#16: Tennis & Golfer's Elbow: Diagnosis and Treatment Strategies

Rehab Science with Tom Walters

In today's episode, we cover tennis and golfer's elbow. We talk through common signs and symptoms and how you would go about treating these conditions.

Golfers elbow creates pain on the inside of the elbow where the wrist and finger muscles attach on the medial epicondyle. The condition is usually diagnosed as medial epicondylitis or epicondylalgia. Pain in this region is typically associated with activities that require repetitive use of the fingers and wrist (climbing, gripping, golf, etc). Because golfers elbow is due to an irritation of tendons, it responds well to a resistance training program that progressively increases the strength of the tendons.

Tennis elbow or lateral epicondylitis is a tendon issue (i.e. tendinopathy) that typically involves pain in the region of the lateral elbow, which is where the tendon for the wrist and finger extensor muscles attaches. Like other tendon issues, strength training appears to be helpful in many cases for both reducing pain and improving the work capacity of the tendon.

My book contains comprehensive rehab programs for the 50 most common conditions, including programs for tennis and golfer's elbow. Click the Amazon link below to learn more about the book.