I’m here at BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells right now. I love tennis. I used to play a lot of tennis so I’m here to watch some great superstars of tennis. This week I’m going to talk about trigger points for tennis elbow. If anyone is suffering from tennis elbow, I’m going to show you how to alleviate the pain with the self-massage.
The tennis elbow pain occurs on the outer side of the elbow and that may be caused by the trigger points in this area. The trigger points for tennis elbow that cause the pain can be found on the arm muscle called Extensor Carpi Radialis Longus which is located at the end of the elbow crease. You can feel this muscle when you cock your wrist outward. There is another trigger point for tennis elbow right next to it on Brachioradialis which helps to bend the elbow. You can use your fingertips to find the sore spots and give 10 short deep strokes on each sore spot with closed fingertips, or overlapped fingertips. If your fingers are weak or don’t want to work too hard, use a lacrosse ball. Rest your arm on something and give 10 short deep strokes on these trigger points. Or lean against the wall to press the lacrosse ball using your body weight. When you do this turn your hand so your thumb is next to the wall so you can massage the right arm muscles.
There’s another trigger point on the elbow itself between the tip of the elbow and the bone on the thumb side. This tiny elbow muscle is called Anconeus and the trigger point here may be contributing to the tennis elbow pain. You can feel this muscle by turning your hand like you are strongly pouring tea. As you can feel this is a sensitive “funny bone” area that hurts like hell when you hit against something because there is an ulnar nerve running through it. Just use the fingertips to gently give 10 strokes. Repeat these six times a day.
Happy Massaging!
4-6-15 Trigger Points for Tennis Elbow http://bit.ly/mm-040615