Tennis Elbow Physical Therapy – Four Things You Need To Know When Getting Treatment From A Physiotherapist

Tennis elbow, otherwise known as lateral epicondylitis, is a condition that causes inflammation around the side of your elbow joint due to trauma or repetitive activity. Usually when you have an injury of the elbow, it is very painful for the few days but eases of quickly afterwards. However, if the injury is severe or doing repetitive activity for too long, then you might develop chronic tennis elbow that may last from, weeks, months or even years. During these times, it is harder to treat because your tendons have developed too much scar tissue due to the ongoing inflammation.

To accelerate the healing process and resume your normal daily activities, it best to get physical therapy on the elbow.

Here are four things you need to expect when getting physical therapy for tennis elbow:

1. Make sure you get treated from a qualified physical therapist.

All physical therapist should have at least a bachelor degree with a license approved from the state the person is practicing in. The more years he has been working, the better outcome you would usually get because of their experience and knowledge.

2. Take pain medication before you see your physiotherapist.

Some physiotherapy treatment could be painful. For instance, to break up the scar tissue in your tennis elbow tendon, the therapist should have to massage firmly around the affected area. This type of massage is called transverse friction. Some people would get bruising when a therapist perform this on you. But, this is necessary to allow good blood circulation around the tendon.

3. All therapists should give you an exercise for you to perform at home.

Tennis elbow exercises are required to ensure that your muscles are stronger and less tight than before. In addition, this would increase recovery rate because there will more blood flowing around the body and the sweat will remove the excess toxins. Most of the time, they will give you an exercise band called a theraband, that will assist your exercises. Stretching exercises are needed to stretch the muscles and break up the scar tissue.

4. Electrotherapy equipment would be used to help heal you faster.

The most common electrotherapy treatment physiotherapist uses is an ultrasound machine. An ultrasound machine is a device that sends high frequency ultrasound waves deep into your tissues. This would increase blood circulation by increasing the heat and breaking down the old scar tissue. The other equipment they use is an interferential machine. This is a machine that will stimulate your muscle to relax and will reduce the pain around the elbow.