This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/IZbmERTOyyE
Brad: Oh, my elbow hurts!
Mike: Many people are surprised by how severe and how long it can take to recover from tennis elbow or golfer's elbow.
Brad: That's right. And today we're going to give you three effective self-treatment options that are going to help speed up your recovery and get you back into action, pain-free.
Mike: So elbow pain is often caused by shortening and tension in the deep rotator muscles of the forearm.
Brad: That's right. And the easy way to test this is simply sit down. You can do it standing, with your elbow at a 90-degree bend, and both of them out in front of you, you're going to compare supination, or palms up, versus pronation, or palms down. So for example, if I turn my palms up, and one hand goes normal, and the other only can get half as far, that's showing I've got tight muscles on the supinators.
Brad: If we go the other direction, and one is normal but the other only goes part of the way you know it's tight. We know we need to address the tightness of these muscles, get them stretched out, relaxed, so that you can get back to normal.
Mike: So the first stretch we're going to go through is going to help improve your supination, or turning your palm up towards the ceiling. Oftentimes people will struggle with this the most when dealing with golfer's or tennis elbow. In order to do it, oftentimes, you're going to be limited, and you get kind of stuck. Simply take your good hand, place it on the wrist or your palm, and help turn it gently. This should be pain-free. If it causes any sharp pain, do not force it that hard. Just go gentle over time. After doing this, try to work your grip up your forearm more here and help rotate. Notice my thumb is on one side and my palm is on the other. So I'm helping with that rotation component. Hold it here for roughly three breaths and relax. It's important to do this throughout the day.
Brad: Right. Now I do want to give credit where credit is due. We did not come up with this treatment. It's actually from a therapist we work with closely. His name is Rick Olderman. He's developed a whole system throughout the body. This is just for his treatment of elbow pain. And a couple of things I do want to point out. When you're grabbing, think about your hand on the bony landmark on the wrist, the thumb is on a bony landmark. We're not rotating skin, but we're trying to rotate the bones, which are connected to the muscle, to get a good appropriate stretch. And when you go up, there's a little more meat. You have more muscle, more mass there. You really need to feel that. And you can actually work those muscles if they're tight and loosen them up. Anything else, Mike?
Mike: It's good to do this while resting your forearm. You can either do it on your lap like Brad was showing, or I'm doing it on a table. Sometimes when your arm is up in the air, it could become more tense, and won't want to stretch as much. Nice relaxed position.
Brad: All right, the next important muscle group to address in regards to getting muscles loosened up so that you get that range of motion is the brachioradialis and the radialis. And the way you do this is you simply find the tendon of a bicep below the muscle belly. There's that tendon. You're going to take your two fingers and go on one side just at the elbow, just above the elbow joint. And then the thumb goes on the other side. And we're gonna get underneath and to the side of that bicep muscle down by the joint. And that muscle is deep in by the humerus, or the bone that goes to the elbow joint. And you'll typically find, if you've got a tight muscle, it's going to be a little tender. And then you can work on that and say, my thumb finds a tender spot, it's not so tender on the outside, but inside, I'm going to focus on that muscle, work on it for about two to three minutes or so, and then give it a break. You can do it on the outside if that's tight way as well. Mike, any other input?
Mike: Again, you want to have your forearm supported with this, and I just feel this digging in here. It's a little tight even though I don't have these issues.
Brad: Right. Well, we all have tightness, Mike. All right, before we go on to some ergonomic changes at the workstation, the computer workstation, you're going to find out, typically, Rick has found out that supination is the tightest motion, but it can be pronation. This side's not going down as far. So anyway, you're going to work that stretch.
Brad: Make sure you do it and hold for three breaths, three or four repetitions throughout the day, every hour or so. And again, the bicep tendon, every 30 minutes to an hour, you get in there, massage those muscles, get that loosened up. When you're done with it, you can kind of shake it out a little bit, let it breathe, if you will. Now let's get to that ergonomics with the mouse. It's very critical.
Mike: So when you're at your workstation, this is a common cause of having elbow pain for most people. They don't have it set up properly. When you're using a mouse, if your mouse is too far away, this is going to put more strain on the elbow joint. You want to have it closer to your body.
Mike: Oftentimes, you want to have it supported. I'm not in a computer chair right now, but having the armrest positioned for support, a nice 90-degree bend in my elbow joint would be optimal for feeling good with this. And you also want to not have too much wrist flexion or extension. Obviously, I'm in a fixed position right now, but some people's desks are just taller than their chairs, or vice versa. Or they have a standing desk. If your wrists are flexed all day, you're going to start developing some issues.
Brad: Right, so again, that neutral position. Having the elbow flexed to about 90 degrees by the body, and the weight of the arm being supported by the armrest while you're sitting can be very helpful.
Mike: Now all the exercises and stretches that we showed in this video can be found in this book written by Bob Schrupp and Rick Olderman. It is called the "Top Three Fix."
Brad: That's right, the nice thing about this book, not only does it tell you how to fix elbow pain, it goes into the wrist, the neck, all the parts of the body, all the major joints. It is a complete book for self-help and keeping yourself active, pain-free, and feeling fantastic.
Mike: If you want to check out more videos on how to treat tennis elbow pain, check out "Tennis Elbow? Absolute Best Self-Treatment, Exercises, & Stretches."
Brad: But I don't play tennis.
Mike: I play pickleball. Does that count?
Brad: Yeah, that's good.
Mike: Okay.
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