Golfers and Tennis Elbow


This is only an example of a few muscles. You have many more muscles like that.

click to enlarge images

About Golfer and Tennis Elbow

The department of Labour states;” OOS ( Occupational Overuse Syndrome) is caused by muscles being held tense or tight for too long.”

That may seem a simplified statement, but for most over use type problems, like Golfers and Tennis Elbow the cause is indeed that simple.

The shorter and tenser the muscle the harder it pulls on the places it is attached to (i.e., the elbow). When this happens in the fore arm the pull at those attachments and tendons causes irritation and inflammation which is felt as pain.

In case of tennis elbow the muscles that work your fingers and wrist are in your fore arm and are attached to the elbow. So if you are over using your wrist or finger these muscles go very tense and with that short, which makes them pull HARD at the elbow (their point of attachment). This creates irritation and inflammation on the elbow joint , and this is what we then call “Tennis elbow”

Sometimes the pain in the elbow is simply referred pain from the muscles.

When muscles are not coping with their load other then going tense and short they also form Trigger points which in turn refer pain to distant areas.

In both cases we have to lengthen and relax the involved muscles. We do this with help of massage techniques (which include trigger point deactivation) and lengthening exercises.

In the first scenario, that will stop the pull, thus eliminating the reason for the painful inflammation reaction on the elbow joint.

In the second scenario that will deactivate the Trigger point, thus stopping the referred pain.

We will also look at the cause. We need to know why the muscle(s) did not cope with the load. (i.e. Work technique? posture? Stress levels? Workstation? Etc.) So this means that we may have to do a worksite assessment, or give you posture education or educate you in stress management (which often also involves breathing education) etc.