Physical Therapy Exercises For Your Elbow
Athletes from Serena Williams to Kobe Bryant have all sustained elbow injuries. In many cases, these sorts of injuries are derived from introducing the elbow to new movements after a period of inactivity.
New activities and exercises introduced in the spring time when the weather gets warmer such as golf, tennis, and basketball, all fun outdoor activities, come with the inherent risk of straining your elbow. Because the elbow has not worked in this way for several months, unused ligaments and tendons have the tendency to become overworked causing inflammation, pain, and injury.
The most important thing to prevent an elbow injury is to take it slowly when introducing yourself to these new activities. Stretch beforehand and don’t over exert yourself the first few times that you play. This guarantees that the elbow gets used to such activities before being subjected to intense movements. Golfers’ elbow and tennis elbow are both common injuries as the weather starts to get warm.
If you have sustained an elbow injury or are experiencing elbow pain, the first thing to do is to stop the activities that are causing you this pain until it goes away. Do not try to push yourself at this point or the elbow pain will only get worse. Immediately ice the elbow after the experience of pain to decrease inflammation and accelerate the recovery process.
Having an injury, the best method of treatment is non-surgical physical therapy. By applying a combination of stretching exercises, strengthening exercises, and therapeutic modalities such as heat, tens stimulation and message, physical therapy not only heals damaged tendons and ligaments but also makes them stronger preventing future injury.
Here are a few examples of exercises that we go over during your physical therapy sessions:
- Wrist Flexion and Wrist Extension - Taking a light weight, lay your arm on a flat surface such as a table with your palm facing upwards. Curl the weight with your wrist only until your feel your wrist and forearm getting a subtle work out. Lift the weight and the slowly lower it to the starting position. Repeat 10 times for three sets. Next, put the palm facing downwards the lift the weight again to the ceiling and then back to it’s original position. Repeat 10 times for 3 sets. This set of exercises is known as Wrist Flexion and Wrist Extension and strengthens the elbow joint and it’s surrounding muscles.
- Tubing Exercise for External Rotation - Using a stretching elastic band that is attached to the wall or a doorknob, hold your elbow at a ninety degree angle. Then keeping your elbow at ninety degrees, pull the band away from the door. Repeat 10 times for 3 sets. You can face the opposite way and do the same exercise. Then switch and do the same for the other elbow.
Physical Therapy, under the guidance of one of our trained physical therapists, virtually guarantees that mild elbow injuries will heal in a manner of weeks.
Schedule Your Appointment Today!
The Cross Bay Physical Therapy is located in Howard Beach, Queens. Call 718-835-0084 and schedule your first evaluation today!
By Benjamin Bieber