The elbow is a joint, and it cannot be stretched itself, but it is surrounded by a lot of muscles and soft tissue that can be stretched. When this tissue becomes tight, damaged or restricted in any way, it can quickly turn into elbow pain. Elbow stretches are working on keeping the forearms, biceps, and triceps healthy. If you are looking for ways to improve your elbow health with elbow stretches you are in the right place.
What Causes Elbow Pain?
The elbow is the joint that connects your lower arm to your upper arm. You have to remember that the entire arm is all connected facially. What this means is that from chest to fingertip will affect each other. If you have a tight chest from sitting at a computer all day, that could be pulling on your biceps and triceps and causing you to have elbow pain.
The joint is the hinge of your arm. Understanding the surrounding anatomy is essential because a lot is going on in the area. All of the soft tissue in the area that can affect your elbow include:
- Deltoids
- Latissimus Dorsi
- Pectoralis Major
- Triceps
- Biceps
- Extensor Digitorum
- Brachioradialis
- Extensor Carpi
- Flexor Carpi
What Can Cause Elbow Pain
- Trauma directly to elbow
- Tight triceps
- Overuse from swinging a racquet or golf club
- Tight biceps
- Tight forearms
- Falling on elbow funny
How Will Elbow Stretches Help?
Stretching helps to relax muscles and relieve them of tension. If you are working out regularly or lifting any weight, there is a good chance that your entire arm is under stress. After a while of doing this, you start to develop trigger points. Trigger points are little knots that form in muscles when they fire incorrectly or are over exhausted.
When muscles are tight, they can begin to pull on the tendons that attach to the bone. In the case of the elbow, there are a variety of muscles that connect to the elbow like the tricep and bicep for example. When these muscles have added tension that tug is pulling on the bone and causing pain. Stretching helps to reverse this issue.
What Elbow Stretches Should I Do?
Eblow Stretches 1/4 – Shoulder Stretch
- The shoulder seems unrelated to the elbow, but it is not
- The shoulder line starts in the middle of the upper back
- You want to make sure the upper back and the shoulder are loose
- It is essential for fascial reasons that you keep your palm flat doing this stretch
Elbow Stretches 2/4 –Tricep and Lat Stretch
- The lats and the triceps are connected
- This stretch helps both muscles at the same time
- When the triceps are as loose as they need to be, they will take a lot of tension off of the elbow
Elbow Stretches 3/4 – Gorilla Stretch
- The forearms do a lot of work day today, but they are often forgotten
- These muscles can fire for long periods of time while we are typing on computers
- The forearms play a considerable role in gripping racquets and clubs which also are a massive source of elbow issues
Elbow Stretches 4/4 – Reverse Gorilla Stretch
- These muscles play the most significant role in grip strength
- It is vital that after any session of continuous lifting that you do this stretch
What If The Pain Does Not Go Away?
If the pain does not go away, you need to get help from a healthcare provider. The best people to see for musculoskeletal pain is sports medicine providers because they are used to helping people recover quickly from these types of injuries. It is always the best route to see a healthcare provider because they will be able to identify the problem and help you come up with a long-term game plan to make sure it does not come back.
A great healthcare provider will be able to use a variety of techniques to help relieve your pain. It all depends on the type of provider that you decide to work with. The list includes but is not limited to:
- Naturopathic Doctors
- Acupuncturists
- Chiropractors
- Physical Therapists
- Orthopedic Physical Therapy
- Athletic Trainers
- Athletic Therapists
- Massage Therapists
- Sports Physicians
- Other holistic health providers
How to Find a Healthcare Professional For Your Elbow Pain
9INE POINT Health is a great place to start your search for a healthcare provider. The reason 9INE POINT Health is the best is that you can search for providers based on the type of practitioner as well as a skillset. No other place allows you to search by skillset. For example, if you want to get Graston technique but you like working with Chiropractors you can search for just that and see the best local options. 9INE POINT Health makes it easy to compare those local options based on their 9INE POINT Number.
KHO Health was acquired by was acquire by 9INE POINT in the summer of 2019 and is now referred to as 9INE POINT Health.
