How to deal with tennis elbow pain
Among the sports injuries, tennis elbow is one of the most painful conditions that athletes would want to avoid.
Tennis elbow pain is a consequence of repeated stress on the tendons in the forearm. Tennis elbow pain is not only experienced by tennis players; in fact, people whose occupation require them to do constant gripping or hammering can also suffer from tennis elbow pain. If you often find yourself carrying heavy objects or doing a repetitive motion that strains the ligaments on the outside of the elbow , you can also suffer from tennis elbow pain.
Tennis elbow pain which lasts for six to twelve weeks can hamper daily activities,it can make grasping light objects such as a coffee cup very difficult. The pain radiates from the arm going down to the wrist; thus, it would be very difficult to bend the arms or straighten it completely since the damage to the tendons cause so much pain.
There are several methods to choose from to treat tennis elbow which can prevent the condition from recurring. The very first step in relieving tennis elbow pain is to stop activities that cause it. For the meantime, avoid doing some exercise routines that could worsen tennis elbow pain. Typically, doctors often advise tennis players to stop playing for at least three weeks until tennis elbow pain has been treated.
It is also possible to apply topical capsaicin cream which can relieve tennis elbow pain for a short period of time. According to research, capsaicin prevents the pain receptors from sending pain messages to the brain. It is just a temporary relief though ,so you can still do some important tasks using your arms.
Applying ice for 10 minutes on the affected area is another good option to control the pain and inflammation. Use an ice bag, put some ice in a zip lock (a bag of frozen vegetables is fine) and apply to the affected area for no more than 15 minutes. Recovering from tennis elbow pain requires some time so one must be patient about it. People often want to speed up the recovery process which results to more damage; thus, the best option would be to let the body heal itself gradually.