Tennis Elbow, or Lateral Epicondylitis, can restrict your ability to work, train, and enjoy daily life. It causes a sharp, burning pain on the outside of your elbow that can stop your day in its tracks. Simple actions like lifting a kettle, shaking hands, or typing become painful.
Sports therapy offers clear, practical strategies to address the underlying issues that lead to tennis elbow. Specifically, we focus on rebuilding the tolerance of your forearm tendons so you can grip, lift, and move confidently again.
Lateral epicondylitis is an issue involving the tendons on the outer side of the elbow. These tendons connect the forearm muscles that control wrist and finger extension to the bony bump on the outside of your elbow.
It is not usually caused by inflammation, but rather by irritation and structural changes within the tendon tissue itself. This occurs when the tendon is repeatedly overloaded without enough time to recover and adapt. The tissue becomes sensitive and less efficient at handling force.
The pain is often concentrated right on that bony bump in your elbow or slightly below it. It tends to worsen when you grip objects, twist your forearm, or extend your wrist against resistance. Understanding this pattern helps us guide the recovery process effectively.
Tennis elbow often affects people whose activities involve forceful or repetitive gripping and twisting. Sports like tennis or squash are common culprits due to the high stress placed on the forearm muscles during the backhand swing. Obviously, this is why it’s called “tennis elbow”.
But the condition is just as common in non-athletes. Tradespeople, mechanics, gardeners, and those who use a computer mouse for hours often experience this strain, too. Simply put, even a continuous, low-level load can cause the tendons to fatigue.
This type of tendinopathy is the result of capacity being overwhelmed by demand. To resolve it, we need to identify which daily movements are contributing to the total load on the tendon.
Although the pain is in your elbow, it’s often the result of tension that travels up the arm. If the muscles in your forearm, for example, are constantly tight from overuse, they pull hard on their attachment point at the elbow. This constant mechanical strain irritates the tendon.
We also look at your shoulder and upper back. Weakness or instability in the shoulder can force the forearm muscles to work harder to stabilise movement. This excessive compensation contributes to the issue at the elbow.
Sports therapy assesses the entire kinetic chain of the arm. By addressing tightness in the neck, shoulder, and forearm, we reduce the total strain placed on the sensitive elbow tendon. This helps the area calm down.
Sports therapy provides a dual approach, using hands-on care alongside targeted strength work.
Manual techniques help to immediately reduce tension in the muscles surrounding the joint. This can include Sports Massage (using Deep Tissue or Swedish techniques) on the upper back, neck, and shoulder.
We may use Acupuncture to help manage chronic pain or Ultrasound Therapy to address underlying tissue sensitivity. To encourage better movement, gentle joint mobilisation techniques are used. Kinesiology Taping can provide support and improve posture awareness throughout the day.
The foundation is structured for progressive strengthening. We combine this with Tailored Rehab programmes focusing on endurance and stability, along with advising on key Supplements for tissue health.
For chronic cases of Tennis Elbow where conservative methods have stalled, Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) is highly effective as a targeted intervention. The treatment focuses acoustic energy directly onto the painful origin of the common extensor tendon at the elbow.
ESWT is specifically beneficial for this condition because it disrupts the dense, non-healing scar tissue and fibrous changes (often referred to as angiofibroblastic hyperplasia) that characterise long-term lateral epicondylitis.
By intentionally creating a controlled mechanical load, the shockwaves stimulate a powerful, localised metabolic response, improving blood flow and releasing growth factors.
This action effectively resets the chronic pain cycle and facilitates the laying down of new, correctly oriented collagen fibres, which are essential for restoring the functional strength and integrity of the tendon when gripping or lifting.
Returning to high-demand activities requires a careful, planned progression. For athletes, this might involve adjusting grip size or modifying technique to reduce strain on the forearm. For workers, we look at workstation ergonomics or tool use.
We provide specific exercises that target the wrist extensor muscles. Building the strength and endurance of these muscles is key to protecting the elbow tendon. Strong muscles share the load more effectively.
Learning to take micro-breaks during long periods of repetitive activity is also important. This allows the forearm muscles to briefly recover before fatigue sets in.
Lateral Epicondylitis can make your arm feel weak and unreliable. But your arm is designed for powerful, dexterous movement. It simply needs the right support to overcome this period of strain.
Sports therapy provides the expertise to ease the tension and guide the strengthening process. It is about returning to a place where lifting, typing, and gripping feel natural and pain-free. If elbow pain is limiting your life, let’s work together to restore your arm’s full potential.
