Tennis elbow (or lateral epicondylitis) is a common injury caused by inflammation of the tendons that connect the forearm muscles to the outside of the elbow.
Causes
Tennis elbow is not limited to athletes. The root cause of tennis elbow is repetitive extension of the wrist or elbow. Constant repetition of this movement will cause inflammation and requires treatment. Activities that involve repetitive movement of the wrist, such as; overuse of the computer, weightlifting, gardening and cooking have been heavily linked to developing tennis elbow.
How to Prevent Tennis elbow
It is important that you avoid putting strain on the elbow to help prevent tennis elbow or stop symptoms from getting worse.
- With activities such as using the computer, setting up your mouse and keyboard ergonomically is best for avoidance of tennis elbow. Use a keyboard that can be reverse tilted and an ergonomic mouse.
- If you start to experience pain from moving your wrist or elbow, stop what you are doing or find an alternative that can prevent putting stress on your specific muscles on (switch hands, move to a different position etc.).
- Wearing a tennis splint may also elevate the stress on your elbow.
- If playing a sport that involves repetitive motion, it is important to warm up and stretch the muscles in your arm.
- Strengthening the muscles in the forearm can also help prevent tennis elbow.
Seek out treatment
If you have tennis elbow it is best to seek out treatment as soon as possible. Physiotherapy can help alleviate the pain from tennis elbow as well as strengthen and stretch the muscles involved to treat and prevent this condition from reoccurring.