Understanding tennis elbow in lifting and how to prevent it from happening

I may have talked about tennis elbow before but lately I have seen a few posts expressing pain/discomfort when lifting in the elbow. So I figured I would address it again and give everyone some helpful suggestions on some things you could do to help rid yourself of this pain.

What is tennis elbow?

Tennis elbow which is known as lateral epicondylitis is a painful condition that occurs when tendons in your elbow are overloaded and inflamed, usually by repetitive motions of the wrist and arm. Tennis elbow is felt mainly outside of the elbow (the lateral epicondyle) where the tendons of the forearm meet.

How do I know if I have tennis elbow?

Clear sign that you may be experiencing tennis elbow is the location of the pain which will be pinpointed to the outside of the elbow (not the inside) and you are noticing pain when gripping an object like a bar or dumbbell.

Some things you can do to help rid yourself of this pain -

If it’s a acute then yes you need to decrease the inflammation by using ice, rest and if needed take an anti-inflammatory (please make sure to check with your physician as well)

If it’s beyond the 72 hour mark meaning it’s no longer in the acute phase you use this protocol to help you

1) Ice cup massage - take a small dixie cup, fill it with water and let it freeze overnight; then take the frozen cup of ice and rub it directly on your extensors. You could add some pressure as you rub the ice on the area. Do this for about 5mins or until the area gets cold

2) Take biofreeze or icy hot or any topical muscle rub and massage it into the extensors. This might be easier to have a friend or loved one do. Make sure to add some pressure as you do this. Massage out the area for about 5mins

Repeat step one

Repeat step two

3) Stretch out the forearms - stretch out the extensors by fully extending your arm out in front with palm down then flex the wrist and add a little bit of pressure from the opposite hand. Repeat 5 times and hold for 5 secs

Minimize any other actions that may be contributing to the tennis elbow like typing, chopping vegetables, writing with a pencil, texting, ie.

Once the inflammation has gone down and the pain has decreased it’s time to start strengthening the grip strength. The simplest way to do this is to squeeze a tennis ball repeatedly in your hand for at least 5mins a day.

The last thing you could do is strengthen your grip by using a rice bucket - simply fill a 5 gallon container with about 20 pounds of white rice (do not eat the rice afterwards) and do various wrist strengthening exercises with the hand

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