Golfer’s Elbow

Do you get pain on the inside of your elbow picking things up? Pain pulling up pants? Or cutting vegetables?  

Golfer’s elbow (aka medial epicondylalgia) is an irritation of the tendon to bone attachment on the inside of the elbow. These tendons are associated with the muscles on the inside of your forearm, which mainly control gripping, and wrist flexion (bringing your palm towards your forearm). It usually starts after doing a lot of some unusual wrist movements, maybe pulling out hundreds of weeds, lots of extra gripping in a gym challenge, or maybe a few random rounds of golf.  

Pain on the outside of your elbow? Check out our tennis elbow blog here: https://www.swellphysiopilates.com.au/blog/tennis-elbow.

So, what can you do? 

Knowing what caused your golfer’s elbow is a helpful first step. If it wasn’t a once off thing, and you’re still doing it, find another way to do the movement without the same wrist movement.  

If you need pain relief, ice or over the counter pain relief can be helpful. 

Get your elbow assessed. There are some nerve issues that can mimic golfer’s elbow, so it’s important to know what you’re dealing with.  

How can we help? 

An accurate diagnosis and overall treatment plan is the most important thing we do. Golfer’s elbow, like tennis elbow can be stubborn. So, the best approach is to have a good understanding of what is happening, ways to relieve pain yourself when it occurs, and an exercise program to keep your arm strong. Short term relief from taping, massage, and dry needling is also helpful to keep things improving.  

If you need help managing your golfer’s elbow, give us a call, we’d love to help 🙂