Many people have fun playing tennis or golf, but these sports can easily lead to injuries. The repetitive motions of tennis and golf can cause tennis or golfer’s elbow. These conditions cause elbow pain and other symptoms, and they can make doing your normal daily activities more difficult. Physical therapists can help treat these injuries, and physical therapy for elbow pain is intended to offer three important benefits. 

1.   Reducing pain

The main focus of physical therapy for elbow pain is pretty straightforward: reducing your pain. Elbow pain is a typical symptom of sports injuries like tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow. These conditions cause damage to the tendons on the outside and inside of the elbow, respectively. The tendon damage is what causes you to feel pain, and healing can lead to scar tissue in these tendons that restricts movement and leads to even more pain. Physical therapists can use treatment options like manual therapy to reduce pain, break up scar tissue and improve elbow mobility. 

2.   Improving range of motion

Another issue that physical therapy for elbow pain can help with is decreased range of motion in the elbow. Range of motion is the amount you can move a joint, and this can be seriously affected by elbow injuries. Tennis or golfer’s elbow can lead to weakness or restriction in forearm muscles, and these muscles are vital to elbow joint movement. 

Using a therapy technique called therapeutic exercise, a physical therapist can help strengthen forearm muscles. This strengthening can help restore normal range of motion to your elbow. Other techniques such as instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) can help improve the movement of forearm muscles, and this can also help improve elbow range of motion. 

3.   Decreasing risk of future injury

Physical therapy for elbow pain can also decrease the risk of injuring your elbow again. To accomplish this, physical therapists can analyze how you’re moving your elbow while playing tennis or golf. This helps them pinpoint any posture issues that could leave you open to future injuries. Once movement issues have been revealed, your therapist can help you find ways to correct them, and better playing movements and posture can help decrease the likelihood that you’ll reinjure your elbow in the future.

Come find out about the physical therapy for elbow pain we offer at Continuum Wellness

Are you looking for a physical therapy team that can help treat an elbow injury? Continuum Wellness in Apache Junction, Arizona, has got you covered. Our team can build you a personalized treatment plan for your injury, which may include therapy techniques such as: 

• Manual therapy
• Joint mobilization
• Therapeutic exercise
• Total motion release
• IASTM

Take the next step to begin treating your elbow pain. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an appointment.