An easy safe way to improve sleep quality while reducing anxiety, heart rate and blood pressure
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The overlooked cause of tennis elbow (why they don’t get better)
If you have tennis elbow have you ever wondered why you can break a bone and it heals in about 8 weeks, but an inflamed muscle attachment can take 6-12 months, a lot of therapy, and still not be healed? The reason why is that a major cause of stress on the elbow is usually ignored, not allowing it to heal.
The good news is that when this abnormal stress is removed the elbow usually settles down and heals normally. In this article we will share with you what this cause is and the simple solution you can easily do yourself.
CONTENTS
What is tennis elbow
Why tennis elbow does not get better
What you can do about tennis elbow
What is tennis elbow
Tennis elbow is inflammation and possibly injury to where the muscles at the back of your forearm attach at the outside of your elbow.
The (root) cause of tennis elbow
Tennis elbow is caused by (usually prolonged) stress on where the muscles at the back of your forearm attach, causing this attachment to become inflamed and possibly injured. There are two main causes of this stress, but but too often doctors only consider one. These two causes are:
- Intermittent stress (eg. overuse)
- constant tension
Intermittent stress
Every medical text or resource will tell you that tennis elbow is caused by overuse. This is why tennis elbow is common in people who use these muscles often for their work or sport, such tennis.
Constant tension
When muscles are not being used they should relax, so there should be very little tension on the attachments. What happens though is these overused muscles develop abnormal lumps called trigger points, and these cause the muscles to tighten creating constant tension. For information in trigger points please see our article Your Complete Guide To (Myofascial) Trigger Points .
For the scientific research on the cause of tennis elbow please see our article Tennis elbow
Why this stops tennis elbows getting better, and what you can do about it
Why tennis elbow does not get better
Very simply too many doctors and other professionals only look at the intermittent tension caused by over use and ignore the constant tension.
Why tennis elbows wont get better with rest
Resting is supposed to relieve the tension allowing the elbow to heal, but the constant tension from the trigger point affected muscles remains.
Why massage, needles and laser will not work
With the constant tension remaining the injured attachment will not heal. If massage is applied to the forearm muscles it will help relax the muscles and relieve the tension. However, massage and needles can cause further injury if applied to the injury.
Why exercises will not work
Exercises just cause more stress to the already over stressed injured attachment.
Why stretches will not work
The goal of stretching is to lengthen the muscles, relieving tension. This would be a good idea, except that the trigger points that cause shortening are actually parts of the muscle that have gone into spasm and will not relax. These will resist the stretching and cause the muscle to tighten again. Any relief will be temporary, and there is always the risk of the stretching exercises aggravating the injury.
What you can do about tennis elbow
The overlooked key to correcting tennis elbow is to treat the trigger points so the tension can come off the muscle, allowing the injury to heal. However, we outline the complete strategy below.
First stop doing harm
The first thing to do is stop doing anything that could be further aggravating the problem. This includes exercises you may have been given, and stirring the problem up with needles or massage.
Your comprehensive recovery plan
The key to successfully treating tennis elbow is to remove ALL the abnormal stress from the injured attachment then allow it to heal normally. This will include treating the trigger points that are causing the tightness. This can easily be done using simple home massage techniques. For complete instruction please see our article Self massage and trigger point therapy for tennis elbow . In this we include:
- simple test to see if you have tennis elbow
- simple tests to see if you do have trigger points causing your forearm muscles to be tight
- complete management advice for each of the stages ranging from when pain is very sharp through to rehabilitation
- several effective home massage techniques you can easily do yourself.
We are continually adding more information on research and uses. Subscribe below to have us email them to you "hot off the press".
About Dr Graeme
Several years ago Dr Graeme, a Chiropractor practicing in Victoria, Australia was looking for a serious hand held massager his patients could use at home to get the extra quality massage they needed. The ones he found in the shops and on-line for home use looked nice but were not serious, and... read more
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