Lots of people come into the clinic complaining of elbow pain. Commonly people have pain on the inside of the elbow and say it is down to overuse of the elbow after a long week or overtraining and the elbow has flared up because of it. But with pain on the inside of the elbow, it is not always down to overuse but down to misuse.
With elbow injuries, if you just look at the site of pain and blame the elbow for the cause of the problem you might be missing the root cause of the issue. This is because the muscles which are around your forearm attach onto you humerus which is the upper arm bone and this starts at the shoulder.
People spend a lot of time in a hunched over position with the arms turned inwards and therefore when you have to turn your arms out for example when you hold the bar squatting or doing barbell curls, if the movement is not coming from the shoulder then the movement has to come from the elbow. This creates stress at the elbow as it is not designed to overly rotate.
A lot of the time with elbow pain the thought process is to stretch out forearms. But this is treating the symptoms, not the cause. The root cause is often from being restricted in shoulder movement.
So, if you are having elbow pain or even if you are not you can try this quick test. Hold your hands out in front of you with your arms straight and turn your palms upwards. A lot of the time the you will see a difference from side to side with how much you can turn your palms upwards. You may also find you are compensating to get this movement from the wrists or feel stress through the elbow. If this is the case then helping your shoulder mobility will prevent pain from occurring or if you are in pain, be the resolving factor in your pain.
If you want to know more about potential causes of injuries or get your pain sorted, then contact the clinic for a full functional assessment to see where your imbalances are. To do this contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
Elbow injuries are a common injury in desk workers and athletes. In people who lift weights they are one of the most common injuries to have.
Although the elbow may appear to be a simple hinge joint that simply has two movements (bending or straightening the elbow), the reality is far from it. The elbow is a more complicated joint than it seems because the movement occurs between three bones and surrounding this are 16 small muscles. These help to not only straighten and bend your elbow but also rotate it as your palm is either up or down.
Although many elbow issues are due to overuse of the muscles causing a repetitive strain injury, it is common for people to cause an injury to one of the several nerves in the arm. This can cause tingling, numbness, a burning sensation and possible weakness in the hand.
A type of exercise that is used to help nerve pain is nerve gliding. This aims to either stretch the nerve or glide the nerve.
Gliding techniques will stretch the nerve and have the aim of increasing the tension and pressure through the nerve. This sometimes makes symptoms worse in people.
Sliding techniques will move the nerve with a lot less tension and pressure and therefore don’t increase symptoms.
The goal is to use these techniques to increase blood circulation, reduce the swelling that is around the nerve and get the nerve back to its natural movement. This will decrease symptoms once these areas are restored.
Make sure you only do a few sliders at a time because overstressing the nerve even with a less aggressive technique will potentially increase your symptoms. It is not always the case that a little bit of something is good so let’s do lots of it in a more is better approach. So do this little and often throughout the day rather than all at once.
If you suffer from any elbow issues or capal tunnel then contact the clinic today on 0578678904, direct message us on Facebook or book now.
Yours in Health
The Lawlor Clinic: Spine & Sport, Portlaoise, Laois
