Have you ever experienced sharp pain in your elbow or numbness feeling under your arm after playing a round? If so you may have golfers elbow.
No need to panic! Its quite a common injury that many amatuer golfers face each golf season.
There are several ways to treat and prevent golfers elbow from ever happening again.
With this post, I wanted to cover some of the important steps to take to prevent and cure golfers elbow.
Therefore you can avoid golfers elbow and get back on the course and continue to play.
Symptoms
Before I get into how to prevent golfers elbow let take a look at golfer’s elbow symptoms.
Some of the main symptoms are pain on the inner bone of your elbow, the pain can be felt when you try to extend your arm at the elbow.
Usually, pain happens lead arm. If you are right-hand player, there is pain the left arm is the more common hand.
Location of pain with golfer’s elbow
Pain or numbness can be felt from your elbow all the way to your hand and fingers.
If you experience pain or uncomfort in your elbow or along your arm, it’s quite likely you have golfers elbow. Consider some of the options below to prevent it and eliminate it for good.
Causes
Like I mentioned before the main causes of golfer’s elbow is repeated bending of your forearm while swinging the club.
Over extending your forearm is not a good technique and it will often led to injury…
The tendon of the wrist flexor muscles on the inside of the elbow becomes painful and inflamed at their attachment point on the inner elbow.
Your arm naturally has a limit for which it can be extended. With a poor technique in your golf swing it will lead to damage of tendon and muscles near your elbow.
Why do you think the pros rarely get elbow injuries? Well it’s because of their swing technique rather moving their elbows once they make impact with the ball, the follow through with their wrists preventing any injuries from happening.
Our good friends at rotaryswing.com explain this injury very well to why this happens:
Treatment
So how do I treat and prevent golfers elbow?
If you are currently suffering, the best way to treat golfers elbow is by:
Ice: it is by applying ice for 10-20 minutes about 3 times a day. Also rest your arm and make sure not to lift heavy with your arm. Avoid golf for at least 3-4 weeks.
Medication: If you are in serious pain, consider taking a painkiller like advil and tylenol. Although it will not cure the injury it will help ease the pain.
Physical therapy : Stretching and strength exercises through physical therapy will help the recovery process and regain movement in your arm.
Consider this option if you have limited movement in or arm, or you have a more severe case of golfer’s elbow.
Golfer’s elbow brace, compression sleeve:
Usually those tips will help in most cases, but if you continue with pain and swelling your best bet would be to see a doctor you could severely have damaged a tendon in your arm.
Exercises
The main golfers elbow exercises are stretching the lower muscles of your forearm, extending your arm and bending your fingers and palm backwards toward you. Do this exercise for about 3 mins.
Give it a shot and notice how much it will help.
For the next golfers elbow exercise you’re going to want to have a flexbar, it’s a great tool to use if you suffer from golfers elbow frequently as well tendonitis from other sports.
You can pick one up from amazon.
An exercise that is commonly used to treat and prevent golfers elbow is called the reverse tyler twist and it was developed specifically to treat golfers elbow and tennis elbow.
The people who implemented this exercise significantly improved from their injury than those who did not use this tool.
Give the tyler twist a try for a few days, you may see good results.
Continue to rest your arm and avoid playing golf.
Prevention
Now to prevent golfers elbow, it is simply changing your swing technique. You have to avoid repeated bending at your elbow past its point.
Try to focus on keeping your left arm (right hand golfers) straighter at impact.
Your left elbow should be pointing straight at your target at impact, if your elbow is in any other position than that your technique is incorrect and you will continue to see injuries.
Tiger woods swing at impact
Notice how tiger keeps his left arm straight at impact? You must do the same and avoid over extending it past that point.
Otherwise you will only strain those muscles in your elbow.
Here is another side by side comparison. Not only will this prevent you from injuries but it will make you a better golfer.
Keeping your left arm straight at impact leaves the club square to the ball. It’s a win win if you change your technique, you will prevent injuries to come about and you are improving your golf swing.
Golfers elbow is most common in golfers who use your arms to power through the ball, remember that your power comes from turning your body your arms just follow along.
Golfers elbow brace and Compressions sleeves
Here are several products that will help ease your golfer’s elbow pain. Consider these as an option to speed up recovery time.
MeterSport – Best Golfers Elbow Brace with Compression Pad
Major benefits:
Why you need it: You get 2 elbow adjustable pads, will help keep elbow pain to a minimum by applying pressure to the injured area.
You can adjust it to however you would like and this brace stays secure at all times.
You can get this golfer’s elbow brace on amazon here:
Copper Compression Recovery Elbow Sleeve For Golfers And Tennis Elbow
Major benefits:
Why you need it: This compression sleeve has been proven to help golfers who suffer from golfers elbow.
Using this compression sleeve will allow you to retain movement in your arm, keep your arm comfortable and warm. Lastly it will help heal your sore muscles in a few days.
You can get this golfer’s elbow brace on amazon here:
SIMIEN Golfer’s Elbow Brace, Tennis & Golfer’s Elbow Pain Relief
Major benefits:
Why you need it: 2 elbow braces at an amazing price, will help keep elbow pain to a minimum by applying pressure to the injured area.
You can adjust it to however you would like and this brace stays secure at all times.
You can get this golfer’s elbow brace on amazon here:
Golfers Elbow Brace & 1 Copper Infused Compression Elbow Sleeve
Major benefits:
Why you need it: 2 elbow braces at an amazing price, will help keep elbow pain to a minimum by applying pressure to the injured area.
You can adjust it to however you would like and this brace stays secure at all times.
You can get this golfer’s elbow brace on amazon here:
Final word
Using some of the methods that I provided will definitely help treat and prevent golfer’s elbows. If you have other methods you use to alleviate golfers elbow put in down below. Other than that talk to you soon.