Tennis Elbow: What Is It? How Do I Get Back to My Regular Activities?

Abstract

You do not have to play tennis to get tennis elbow-a very common problem for people who do lots of repetitive movements of the wrist, forearm and elbow, such as carpentry, painting or racquet sports. Most people with tennis elbow feel pain on the outside of their elbow and upper forearm. Experts in managing elbow pain developed a guideline for rehabilitation clinicians to use to help you understand more about tennis elbow. Here, we explain what the guidelines say about how to diagnose tennis elbow (sometimes called lateral elbow pain or lateral elbow tendinopathy), the specific treatments your physical therapist might offer you to help manage pain and improve the mobility of your elbow, and the types of exercises you could do to strengthen the muscles in your wrist and forearm.