4 Secrets to Conquering Elbow or Wrist Tendonitis
How to kick that pesky tendinitis for good in 4 easy steps!
Lateral epicondylalgia, aka tennis elbow, stems from a repetitive irritation of the common tendon (yellow) of the wrist and finger extensors. With repetitive wrist and finger movements, even heavy lifting, stress and strain is put through the tissues that attach the muscles to the bones making it difficult and painful to do simple things such as driving, opening doors, brushing your teeth, type and keep you from doing things you enjoy like gardening or crafting.
(Netter plate #45)
Ice Massage
Rather than using an ice pack, ice massage causes a quicker numbing and stronger blood vessel constricting response in the irritated tissues. Freeze some water in a dixie cup, peel back the top half of it once it’s frozen and move the ice around in circles concentrating on just the painful area. When it’s numb it’s done! (about 5 minutes)
Stretch the muscles and tendons that go all the way down and into your finger tips frequently throughout your day. Try to do them as soon as you notice pain or tension starting to increase to prevent the higher spikes of pain or soreness at the end of the day. Click on the link above to learn all of the stretches you can do.
Brace
Get a tennis elbow brace, not a supportive wrist or elbow brace. When the pressure point band is placed over the most tender spot in your forearm, it changes where the peak tension occurs when you grip, lift or use your hands and distributes it more evenly throughout the muscles in the area, allowing that tender spot to settle down.
Glide
Nerves and tendons are meant to glide and slide on each other. That movement tends to get compromised when tissues in the area get irritated and inflamed. Often and numbness and tingling coincide with tendinitis as a result.
After doing the stretches, glide the ulnar nerve (blue arrow), median nerve (black arrow), and the finger tendons (red bracket in the first picture) to prevent additional irritation, numbness, tingling, sharp zinging pain and the higher spikes of pain or soreness at the end of the day.
Stay on top of your symptoms with icing, stretching and gliding and use the brace if you can’t get away from doing things that continually aggravate your elbow pain. Wear it during all waking hours at first. Once you start to feel better, only wear it when you are going to do something that usually hurts the elbow or if you are doing anything above and beyond what you usually do.
These techniques work great for carpal tunnel too. Just ice massage on the palm side of your forearm instead of at the elbow and use a carpal tunnel brace instead of a tennis elbow brace especially at night or when working at the computer.
Be sure to work on the underlying problems that may be making your elbow or tendons irritated in the first place. Typically, patients who have this problem tend to grip too hard because of a weak neck, stiff back , weak back and shoulder blade core muscles. Pay attention to how you do the things that give you pain and be sure to do it with good posture. Also stretch your neck and shoulders, strengthen your neck, upper and mid back so that you can share the load with more parts of your body and put less stress on your elbow, wrist and hands!
