Why is your physical therapist showing you golfer’s elbow exercises?

Your physical therapist has examined your painful elbow, and they have determined that you have golfer’s elbow. Then, they proceed to create a treatment plan for you that includes golfer’s elbow exercises, which confuses you a bit. Didn’t moving your elbow too much cause your condition in the first place? How can moving it now help treat your golfer’s elbow? 

These are some of the questions that run through many patients’ heads when their physical therapist prescribes exercises to treat golfer’s elbow. Many physical therapists recognize that using exercises to treat an exercise-based injury seems odd. However, they can also help you understand more about the type of elbow exercises you’ll be doing and why they’re asking you to do them.

What type of exercises is your physical therapist asking you to do to treat golfer’s elbow?

You may have heard the term “therapeutic exercises” in passing, but you may not know what it means. Therapeutic exercises are the type of exercises that physical therapists use to address many musculoskeletal conditions. They are different from the exercises that you might do at a gym. Why? The exercises your physical therapist prescribes are designed to systematically target a specific area of the body. They will also be intended to: 

• Build strength.
• Increase endurance. 
• Boost flexibility. 
• Improve coordination. 

Your physical therapist is showing you therapeutic exercises for golfer’s elbow because:

1. They want to help reduce your pain — Golfer’s elbow can lead to significant pain. One of the main goals of physical therapy is to help reduce your pain. Therapeutic movements can be very helpful in this regard. For one thing, they can help improve the strength of muscles that support your injured elbow. In turn, this can help ease the load on the tendons affected by your condition, which can help ease your pain. 

2. They want to increase your elbow’s flexibility — Elbow issues like golfer’s elbow are often caused by a lack of flexibility in the affected joint. Using therapeutic movements, your physical therapist can help increase flexibility in your elbow. As a result, you may find it easier to perform normal daily activities like lifting your coffee cup. 

3. They are trying to prevent future injuries — Ultimately, physical therapists want to work themselves out of a job. This means that they want to help you prevent future injuries. Therapeutic exercises are an effective way to do this because they can easily be made a part of your daily routine. As such, they can help keep you stronger and more flexible, which can reduce your future injury risk. 

Back in Motion can help you find effective therapeutic exercises for golfer’s elbow

Keen to learn more about the therapeutic exercises and other physical therapy methods that can help your golfer’s elbow? At Back in Motion Physical Therapy, our physical therapists are ready and willing to help you. We can do a free screening on your elbow to confirm that you have golfer’s elbow. Our physical therapists also excel at creating individualized therapy plans that can include therapeutic exercises and other beneficial techniques. 

Contact us today for more information about how we can treat your golfer’s elbow or to schedule an initial appointment to start addressing your injury.