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Langara Tennis Group |
How to Treat Elbow Tendonitis (Tennis Elbow or Golfer's Elbow)By Dr. Ben Kim on January 10, 2009
Elbow tendonitis is a diagnosis that encompasses two common elbow conditions: tennis elbow, and golfer's elbow. Tennis elbow refers to inflammation of the tendons that attach to the outside or lateral part of the elbow, while golfer's elbow refers to inflammation of the tendons that attach to the inner or medial part of the elbow. In order to effectively treat either type of elbow tendonitis, you first have to understand what tendons are. Simply put, tendons are the ends of muscles. They allow muscles to attach to bones. Put another way, every major muscle in your body emerges as a tendon from one of your bones and inserts as a tendon into another one of your bones. In the case of your forearms, the muscles that run down the front of your forearms emerge as tendons from your inner elbow bone, while the muscles that run down the back of your forearms emerge as tendons from your outer elbow bone. All of these muscles insert as tendons into the bones in your wrist and hand. Take a moment right now to clench both of your fists and feel the muscles that run along the front and back of your forearms contract. With your fists clenched, bend your wrists toward you, so that your palms come closer to you. With your wrists flexed in this position, you should feel a good stretch in the muscles that run along the back of your forearms. You should also feel a mild contraction in the muscles that run along the front of your forearms. Now, with your fists still clenched, bend your wrists away from you, so that your palms are facing away from you. With your wrists extended in this position, you should feel a mild stretch in the muscles that run along the front of your forearms and a mild contraction in the muscles that run along the back of your forearms. This exercise of flexing and extending your wrists is meant to allow you to feel how the muscles that surround your forearm are designed to move your wrist joint, not your elbow joint. Your elbow joint is controlled by the muscles that run along your upper arm - your biceps and triceps being the two primary ones. Why is this point important? When you have pain and stiffness due to inflammation in the tendons that originate in your elbow region, the focus of treatment should not be in your elbow region. Rather, the focus of treatment should be in your wrist region. More specifically, the best treatment for tennis or golfer's elbow is to rest the wrist joint so that the muscles that control your wrist joint can rest. By resting or even immobilizing your wrist joint, the muscles in your forearms and their emerging tendons in the elbow region can rest and heal. |
