The Best Tennis Elbow Therapy Program!
(This article will only focus on Home Therapy for your tennis elbow therapy program, ultrasound and electrical modalities won’t be discussed here! ?)
Warm up before any rehab exercise!
Try 3-5 minutes brisk walking or jogging until you sweat lightly ; 10 minutes heat pack for your elbow can be beneficial as well!
My Tennis Elbow Therapy Program is consist of four components: Manual therapy, Active motion, Passive stretching & Strengthening exercises (MAPS).
⭐ Manual Therapy
It’s critical to release muscle tension for all musculotendinous inflammation and pain, self-manual therapy/massage techniques helps to promote blood supply and tendon healing.
* Key muscles needs to be released for tennis elbow: Upper Trapezius, Deltoids, Supinator & Wrist Extensors.
* Be aware of other tight muscles: Triceps, Brachioradialis & Anconeus muscles.
⭐ Active Motion
Please refer to Dr. Nirschl’s elbow rehab protocol! His exercise program is so far the best I found for people suffering tennis or golfer’s elbow, please make sure you do his exercises as a part of your home program!
⭐ Passive Stretching
Hold the stretch for at least 15 seconds
⭐ Strengthening
Only start strengthening when there’s NO PAIN at all!
* Eccentric Strengthening : You lengthen your muscle when it is under resistance.
* Clinical studies showed Eccentric Strengthening is the best way to make your wrist extensors stronger, also reduce the risk of reoccurring tendon inflammation.
* Recommended protocol: 10 reps x 3 sessions / day ; Start with one pound only! (Only increase 1lb weight when there’s no muscle soreness and pain after 24 hours)
In summary, tennis elbow is one of the most common upper limb tendinitis, which can cause severe pain and functional loss of the affected arm. As long as we understand how to prevent and treat it, we should be able to make our elbow tendon self-healed without the surgery.
Always respect your pain and pay attention to your body mechanics, and you will have happy elbows forever!
Andrew believes rehab-related knowledge should be easy to learn and follow at home, because "knowledge is power only when we can share it" !
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Interesting information, thanks for taking the time to put it together, I learned something new here.