What is Golfers Elbow?

Medial epicondylitis, more commonly known as golfers elbow is a condition that causes pain on the inside of the elbow. The pain is caused by damage to a group of muscles that bend the wrist called the wrist flexors. These muscles attach to a tendon on the inside of the elbow joint. The main sign will be pain and perhaps some swelling on the bony point on the inside of the elbow and the area around it. Movements of the wrist and the forearm will be painful and bending your wrist against resistance will also cause pain. The inside area of the elbow will be very tender and painful to touch. Performing simple to day to day tasks such as shaking hands or gripping an object will be likely to cause pain in someone suffering from golfers elbow.

Most of the time golfer’s elbow is caused by overuse of the forearm and elbow, the reason for this being a poor technique or action when playing golf. However, most of the time golfers elbow comes on through an occupation, people who do manual jobs involving DIY, gardening, chopping, climbing, painting and regular use of vibrating tools are more susceptible . Sometimes golfers elbow can come on acutely, meaning it happens doing one particular movement which brings on pain straight away. The most important thing to do is rest, the condition or pain will not clear up and go away without a period of rest.

Seeing a sports therapist is highly recommended. A sports therapist can perform sports massage to reduce the pain and pressure in the wrist flexors and the tendons in the area. Other treatment techniques such as taping and ultrasound are also proven to reduce the pain in the elbow. A sports therapist can also set an individual rehabilitation programme that will involve exercises to be doing at home. These involve stretching and then strengthening of the injured muscles. By the end of the rehabilitation programme, the injured patient will go back to their normal day to day work knowing that they will not experience any elbow pain.