5 Things to do NOW to relieve your Tennis/Pickleball Elbow

I have been seeing a lot of people with Tennis/Pickleball Elbow lately. (Add in Padel, Golf, oh and a Builder/Manufacturer among a few others!) This is a common pain point. So what do we do about it!

What I have found is that MOST of these injuries are rarely actually Elbow joint injuries. The elbow is just the point where the pain is showing up!

So how do I distinguish between an actual elbow injury or elbow pain due to something else?

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FIrst, I use the LTAP (Locator Test Assessment Protocol) I learned from my mentor Anna Hartman (MovementRev.com) To determine what the brain/body is protecting (Learn more about this From my other Blogs Hierarchy of Protection a Truly Holistic Way To Treat the Body and What Is Visceral Manipulation….And Does It Work?)

One of the easiest ways to address these protection patterns on your own is to breath on a Coregous Ball (you can use a pillow or rolled up towel as well….but this ball is amazing!)

Once the protection patterns are addressed, usually their pain has decreased significantly. Then we can work on the upper extremity. Most of the people I see are desk bound people who end up with tight chests and limited mobility (particularly extension) in their thoracic spine. So this is usually where we start. The thoracic spine and its mobility is a key component to the function and mobility of the entire upper body. If the thoracic spine doesn’t move well the rest of the upper extremity will not move well. Compensations will begin and eventually lead to some dysfunction/pain. So we start here

Next we start to move the nerves a bit and make sure they move well. Nerves are housed inside their own tubes. Sometimes it gets sticky inside that tube due to various things such as inflammation or lack of movement. This can cause the nerve to not glide well or get “stuck” and can cause pain/discomfort anywhere along its path. So moving the arm in specific ways helps to “unstick” the nerves and help move it better through the tube. These are my go to’s for this!

Another very common reason people who play racket sports or do manual labor get this type of pain, is that they are gripping too tight! (particularly beginners!) When you hold your racket with a death grip (or hammer or implement of choice) the muscles of the forearm can get very tight. These muscles actually insert around your elbow.

This is my favorite way to release those tight muscles. I’ll do this while sitting at red lights and such throughout the day. 

Once the forearm is all loose my favorite movement to work on wrist and forearm mobility are hand figure 8s! The brain loves circles but even more so figure 8’s. They are slightly more complex, so you need a little more coordination. These can affect everything from the tension in your wrist and elbow thus decreasing pain. To helping improve your ability to touch your toes! (This is a whole other blog but test it out, try to go as far as you can to touch your toes. Then do 5-10 of these figures 8’s then retest your toe touch….let me know what happens!)

Doing these exercises DAILY will help relieve your current pain and keep them from coming back!