Tennis Elbow & Golfer's Elbow

Tennis elbow causes pain on the outside of your elbow, around the bony bump you can feel there. That spot anchors the muscles that extend your wrist and fingers. The pain gets worse when you make a fist, bend your wrist backwards or lift something.

Golfer's elbow is the less common counterpart on the inside, at the muscles that bend your wrist and fingers. Doctors call both epicondylitis, although tissue studies point to an overloaded tendon without inflammation.

Repeated, forceful use of your wrist and hand sits behind most cases, at work, at home or in sport. Tennis and golf play a part for a small group. Tennis elbow peaks between the ages of 40 and 50 and usually affects your dominant arm.

We ask about your symptoms, your work and your sport. Your physiotherapist then tests whether extending or bending your wrist against resistance hurts, and presses on the bony bump. Without tenderness there, tennis elbow is unlikely.

A typical picture needs no further tests. If the picture fits less well, for example with swelling or tingling, we look further or refer you to your GP.

Keep using your arm: moving with a little pain does not slow recovery. If the pain builds, cut back for a while. Carry things with your elbow bent, palm up for tennis elbow and palm down for golfer's elbow.

With exercise therapy your physiotherapist builds up the load on your forearm step by step, and on your shoulder where needed. You train at home, at work or in our gym.

About eight in ten people with tennis elbow have (almost) recovered within six months, and at least nine in ten within a year. Most people with golfer's elbow also recover within six months.

Long-standing symptoms, a lot of pain at the start and a complaint that keeps coming back slow recovery down.