Elbow pain or forearm soreness is also another common complaint in pickleball players. This is likely due to the repetition, increase in activity or even change in paddle or grip. Typically the diagnosis is lateral epicondylitis aka tennis elbow. Tennis elbow is when the area where the wrist extensor tendons attach to the bone become inflamed due to increased load or force.
Rest may help initially to reduce the acute inflammatory stage but you want to ensure you gradually improve tolerance to forces placed upon the wrist extensors to make a full recovery.
It is also important not to forget that even though the area of pain is at the elbow it may not be the direct cause of the problem. Sometimes shoulder or wrist deficits may contribute to pain at the elbow. If symptoms don’t resolve it maybe time to get assessed by a professional.
The exercises below help to address mobility of the wrist/forearm and improve tolerance to load on the wrist extensors via strengthening.
MOBILITY
Child’s Pose: Wrist & Forearm Stretch
(this can also be performed by placing the hands on a table if kneeling is not an option)
For wrist flexors: have arms rotated so the fingers are facing you, keep palms touching the ground/table and shift weight back toward you until you feel a stretch.
For wrist extensors: have fingers facing you but this time the back of the hand is touching the ground/table, rock or lean backward until a stretch is felt.
*you can also rotate the forearm to add more stretch as seen in the video
Soft Tissue Mobility
Utilizing a lacrosse ball place pressure down onto the top of the forearm and roll for 1 min.
To find the muscle belly of the wrist extensors simply extend wrist upward and feel the muscle pop up in the forearm.
STRENGTH
Eccentric Wrist Extension
Holding a light weight in hand, assist hand/wrist upward into extension. Then slowly lower the weight down to a count of 3-5 seconds.
Forearm Supination/Pronation with Dumbbell
Holding a light weight vertical
Rotate the forearm so that palm is facing upward followed by
rotating so that the palm is facing downward
**If you want to be creative you can also utilize gripping the pickleball paddle while holding a theraband.
Give these exercises a try to help manage forearm tension and incorporate into your daily exercise routine for prevention.
If you are already suffering from elbow pain it may be time to seek professional help. Like I said the site of the pain is not always the problem. Consult an expert like the team at Renascent Physical Therapy to perform a full body assessment and get to the root cause of the problem.
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