s a good chance that you’ll be back on the court within 6 weeks. If your injury is more severe and requires surgery to heal properly, it may take up to 12 months for everything to feel better again.
It’s important that you take care of yourself as best as possible by following all instructions from your doctor and therapist regarding treatment options and exercises. These can help speed up recovery time dramatically if done correctly.
It Takes Time To Heal From Tennis Elbow
The good news is that tennis elbow is a painful condition, but it can be treated. The bad news is that it takes time to heal from tennis elbow. If you are suffering from this condition, then the most important thing to do is rest your elbow and avoid using it as much as possible.
A simple method would be to use ice packs on your elbow for 15 minutes at a time every hour or so during the day (or whenever possible). You will also want to talk with your doctor about how they can prescribe medication for you that will help reduce swelling and pain associated with tennis elbow.