A Simple Exercise Relieves Tennis Elbow Pain
Eccentric Wrist Extensor Exercise
The exercise that had this dramatic effect was a simple eccentric wrist extensor movement using a flexible rubber bar. The exercise involves twisting a rubber Flexbar with one hand and resisting the bar as it untwists using the injured arm. The result is an eccentric contraction (movements that cause muscle to contract while it lengthens) of the wrist extensor muscles on the injured forearm. Eccentric contractions increase tension on a muscle as it opposes a stronger force, which causes the muscle to lengthen as it contracts.
In this study, the patients performed 3 sets of 15 repetitions per day and increased the intensity at regular intervals.
If you have tennis elbow, ask your physical therapist to show you how to do this exercise at home.
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Source
Tyler TF, et al. Addition of a novel eccentric wrist extensor exercise to standard treatment for chronic lateral epicondylitis: a prospective randomized trial. American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, 2009 annual meeting.
Hi,
Can you describe exactly how to perform this exercise? Such as, do I straighten my arms? How long do I “hold” the twist?
Thanks,
Alex.
Hi Alex,
Take a look at http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/elements/clients/docs/TylerFlexBarProtocol__200907DD_010930.pdf
I’ve been suffering from Tennis Elbow for about a year now and been reinjuring myself everytime I play tennis when the pain reduced. Now that I’ve been doing the exercise with the Flexbar for a 3 weeks now, the improvement is dramatic. I even felt pain free that I went out and player Tennis twice but the pain came back the every time the next day, but not as intense as before beginning the exercises.
If I can kick the addiction to tennis and just keep up the exercises, I’m fairly confident I can beat the tennis elbow by the end of this year.
Arun
How do you use this bar to treat golfer’s elbow (i.e. how would you modify the exercise?)
You can also take a look at this video for a visual example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV-RjM_Y_hc&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwell.blogs.nytimes.com%2F2009%2F08%2F25%2Fphys-ed-an-easy-fix-for-tennis-elbow%2F%3Fem&feature=player_embedded
Was the pain increased following commencement of these exercises? I have painful tennis elbow, but rested it for two weeks before starting with thera band. When I started, my arm was very sore the next day. Do you keep going or is that not normal?