A Complete Guide to Tennis Elbow Symptoms and Treatments

Are you having aches on the outside of your elbow? Does your pain get worse when holding objects or shaking hands? These are potential symptoms of tennis elbow, or lateral epicondylitis, a condition that affects 1 to 3% of the population.

Despite its name, this injury isn’t always related to playing tennis. In general, it’s due to overuse of the forearm muscles and tendons. Repetitive movements, such as typing, painting, and weightlifting, are often the culprits.

Tennis elbow symptoms vary from mild to severe. At first, you may notice pain on the outside of your upper forearm. Over time, the pain may worsen and affect your grip.

Luckily, this overuse injury responds well to conservative treatment. Surgery is only required in severe cases. Let’s take a closer look at its symptoms and treatment options so you can take the steps needed to regain your mobility.

What Is Tennis Elbow?

Lateral epicondylitis, also known as Tennis Elbow, is the most common overuse injury affecting the elbow. It’s caused by repetitive movements of the forearm muscles, which put stress on the tendons that connect your elbow to these muscles.

Playing sports or repeating certain arm movements may cause small tears near the bony lump on the outside of the elbow. In the long run, these small tears lead to wear-and-tear of the tendons. As a result, you may experience pain and inflammation.

Athletes and manual laborers are at greater risk of developing tennis elbow. Simple changes, like stretching before exercise or manual work and using power tools rather than hand tools, may help prevent this painful condition.

Early treatment is crucial for a successful recovery. If left unaddressed, this injury may worsen and lead to complete tendon rupture. Therefore, it’s important to recognize its symptoms and reach out to a chiropractor or physical therapist before it’s too late.

Tennis Elbow Symptoms

The most common symptom of lateral epicondylitis is elbow pain that worsens gradually. The pain is usually felt on the outside of your elbow and may travel down your forearm toward the wrist.

Golfer’s elbow, a similar injury, causes pain on the inside of the elbow.

Lateral epicondylitis may also cause pain when extending your arm, gripping small objects, writing, or typing. Over time, your elbow may become painful to touch.

You may experience these symptoms in one or both arms. Pain may worsen when you straighten your wrist, raise your hand, open a door, or make a fist. These issues can affect your range of motion and interfere with your day-to-day activities.

Tennis Elbow Pain Treatment

Generally, chiropractic care or physical therapy is the first line of treatment for acute tennis elbow. Braces, exercise therapy, and manual adjustment can make a world of difference. Corticosteroid injections are typically recommended in more severe cases and may not work for everyone.

Resting the affected muscles and tendons is essential. Applying ice to the outside of your elbow may provide temporary relief. If necessary, you may take nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to reduce the pain and swelling.

Once the inflammation subsides, you can perform stretching and strengthening exercises, such as wrist turns and towel twists. A physical therapist can help with that. He may also recommend kinesiology tape (KT) to relieve the pain and prevent further injury.

Regain Your Flexibility and Range of Motion

Tennis elbow symptoms can affect your quality of life and keep you from doing the things you enjoy. You may have a difficult time playing sports, painting, writing, or even cooking. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our team in Mill Creek, Washington can help you regain your flexibility and ease the pain. Depending on your needs, we may recommend chiropractic care, KT tape, tennis elbow exercises, and more.

Wrist Pain 101: Causes, Symptoms, and Effective Solutions

The wrist is a complex joint that’s made up of eight small bones. Without them, your hand wouldn’t work nearly the same way!

Keep in mind, however, that it’s also prone to injury. In fact, wrist injuries account for almost 25% of all sports injuries. Whats’s more, is that there’s always a chance that it can lead to a long-term disability.

Are you experiencing wrist pain? Want to know why it’s happening and how you can treat it? Then make sure to read the rest of the post—we’ll be going over everything that you need to know!

What is Wrist Pain?

Wrist pain refers to any discomfort that’s felt in the wrist. The exact pain, however, depends on the cause. For example, some people may experience dull pain whereas others may experience a pins-and-needles feeling.

More often than not, it will affect the bones, tendons, or ligaments in the area.

Causes for Wrist Pain

Several conditions can cause wrist pain—one of them being carpal tunnel syndrome. Relatively common, it occurs when the median nerve becomes pinched or compressed.

Gout and arthritis are two other causes. The former is caused by a buildup of uric acid whereas the latter refers to inflammation of the joints.

Aside from that, certain sports such as golf, tennis, or baseball; along with certain careers such as hair dressers, mechanics and plumbers, (basically anything that involves repetitive movements of the hand) can also cause injuries to the wrist, which can result in pain.

Splints Used for Wrist Pain

One of the best ways to treat wrist pain is to wear a splint. It’ll prevent you from moving it in a certain way so that you won’t irritate it further.

In doing so, it’ll help ease the pain. Not only that, but it can reduce swelling as well.

Keep in mind, however, that not all splints are the same. For example, you’ll want to pay attention to the material, support, and sizing.

When in doubt, you can always ask your health care provider for recommendations.

Chiropractic Treatments For Wrist Pain

Chiropractic care isn’t just for back pain, it can help with your wrist pain as well. For instance, a chiropractor can perform a wrist adjustment if there’s a misaligned bone.

Even if manual adjustment is not an option (it depends on the source of the pain), there’s an instrument that they can use to deliver quick, low-impact impulses to the wrist.

In some cases, they may also refer you to another health care provider. At the end of the day, it all depends on what they find.

Treating Wrist Pain 

The bottom line is—there are multiple ways that you can treat wrist pain. Generally speaking, the sooner you address the problem, the better! If anything, you don’t want to wait until it gets worse before getting it checked out.

Thinking of going to a chiropractor? Don’t hesitate to contact us to schedule an appointment!