Dealing with Golfer's Elbow: Symptoms, Causes, and Chiropractic Treatment

With golf season right around the corner, we want to make sure you are healthy going into the season. One injury that likes to linger, other than lower back pain, is elbow pain. Specifically the inside of the elbow with flexing the wrist. This is called golfers elbow, but not only golfers suffer from this. 

• What Is Golfer's Elbow?

• Who Is Affected By Golfer's Elbow?

• How Do We Treat Golf's Elbow?

• What Do I Do If I Have Elbow Pain?

What Is Golfer’s Elbow?

Golfer's elbow, or medial epicondylitis, is an overuse/overload injury of the inside part of the elbow that affects the wrist flexors (1). The pain is localized over the area of where the tendons attach to the bone of the upper arm. This is because the muscles when flexed pull on this area and when done numerous times in a row, can lead to repetitive stress and inflammation causing pain. The pain can also be caused by clenching the hand or gripping something very tightly. 

Who Is Affected By Golfer’s Elbow?

Even though this repetitive use injury is coined as golfer’s elbow, 90% of the people that suffer from it actually aren’t golfers (1)! The occupations most impacted are carpenters, plumbers and construction workers (1). Symptoms of golfer’s elbow include pain, tenderness, stiffness, weakness in grip strength, numbness or tingliness (3). 

How Do We Treat Golfer’s Elbow? 

Since it is a tendinopathy, the way we treat it is by loading it. That doesn’t mean to just start hammering out wrist curls. We load it with eccentric (braking) exercises to get the best results (2)! Other modalities that we like to use at Kinach Chiropractic to treat Golfer’s Elbow is with the use of active release therapy, muscle release therapy, cupping, scraping or Graston, KT taping, and flossing. All these modalities are specific for soft tissue injuries, like golfer’s elbow, and focus on increasing the blood flow to the area to promote healing, decrease pain and improve function! 

What Do I Do If I Have Elbow Pain? 

If you are having some inside elbow pain that has been hanging around for a week or two and isn’t getting better with rest or stretching, it is a good time to see a qualified healthcare provider such as your local sports chiropractor Dr. Andrew Kinach. He has the knowledge and techniques that can improve your symptoms and help prevent the elbow pain from returning in the future! Let’s try to do some strengthening to get you back in the game, on the job site, or whatever your elbow pain is keeping you from doing!

Book your appointment today!