Elbow/Wrist Pain Treatment in Spartanburg, South Carolina

Everyone’s heard of Tennis Elbow or Golfer’s Elbow. If any of your activities depend on grip then you may find yourself with issues in this area. Elbow pain often comes as a result of increasing your volume of a particular activity. So whether its more barbell lifting, pickleball, or DIYing the deck your spouse has been asking for, the elbow can get overloaded and become painful. The normal first response is to rest the area. That may be a good option for a new injury in the first 72 hours, but after that load needs to be introduced back into your routine in order to avoid losing the strength/endurance of the elbow. A vicious cycle tends to start when someone irritates their elbow, rests, becomes a little weaker, gets back into an activity/maybe too quickly, and then cascades until basic things like holding a coffee cup is a problem.

Common Elbow Diagnosis

  • Tennis Elbow (Lateral Epicondylalgia)

  • Golfer’s Elbow (Medial Epicondylalgia)

  • Muscle Tear: Bicep, Tricep

  • Tendinopathy/Tendinitis

  • Ligament Tear (UCL, RCL)

  • Laxity (Dislocations/Subluxations)

Common Interventions

  • Steroid Injection: Short term benefit, long term damage to tissue that may lead to more pain in the future.

  • Individual Passive Modalities: Relying on soft tissue work to provide a long term benefit (i.e. massage, acupuncture, ect)

  • Elbow strap, taping, flossing: can have a short term effect, doesn’t build capacity to handle the challenge of your activities

  • Surgery: May be needed in the case of a traumatic tendon/ligament tear during activity depending on what your goals are. Not common for non-traumatic tears/tendonitis problems.

How We Help

  • Education on which tissues are irritated and how to modify your life (hobbies, exercise, daily tasks) in the short term to fit the stage of healing you’re in. Help you gauge your expectations since most issues take months to rehab.

  • Manual Therapy Techniques such as Extremity Manipulation (sometimes referred to as an adjustment), Dry Needling (thin needles with electric stimulation), Myofascial Decompression (cupping), and Soft Tissue Mobilization (massage, trigger point therapy) to decrease pain and allow a window of time for your body to move better and speed up recovery

  • Progressive Strength/Endurance of the forearm, shoulder, elbow, and hand + Increasing Fitness so you can leave more resilient than before you got hurt.

  • Routines and Tools to dial in workouts and recovery to stay healthy for the longterm.

Don’t let your elbow pain keep you out of the gym, off of the court/course, or feeling frustrated during friends/family time.