What is Tennis Elbow?
Tennis elbow also known as lateral epicondylitis is an extremely common condition that causes pain on the outer side of your elbow. The most common cause of tennis elbow is of overuse due to excessive wrist extension. People whose work involves repeated twisting and gripping actions, such as carpenters and plasterers, are prone to getting tennis elbow. About 5 in 1,000 adults develop tennis elbow each year. It mainly affects people between the ages of 35 and 55 and women/men are affected equally. Despite being called tennis elbow, racquet sports are only thought to be the cause in about 5 in 100 cases.
What are the symptoms of Tennis Elbow?
The most common symptom os tennis elbow is usually pain that comes on for no apparent reason, 24-72 hours after unaccustomed activity involving repeated wrist extension. Its often seen after prolonged sewing and knitting or using a screwdriver. The other common presentation of tennis elbow is a sudden onset of pain associated with over exertion involving the wrist extensors such a lifting heavy objects.
Active Release Technique® for treating Tennis Elbow
These type conditions all have one important thing in common: they are often a result of overused damaged tissues.
How do overuse conditions occur?
Over-used muscles (and other soft tissues) change in three important ways:
- acute conditions (pulls, tears, collisions, etc),
- accumulation of small tears (micro-trauma)
- not getting enough oxygen (hypoxia).
Each of these factors can cause your body to produce tough, dense scar tissue in the affected area. This scar tissue binds up and ties down tissues that need to move freely. As scar tissue builds up, muscles become shorter and weaker, tension on tendons causes tendonitis, and nerves can become trapped. This can cause reduced range of motion, loss of strength, and pain. If a nerve is trapped you may also feel tingling, numbness, and weakness.
How soon can I expect to see results?
The techniques applied using Active Release Technique® are very effective and quickly treat the problem areas of soft tissue, helping the body return to normal function. Our patients respond really well to Active Release Technique®, usually seeing a significant improvement within 4-6 treatments. The goals of Active Release Technique® are simple! Increase blood flow to the injured area, break down scar tissue and to restore the normal movement, thereby speeding up the rate of recovery.
Active Release Technique® and SG Osteopaths
SG Osteopaths are proud to offer our patients the only certified full bodied Active Release Technique® practitioner in Buckinghamshire and would be more than happy to discuss your current complaint and symptoms. Please call today on 01494 959444.
