If you’ve been struggling with 💪 tennis elbow, it’s possible that you are doing something to trigger or worsen the problem without knowing it. But what is tennis elbow?
Simply put, tennis elbow is pain and inflammation or micro tears in the tendons around the outer elbow from overuse. It can vary from being a mild niggle to a debilitating pain on movement that can affect your activities of daily living 😲
Here are some common triggers of tennis elbow that you may not know about. 👇
Tennis
Let’s get the most obvious one out the way. Playing tennis 🎾 or any other racquet sport can cause and worsen tennis elbow. It can also prevent tennis elbow from healing. Other sports that include a throwing action, such as javelin or discus, can also trigger tennis elbow.
Repeated motions
Using our elbow in a repeated motion for long periods of time can trigger tennis elbow. These activities include using gardening shears, screwdrivers, or even ✂️ scissors.
Jobs that include things like plumbing, painting, and cutting up cooking ingredients puts us at a higher risk of developing tennis elbow.
Other activities, especially those that involve fine repetitive hand and wrist movements, such as typing or sewing 🧵, can also be triggers.
Anything that involves having to repeatedly bend the elbow, such as playing the 🎻 violin, is also (you guessed it) a trigger for tennis elbow.
Playing for the first time in a long time
So, we know that playing racquet sports can trigger tennis elbow. But something that increases our risk of developing this condition is playing a racquet or throwing sport for the first time in a long time. A great way to prevent this is to ensure a proper warm-up and easing yourself back in gently. You wouldn’t go straight into running a marathon when you haven’t run for a few years 🤓
Falling over
A direct blow to our elbow joint can create an excessive load on the joint, which, although rare, can lead to tennis elbow.
Smartphones
For many of us, holding a smartphone 📱 includes gripping the device and tapping on the screen repetitively. This can cause tennis elbow as our tendons and muscles have to work incorrectly the whole time we use our phones.
If you’re concerned that you may have tennis elbow, contact us to make an appointment.
