Finding Relief From Tennis Elbow

From the Marin Independent Journal: They are the two most dreaded words in tennis, carrying such negative connotations that players would rather be diagnosed with the plague.

Tennis Elbow

It’s easy to blow off initial soreness, but as pain gravitates to the outside middle of the playing arm, discomfort makes it nearly impossible to, say, grab a half gallon of milk out of the refrigerator. Tennis is basically out of the question, rendering a pastime to a past life.

The biggest bummer about tennis elbow is that you typically don’t think about it until after it strikes.

“Tennis elbow will find itself in the age group between 40 and 60,” says Sharon Skylor, a Corte Madera physical therapist who specializes in chronic pain relief. “People wait until they get it. They don’t think about it.”

Although there are a few preventive steps one can take to thwart tennis elbow, the nature of the injury is a result of repetition, which is tough to evade. Due to overuse, micro tears form on the tendon that attaches muscle to bone. Scar tissue builds up to repair the tiny tears, making muscles and tendons sensitive to pain in the form of tendinitis.

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