Treatment of a tennis elbow with a Blackroll

In addition to stretching/stretching exercises, there is another method by which the patient himself can loosen his muscles and thus counteract the overloading: the so-called fascial roller, or blackroll. For larger muscles or muscle groups there is a rather large roller, but a smaller version was developed especially for feet and forearms.

To roll out the extensors, the patient sits in front of a table with the forearm placed on the Blackroll so that the palm of the hand points upwards.
With gentle pressure, the entire length from wrist to elbow is rolled out very slowly. Especially the muscle bellies should be worked intensively, but always below the pain threshold, because pain is on the one hand a warning signal and on the other hand it causes stress again, which tenses the muscles even more.
As an alternative to the Blackroll, a tennis ball can be used or the fasciae can be treated by the physiotherapist by stroking the entire length of the arm with an evenly strong deep thumb stroke.
In order to devote special attention to the tendon, the method of transverse friction exists. It cannot be used in all phases of healing, but it often proves its worth in chronic tendon problems.
The tendon is basically deliberately irritated in order to initiate a new healing process. The process can be relatively painful. For several minutes, the physiotherapist vigorously moves his index and middle finger across the tendon. The muscle bellies can be loosened with strong cross kneading.

Posture correction

Other approaches to the treatment of tennis elbow are postural corrections and the inclusion of the cervical spine. Posture is important because incorrect posture can cause tension in the neck muscles, which ultimately press on the nerve supplying the arm and thus conduct misinformation. One test to check whether posture and tennis elbow are related is to provoke pain by tensing against resistance once during normal posture and once with the arm in an upright position.

Often the pain value is lower when the body is in an upright position.A good static exercise to build up the general holding muscles and simultaneously stretch the cervical spine is as follows:

The patient lies on his back, his feet are upright, arms are on the right and left side of the body, with palms turned upwards. Now tension is gradually built up by pulling the tips of the feet towards the nose (the heels remain fixed on the floor), the pelvis is tilted backwards, and the lower abdomen is tensed so that the back lies flat on the pad, the shoulders are tensed backwards and downwards, the shoulder blades are pulled towards the spine. Now the forearms and then the head are pressed straight down, with much tension. The cervical spine lolls long upwards by pushing the chin slightly downwards and inwards towards the double chin. This tension is held for a few seconds, with each exhalation the chin is tightened again and every single spot is checked.