Physiotherapy for a golfer’s elbow

A golfer’s elbow (also called “golfer’s arm”) is when the flexors of the hand cause pain due to overloading. This happens particularly with longer, unaccustomed strain and untrained musculature, with continuous, one-sided load with sport and in the occupation everyday life (PC work, assembly line work). In this case the pain manifests itself on the inside of the elbow at the bony prominence (epicondylus medialis). Other names for the golfer’s elbow are epicondylitis, ulnar epicondylopathy or medial epicondylopathy. The basic therapy consists of sparing the flexor muscles of the affected arm by stopping or reducing the causative activities and strengthening the extensor muscles of the hand.

Exercises

1. massaging They grasp its affected forearm with the hand just below the bend of the elbow. Now massage the painful area with your thumb in circular movements. Especially the area around the tendon attachment (around the bony prominence) should be massaged intensively.

Pain during this procedure is completely normal. The purpose of the massage is to improve the supply of the tendon attachment tissue in order to accelerate the healing process. 2. stretching the flexors Place yourself with an arm’s length distance laterally in front of a wall.

Now touch the wall with an extended, horizontal arm. The fingers point to the floor and the wrist is bent by about 80 degrees. You now feel a clear stretch in the area of the hand flexor muscles.

Hold this position for 60 seconds at a time. Vary your arm position slightly in height and also sideways to stretch the fascia, muscle attachments and muscles more extensively. 3. rolling A small rubber ball (approx.

5 cm. diameter) can be used for massage or fascial stimulation. The forearm rolls up and down a wall on the rubber ball.

The ball should initially be positioned exactly on the painful area of the forearm. In circular movements, they roll over the ball. Later, they also work the surrounding area up to the wrist.

4. stretching fingers With the help of a special rubber band, this exercise strengthens the stretching function of the forearm and hand muscles and balances out any imbalance between the stretcher and flexors. Alternatively, a stocking can be used. The elastic band is wrapped around the fingers so that the fingers can be spread against the resistance.

Now spread your fingers, hold the spreader for about 5 seconds and release it again. You can increase the intensity by the number of repetitions. You can find more exercises under: Exercises for elbow pain