Golfer’s Elbow - How Do I Fix It?
Medial Epicondylitis (“Golfer’s Elbow”) is a common pathology seen in a variety of activities. Baseball, throwing sports, yardwork, and golf all require repetitive use of the muscles in the upper extremity which can lead to pain on the inner aspect of the elbow. Excessive tightness and torque causes irritation right where those muscles attach on the bone.
Weightlifting and golf are the most common activities we see this injury occur in. The constant gripping mixed with the amount of force applied is a recipe for this aggravating pain. The hardest part about recovering from this inflammatory condition is the necessary rest and modification often needed to get better.
But people who enjoy these activities very rarely want to take time off.
So what if you don’t want to stop…
Is there a happy medium to get this better?
Physical therapy integrates both the relief and strengthening aspects of coming back from this injury. Using massage or dry needling, we can alleviate tension being placed on the connection to the elbow from the muscles. Targeting strengthening with specifically dosed exercises gives a framework to work back to a stronger baseline. The approach has to be comprehensive and include offloading and modifying when needed, modulating pain when symptoms are more severe, and progressively loading the tissue when tolerated. Overall, typical recovery is approximately 6-weeks, but if you don’t come in with a strategy then chances are this issue may pop-up again down the road.
Here are some steps to address Medial Epicondylitis:
1) Control the inflammation using rest, ice, bracing, or NSAIDs
There is a time and place for all of these. Bracing and compression can and often should be used right away where as icing and NSAIDs should be held until your body goes through its natural inflammatory processes.
2) Mobilize and alleviate tension from the muscles that attach to the elbow
One of the main reasons we develop this issue is that chronic tightness in our forearm muscles continuously pull at the connective tissues leading to over-stretching and inflammation. Before we just mask the symptoms with NSAIDs, we want to make sure we address the problem at hand. Gentle stretching and soft tissue mobilization is a great first step.
Here are a couple great techniques to get some acute relief and decreased tension:
3) Gradually build strength in hand, wrist, elbow, and shoulder
Once the symptoms settle, we then get to the most important part - we strengthen these tissues so they are able to withstand the loads you place on them in your sport and daily life.
Check out this simple progression to get you started:
4) Be aware of your symptoms and modify daily activities to reduce your pain down.
If you feel that it is getting re-aggravated with simple activities, seek help from a trained professional before it becomes a chronic issue.
