Tennis Elbow is an inflammatory condition leading to lateral elbow pain (source). It can be a nightmare to have a good backhand in tennis or pickle ball as well as any gripping activity in the weight room. This will be the best exercises for Tennis Elbow treatment. Given the nature of the elbow and wrist anatomy, the treatment for Golfer’s Elbow is similar. See that guide here.
The Best Exercises For Lateral Elbow Pain
Tennis Elbow is fixed by loading the tendon in every motion that occurs around the elbow joint. The exercises are as follows:
- Wrist extension and flexion
- Supination and pronation
- Ulnar and radial deviation
- Grip work
Wrist Extension And Flexion For Lateral
- Both of these movements load the medial elbow in a lengthened and shortened position
- Perform 3×12
- Repeat 3x a week
- Progress by adding reps before adding weight
- ie 3×12-15-20. After 20 is reached, ad weight and restart at 12 reps
Supination and Pronation
- These movements also load the medial elbow in a lengthened and shortened position
- These are performed for time instead of reps
- 3 sets of 45 seconds. This should be difficult; it should be hard to reach 45 seconds
- Repeat 3x a week
Ulnar And Radial Deviation For Tennis Elbow
- These movements load the medial elbow in a lengthened and shortened position (notice a trend?)
- These are performed for time
- 3 sets of 45 seconds. This should be difficult; it should be hard to reach 45 seconds
- Perform 3x a week
Grip Work
- This trains the elbow isometrically
- Perform 2 sets to failure. Failure is when you drop the weight
- Progress by adding distance traveled before failure
- Perform 3x a week
These exercises will get you out of the acute, painful inflammatory phase of Tennis Elbow within 2 weeks or so. At this point you need to return to YOUR level of normal activity to finish the rehab.
The main takeaway is to load the elbow through all the motions that relate to tennis elbow.