Three ways to treat elbow pain when extending your arm

Is your elbow painful when you extend your arm? Does it make weightlifting, work tasks and other normal activities more difficult? Answering yes to both of these questions could mean you have a condition called tennis elbow. 

Tennis elbow is also called lateral epicondylitis, and it’s a common elbow injury. It occurs when the tendons on the outside of your elbow become inflamed by repetitive movements. Medical researchers report that tennis elbow affects up to 3% of the U.S. population annually. Physical therapy is one of the most effective treatment options for elbow pain when extending your arm caused by tennis elbow. 

These three therapy methods can help reduce elbow pain when extending your arm

A physical therapist can help you find treatment options for tennis elbow. In particular, they can focus on decreasing the elbow pain you experience when extending your arm. Some of the techniques that can help you meet this goal are: 

1. Manual therapy — Physical therapists can use manual therapy to help decrease your elbow pain. This is a category of techniques where therapists use their hands to improve mobility in joints and soft tissue. Medical researchers report that one type of manual therapy helped decrease elbow pain by nearly five points on average on the numeric pain rating scale. 

2. Therapeutic exercises — Your therapist can also show you some exercises to help decrease your pain. This might include showing you how to do eccentric exercises that target your elbow. A study found that eccentric exercises helped improve pain levels in 81% of patients. 

3. Instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM) — This technique involves therapists using special tools on the affected elbow. These tools allow therapists to apply more pressure and friction to the affected area than they could with just their hands. One benefit of IASTM is it can help speed up your recovery time. A study of this technique reveals that 78.3% of the patients who had it had fully recovered in four to eight weeks. 

Advent Physical Therapy offers effective treatment for tennis elbow

Ready to reduce the pain you feel in your elbow when extending your arm? Our specialists at Advent PT are ready and willing to help you treat your tennis elbow symptoms. We offer free screenings that can confirm that tennis elbow is causing your pain. In addition, our team excels at constructing individualized therapy plans designed to decrease elbow pain. Our plans can also help reduce your risk of getting tennis elbow in the future. 

Want to get help for your elbow pain at home? No problem! We offer several therapy services that can help you, including virtual therapy and at-home care sessions. 

Contact our team today for more information about how we can treat your tennis elbow symptoms or to schedule your initial appointment.