Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and super Bear. We're going to show you some
stretches and exercises for lateral epicondylitis and what's that bear?
Tennis elbow!
Let's get started.
So while bears out save any cat stuck in a tree, we're going
to go ahead and get started.
Lateral epicondylitis is the muscles on the outside of the elbow, the epicondyle
there, and they come all the way down into the wrist. Those are the extensors of
the wrist. So a lot of the range of motion exercises are actually at the
wrist even a lot of your times the pain is up here. So that's that's why we're
kind of doing both these areas. So let's start off with some rest range of motion
just to get it going.
You can prop it up on a table if you want to you and just let your wrist hang
off, I'm gonna do it in the air, but if that's uncomfortable you can just prop
it up on your leg if you're not by a table. So just to start off with make a
fist with your hand and go down and up. Just nice gentle movement this is just
to get the muscles warmed up everything kind of moving a little bit. When you go
down, you're going to feel that stretch and when you come up you're working
those muscles, so it might be a little bit painful if it is, don't feel like you
have to go very far, you're just kind of getting everything loosened up. So once
you do about 10 of those, then go ahead and turn your hand over and you're going
to do a radial and ulnar deviation. So that's just going up and down now. So
again you know not extreme movements it's really just to get all those muscles
around the wrist and elbow warmed up and getting them
loosen up a little bit. So again just start off with about 10 of those. Then
you're going to go into supination pronation movement. You really just want
to move at your elbow down, not really your shoulder, so it's not this movement.
So keep your elbow by your side that will help just move here so just going
palm up
supination,
palm down pronation. And again don't feel like you have to force it this is just
getting everything nice and loosen up.
So about 10 of those as well. Then you're going to take a small little weight you
can use a suit can or vegetable can. At one point I think this was corn,
I don't know what it is now might just be mush, but just kind of take it in your
hand. And again if you want to prop it up on something you might want to go ahead
especially since you have a weight, I'm just holding it up so you can see it. And
then you're going to go back into that flexion/extension again. So just going
down very slowly and then coming back up very slowly. So you're working those
muscles on that outside area there up to that lateral epicondyle. Go nice and
slow don't let that weight just drop back down.
You can also do this with a resistive band if you want to, but again make sure
it's nice and control while you're doing it. So just starting off with 10, if you
get up to 20 to 25 and it's super easy then you can go to a little bit heavier
weight. Then the next one, if you have a hammer or anything that's a little bit
top-heavy, the reason you want to use something that's slightly top-heavy is
you're going to go back into that supination/pronation, but one is heavier
on top,
it gives that extra little stretch at the end there because that way is
pushing it and making it a go just a little bit further and the same back
this way. So this is gonna not only be an exercise because you're continuously
moving but it's just going to give that little bit of overpressure to give you
that extra stretch at the end. So depending on how top-heavy your hammer
is, you might want to just start off with five of these. If it's a small hammer
like this, you can go up to 10. But just kind of a continuous back and forth if
you want to get a little extra stretch you can hold it there for about three to
five seconds and then come back over. Then going into stretching it out, put
your arms straight out and the muscles on the outside here get stretched if your
wrist goes down. Now if my fingers are straight, that's not quite as much of a
stretch, but if I if I get to here and it's a good stretch then that's fine
then you're just going to hold it for 30 seconds. If you get here like that's not
quite enough stretch, then curl and make a fist because those muscles go up and
over so when you curl your fingers that gives you more of a stretch. So then just
giving a little bit of pressure with the other hand and then holding that for 30
seconds and do that three times. Then the last exercise, just take a towel roll it
up, and then you're just going to do a twisting motion. So start you can start
this way and come up, which won't be quite as much resistance you're twisting,
or you can twist it this way and you're coming back down. But you're just
twisting the towel up and down to get a little bit of a workout of those muscles.
Nice and slow and controlled. There are some therapy pieces of equipment that's
a little kind of rod and it gives a lot in it and you can get an extra workout
with that, but a towel works pretty good if you don't want to spend any extra
money, but if you have some money you want to spend they work really really
well. You can get those from theraband or other products stores like that
so just 10 or so and then work your way up from there. So there you have it those
were your stretches and exercises for lateral epicondylitis. I know it
tennis elbow. You ready go play with your tennis ball? If you have any questions
leave in the comment section.
I know! If you'd like to check out some other videos, go to AskDoctorJo.com and remember,
Be safe, Bear will come and help you out, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.