Tennis elbow, also known as lateral epicondylitis, is a painful condition that develops when the tendons in your elbow are overloaded, generally due to repetitive wrist and arm motions. Tennis elbow may cause pain when you bend or straighten your arms, hold objects, or lift them. Tennis elbow causes pain primarily where your forearm muscles’ tendons attach to a bony bump on your elbow. Pain and weakness may make it difficult to:
- Turn a door knob
- Shake your hands
- Grab a milk cup
The majority of people find relief without surgery. Despite the name, only 5% of cases of tennis elbow are actually caused by tennis. Tennis elbow can occur by doing any repetitive movement, such as using hand tools or making paintings. Tennis elbow is a common injury that usually requires only minor treatment; however, healing takes time and rest. Stretching exercises can help greatly to rehabilitate tennis elbow. So, today, we will look at the best stretching exercises to recover from tennis elbow. Let’s begin!
Simple Stretching Exercises For Treating Tennis Elbow
Tennis elbow can be treated with the exercises listed below:
Wrist lift, palm up
To perform a wrist lift, palm up:
- Pick up a light weight, such as a dumbbell or food tin
- bend the elbow at right angles
- extend arm out, palm up
- turn the wrist towards the body
- Stay in this position for 5 seconds, then slowly release
- repeat nine more times
- Do two more sets of 10 repetitions
Wrist turn
To perform a wrist turn:
- bend the elbow at right angle
- extend arm out, palm up
- Slowly rotate the wrist until the palm is facing down.
- hold position for 5 seconds
- repeat nine more times
- Do two more sets of 10 repetitions
A weighted wrist turn
The wrist turn while lifting the weight is the same as the previous wrist turn. But in this variation, the person also holds a small weight, such as a dumbbell or a lunch box, in their hands.
Elbow bend
To perform the elbow bend:
- stand up straight
- lower arm to one side
- Bend your arm upwards until your hand touches your shoulder
- For 15-30 seconds, hold this position
- repeat nine more times
Twist a towel
To perform the towel twist:
- Hold a loose-fitting towel by one hand at each end
- keep shoulders relaxed
- Fold the towel by moving the hands in opposite directions
- repeat nine more times
- Repeat ten times in the opposite directions.
Finger stretch:
- Touch your fingers with your thumb and put a rubber band around them, including your thumb.
- Slowly open your thumb and fingers completely, then close them.
- Repeat up to 25 times.
- Three times a day, do this stretch. If it turns out too easy, try two rubber bands.
Wrist extensor flex
To flex the wrist extensor:
- raise arms straight in front of body
- Keeping the palm facing down, slowly bend the wrist upwards
- Pull your fingers back toward your body with the other hand
- For 15-30 seconds, hold this position
- straighten the wrist
- repeat twice
- Do two more sets of 3 repetitions
Squeezing a tennis ball
To perform the fist squeeze:
- Use a tennis ball and keep it in your palm
- grasp the ball or towel with the fingers to make a fist
- squeeze tightly for 10 seconds
- repeat nine more times
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