Elbow Treatment
Now that the U.S. Open is in it’s Semi-Finals, some players are healing injuries in Physical Therapy right now. In fact, Physical Therapy is proven to be just as effective healing an elbow injury as surgery in some cases. One common tennis injury is of course tennis elbow. Elbow injuries make it extremely difficult to use your arms and lift normal everyday objects.
Every bend of the elbow can be excruciatingly painful. There are two things to treat this type of elbow injury and that is rest and Physical Therapy. By Physical Therapy, we mean applying a combination of strengthening, stretching, and therapeutic modalities such as ice, heat, massage, and tens stimulation under the guidance of a trained professional physical therapist.
Without physical therapy and the guidance of one of our Howard Beach physical therapists, you can be overexerting the elbow when you are not supposed to or stopping treatment before you are supposed too. The best thing to do is have us at Cross Bay Physical Therapy create a specialized physical therapy plan for you and help you to follow it.
Some elbow exercises include:
- Wrist Flexion Exercise - Hold a one pound weight in your hand with your palm facing upwards. Then, bend your wrist upwards. Slowly lower this weight and return your wrist to it’s starting position. Repeat this exercise the amount of times recommended.
- Wrist Extension Exercise - This is the reverse of the wrist flexion exercise. Hold a one pound weight with your palm facing downwards and then, slowly bend your wrist upward. Then, lower the weight to the original starting position and repeat for the recommended number of times.
- Elbow Flexion and Extension - Hold a one pound weight with the palm of your hand facing upwards and lowly bend the elbow so that your hand approaches your shoulder. Then, gently lower the weight until your elbow is completely straight.
- Forearm Pronation and Supination Strengthening - Hold a point pound weight in your hand and bend your elbow at a ninety degree angle. Slowly, rotate your hand so that the palm faces upwards and then downwards. Repeat for the recommended number of times.
It is important to follow your physical therapist’s advice during all exercises because at Cross Bay Physical Therapy, we plan each step of your recovery and know where you should be each week. We guarantee that we can help your recover from your elbow injury making your elbow stronger and allowing you to get back to the activities that you enjoy!
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Call 718-835-0084 and schedule your evaluation today!
By Benjamin Bieber