Golfer’s Elbow

Golfer’s Elbow

What is it?

With The Open Championship just finished now would be the best time to talk about an injury named because of how common it is with those that play Golf, “golfer’s elbow”.

Golfer’s elbow is characterised by pain on the inside of the elbow joint, this generally worsens through movements such as gripping, pushing, pulling and, of course, golf swings. Essentially golfer’s elbow is caused overuse of a group of muscles of the forearm called the “flexors”. These muscles all converge to form a tendon called the “common flexor tendon of the forearm”. In golfer’s it is this tendon which degenerates which causes pain on the inside of the elbow and decreased muscle strength of the attached muscles. It was previously thought that the tendon itself would become inflamed, however, this has since been disproven and therefore the term “tendinitis” is now been replaced by the term “tendinosis”.

How can joints and points help?

For all injuries Joints and Points can offer a high-quality physiotherapy to identify, diagnose and treat problems such as golfer’s elbow.  Your therapist will first question you on the injury (time of onset, pain levels, pain location etc) and will then apply different tests to rule in or out suspected pathologies.

What might treatment involve?

In physiotherapy treatment is always heavily reliant on the individual, for example golfer’s elbow is very prevalent among office workers who use a keyboard and a mouse all day, the rehabilitation programme will be different for this person than for a high-level golfer. In most cases treatment will involve manual therapy such as deep friction massage over the common flexor tendon, massage of the flexor muscles and even treatment of the neck if neck pathology is involved with the injury. Then, the therapist will give exercises which are designed to load the tendon which then has the effect of strengthening it, the most common exercise type prescribed for this injury is called “eccentric exercise.