Got Tennis Elbow? Massage Can Help Relieve it.

Tennis elbows anyone? I have been seeing a lot of sore forearms and elbows lately. Considering I work primarily on CrossFit athletes this is a strange title for an injury since most of them do not play tennis. Tennis elbow is caused by the overuse of the arm, forearm and hand muscles, which causes pain in the outer part of the elbow.

Its medical name is Lateral epicondylitis. This being said, has anyone been doing a lot of cleans? The motion of gripping the bar, picking up the weight and flexing and extending your wrist will do that, especially when there are lots of them in a WOD, or in a week full of them in the box. Golfers elbow is pretty much the same thing just on the inside of the elbow.

Symptoms of Tennis elbow are:

• Pain on the outside of the elbow
• Painful when squeezing things or shaking someone's hand
• Painful when moving your wrist, as to pick up weight when doing a lift

Treatment: I use a variety of massage therapy techniques to help relieve the pain cause by tennis elbow. Heat and ice, with deep tissue and myofascial release works wonders. I have seen lots of tennis elbow in the past few months and it's easier to treat if you come in when you first start to notice the pain. The longer you wait, the longer the healing process will take.