Lateral elbow tendinopathy

First of all, if you've had elbow tendinopathy for a few months and it hasn't improved. Fear not, 90 % of elbow tendinopathies improve with time.

They don't get better if you do things to make them worse though... things such as:

1) injection may help in the short-term for some people, but they come with nasty side-effects (such as necrosis)that you don't notice until later. A research conducted by Bisset et al. back in 2006 demonstrated superior results from physiotherapy/ exercise over cortisone injection over wait-and-see approach at 6 weeks. Benefits of cortisone injection were completely reversed after 6 weeks...

2) repeated concentric and eccentric exercises with a theraband or dumbbells...These exercises compress the injured tendon, they won't help especially during the initial phase of rehab.

The lateral elbow tendinopathy will improve:

1) with some isometric exercises? Why because these exercises are functional and do not add to the compression of the tendinitis/tendinopathy. We normally use our wrists to hold objects. We do flex and extend, but not repetitively normally...

Tennis elbow: Epcycondylitis

2) add holding exercises to upper extremity exercises such as shoulder abducton, shoulder shrugs etc.

3) Re-introduce concentric and eccentric exercises in the late phase of recovery

4) use grip strength as an assessment test and stop using the wrist extension test which irritates the elbow tendinopathy!

More on this eventually!

Physio Summum Brossard

Reference:

PMID: 17012266