What is Tennis Elbow?

What is Tennis Elbow, and why do I have it?

In a nutshell, tennis elbow is the pain you get from repeatedly stretching and stressing the muscles and tendons connected to the outside of your elbow, aka the lateral epicondyle.

If the muscles that pull the wrist back are placed under too much stress, then they can begin having micro tears.

Activities that can cause, or aggravate the symptoms include turning stubborn doorknobs, attempting to return Roger Federer’s serve with a backhand, or even something as simple as shaking hands with the coworker who feels it is necessary to try crush your phalanges with every greeting.

Simply put, if you’re experiencing pain on the outside of your elbow when gripping and lifting with the wrist, you probably have been over-stressing the musculature connecting to the outside of your elbow, and now it is inflamed. 

How do We treat Tennis Elbow?

Unfortunately, every patient requires a unique approach to healing this type of injury. To start though,  consider greeting the aforementioned coworker with a fist bump, or altering any other activity that causes sudden pain.

You don’t want to put your wrist in a cast and stop using it, but you want to give it a break from the activities that aggravate your elbow.

While you’re giving your arm a break, you want to also exercise and stretch the injured musculature, so that you can increase blood flow and speed up the healing process.

A Simple Exercise to Help With Tennis Elbow


One exercise that may help is small dumbbell hold.

  • You support your forearm palm down on a flat surface, and while holding a 1 to 2 pound weight and you slowly lift the wrist up then slowly lower back down. 

  • After doing 10 repetitions going up, you do the same thing going down.

  • After that, you do the same thing except with your palm facing up.

  • If you do this for a while and it become easy, and doesn’t hurt, you can consider attaching a fastened band to your hand to increase resistance, and thus blood flow. 

How do I make My Tennis Elbow feel better?

An elbow strap can help ease the condition.

Exercises are all fine and dandy, but how do we get it to stop hurting? There are two strategies to reduce pain; reduce inflammation and wear a forearm strap.

  • To reduce inflammation, one should consider icing, taking an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen. 

  • The second strategy is wearing a Tennis elbow strap. It is a piece of fabric fastened snugly just below the elbow that compressing the injured muscles and decreasing the pain.

You want to wear the strap whenever you are doing something that has the potential to hurt your elbow, if that’s all the time, and then you can wear it all the time. You can purchase an easy to use strap at your local drug store.

Be Patient, Your Doc Can Help With Tennis Elbow

Be patient, the symptoms can linger for weeks if not months, but if your pain continues, then consider visiting your local physician.

A qualified doctor can assess your condition and look into stronger treatments, such as a corticosteroid injection, or surgery.

Good Luck!


Dr. William Sterett, M.D.

Dr. Bill Sterett is the Head Team Physician for the US Women’s Alpine Ski Team and has been since 1997, with athletes over the years such as Picabo Street, Kristina Koznick, Caroline LaLive, Julia Mancuso and Mikaela Shiffrin. He has served as a US Olympic Committee Team Physician for the past four Winter Olympic Games, with the US Olympic Committee entrusting the care of their athletes to Dr. Sterett in Salt Lake City, Torino, Vancouver and Sochi.

Dr. Sterett is Board Certified by the American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, a member of the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, a member of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, and is one of the few physicians who have earned a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine.

Dr. Sterett has published more than 30 peer-reviewed articles and has lectured regionally, nationally and internationally on hundreds of occasions over the past twenty years. He currently holds patents on orthopedic devices involved in Joint Preservation and works as a consultant to Arthrex and Biomet sports medicine companies.

Dr. Sterett started the Athletic Training Fellowship Program in Vail, Colorado, and served as its Fellowship Director for 15 years. Additionally, he has served as the Medical Director for the Eagle County School District for 14 years, making daily return-to-play decisions and treating local student athletes. Currently, he serves as the Medical Director for the Vail Valley Surgery Centers and has for the past 12 years.

http://www.drsterett.com
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