A Complete Guide to Golfer's Elbow - From a Golf Chiropractor
A common injury I see in golfers and even weightlifters is golfer’s elbow.
What is golfer’s elbow?
It’s better known in the medical world as medial epicondylitis. Which is just a fancy way of saying inflammation of the inside part of your elbow.
How do you get golfer’s elbow?
Golfer’s elbow is usually an overuse injury. Golfers tend to get it from the constant rotation of the elbow and occasionally get it from grounding their club. Now rotation of the elbow isn’t a bad thing. The elbow is supposed to rotate. But when someone isn’t used to using that much in that way or they’re doing too much of it without recovery days or cross-training, that’s when it becomes an issue. Similar to golfers, weightlifters get it from overuse or doing too much too quickly after doing too little for too long.
How do you prevent golfer's elbow?
Unfortunately, you can't always prevent every injury. But you can limit your chances of getting injured or be better prepared for it. To help limit your chances of golfers elbow you want to try and avoid the peaks and the valleys. What does this mean? It means you want to avoid the extremes of either doing way too much or not doing anything. The peak would be having a high acute workload or playing golf a lot when you aren't used to it. The valleys would be not playing golf for several weeks and then jumping right back into the volume you were previously playing.
If you want to be prepared for it, I would work on incorporating grip exercises into your training off the golf course. One of my favorite forms of this is the farmer's carry or suitcase carry. All you need to do is grab a decently heavy weight for you and walk with it. You can vary the distance you're walking as well as vary carrying with two hands or one hand. A super simple exercise that can benefit almost everyone.
What do you do if you have golfer's elbow?
I break this up into two main phases. You need to calm it down and then build it up. Calming it down may require you to lower the volume of golf you're playing or possibly make some changes in your swing or the types of swings you're doing to lower the stress on your elbow. For example, let's say you only feel it when using your driver. You may want to spend some time just using your irons or go to a swing coach and see if there's something in your swing when using the driver that can be improved.
Now, two exercises that I start a lot of my players with are elbow controlled articular rotations (CARs) and isometrics. I'm going to add videos of both exercises below so that way you can start rehabbing yourself and get on the right path to getting back on the course.
You tried the exercises, now what?
If these helped you, then this is a great starting point. You will want to continue to progress these exercises as well as work into more strengthening exercises for the elbow as well as the joints above and below.
If these didn't help you, then you may need further evaluation from a professional or more specific exercises for you.
Whether you fit into either of these categories, the great news is I can help you! As a certified Titleist Performance Institute (TPI) medical provider, I'm trained to help golfers get out of pain and back to performing on the course.
My practice is located in Charlotte, NC but if you don't live in the area don't worry! I also do virtual appointments where we talk about what issues you're dealing with and work through rehab together.
If you're interested in working with me, you can send me an email at resiliencechiro@gmail.com or call me at (704) 659-4249.
Until next time,
Andrew Schneider, DC, ATC
