How to Get Stronger With Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow is a common sports injury where the muscles and tendons on the outside of the elbow become inflamed and painful due to repetitive use. The condition tends to affect tennis players since the sport is hard on the dominant arm, but it can also develop as a result of other sports and activities such performing manual labor where the forearms. Gaining strength in the muscles and tendons surrounding the elbow can help eliminate tennis elbow pain.
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Instructions
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Ice the injury for fifteen minutes every two hours until the initial pain dissipates. Resting the injury and avoiding the activity caused the injury are essential during the first week of recovery.
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Wrap the elbow in a compression bandage during periods when you are not icing until pain dissipates. It is important not to start exercise or physical therapy while the elbow is still sore or painful.
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Begin mild stretching and lifting physical therapy exercises after pain dissipates. Pushing up and down on the fingers with the arm fully extended can help stretch the tendons of the forearm. Wrist curls are a good exercise that can be done by placing the forearm on a flat surface with the hand hanging off the end, and moving the wrist up and down while holding a light weight like a can or water bottle. You can flip the forearm over and move the wrist in the same manner to do reverse wrist curls.
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Increase the resistance and variety of your rehab workouts over time. When you first start physical therapy, focus on stretching and using low resistance. As your rehab progresses, increase the weight of your wrist curls and consider exercises like using squeezing grip balls and rotating the wrist while holding a weighted object like a wrench.
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Resume normal weight lifting and activity at a mild level of intensity. After a week or two of therapy you may be ready to start getting back into your normal workouts and increasing the overall strength of the injured arm. As with your physical therapy, resume any activity that uses the injured arm at a low intensity level and increase intensity slightly for each workout as long as the injury does not bother you.
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Tips & Warnings
If any activity or lift causes pain in the elbow or leads to a gradual onset of pain, stop or decrease the intensity of activity to the point where it no longer causes pain.
