This might be your first encounter with tennis elbow pain or you have suffered it for quite some time now but one question remains, why is hard to get rid of the pain?
The common answer here is that because we re-injure it again and again, and if it has not fully healed, yet you continue repetitive hand activities, this will lead to tennis elbow injuries. Which is why stretching and exercising your elbow is necessary important to help with the recovery and further prevent re-injury.
Tennis elbow occur when there is a gap between the muscle's strength and the activity's physical demand. Our muscles sustain “small” traumas when they are under pressure. What you need is proper targeted exercise so that you have better muscle power, endurance and flexibility. If you have stronger muscles you will be able to handle the stress of your work life or sports like a piece of cake, no more pain and injury.
So, here are 4 Must Do Exercises for Tennis Elbow Pain Recommended by Physical Therapists
1. Forearm stretches
This is the most important exercise you need if you want to get rid of tennis elbow pain faster. This should become part of your habit so that you can prevent tennis elbow from recurring.
Do this exercise every 20-30 minutes to prevent muscle spasms and allow blood flow into the muscle tissue.
a. Wrist extensor stretch
Keep affected arm stretched, palm should face down.
Use the opposite hand to curl your wrist by pulling your hand down, towards the floor.
You should feel a stretch on the outer side of your elbow and forearm.
Hold for 30-40 seconds. It is recommended to stretch both sides.
b. Wrist flexor stretch
Keep arm stretched, palm should face up.
Use the opposite hand to bend your wrist back. Pull your hand down towards the floor.
You should feel a stretch on the inner side of your elbow and forearm.
Hold for 30-40 seconds. It is recommended to stretch both sides.
2. Grip and Pinch Exercises
Use a stress ball for gripping and pinching exercises
a. Stress ball grip exercise
Hold the ball in your palm
Squeeze it slowly in a graded manner (no fast power grip please), by using your entire palm and all your fingers
You should hold it with the tightest pain free grip for about 3-5 seconds and then slowly relax
Repeat this exercise 10 times.
b. Stress ball pinch exercise
Hold the ball between your thumb and fingertips. Make sure all the joints on your fingers are slightly bent and not locked out straight
Pinch your fingers together slowly and hold the position with maximum pain free pinch for about 3-5 seconds then slowly relax
Repeat this exercise 10 times.
3. A new exercise for tennis elbow that works - research based exercise
In this study, 22 patients suffering from tennis elbow condition performed exercises with the use of a branded bar. After 7 weeks, the patients had significantly better results. The study showed improvement in arm strength of a patient.
Here’s how to do it:
Hold a bar in hand on the side with the tennis elbow condition with wrist extended back all the way
Grab other end of the bar with the other (left) hand, palm facing away from you
Twist the bar with left (non-painful side) hand by curling the wrist while holding the painful side wrist in extension
Bring arms in front of body with elbows in straightened out while maintaining both wrist position on the bar, then Slowly allow the bar to ‘untwist’
Do 3 sets of 15 each day
These 3 exercises are highly recommended for people suffering from tennis elbow pain.
Bonus:
Use SocksLane Elbow Sleeve to help you with the movement of your elbow muscles. It will also give ample support so that you will not re-injure yourself while doing these exercises.