Are You Making These Mistakes? Pickleball Elbow Treatment Tips

In this week’s newsletter, we will explore some common mistakes people make when treating pickleball elbow and provide you with essential tips to help you recover faster and get back to the game you love.

What is pickleball elbow?

Pickleball elbow is a condition similar to tennis elbow, but it specifically affects individuals who play pickleball. It is characterized by pain and discomfort on the outer part of the elbow and is typically caused by overuse and repetitive motions associated with playing pickleball.

The sport of pickleball involves striking a ball with a paddle, and players often perform repetitive motions such as swinging, which can strain the muscles and tendons in the elbow. This strain can lead to pickleball elbow, resulting in pain and limited mobility in the affected arm.

Usually, this is what we see at the level of the tendon when looked under ultrasound !!!

So let’s talk about the 3 mistakes we see people make on a regular basis.

Mistake #1: Ignoring the Pain

One of the biggest mistakes pickleball players make is ignoring the pain in their elbow. If you're experiencing discomfort or pain during or after playing, it's essential to address it! Go seek medical attention! Ignoring the pain and continuing to play can worsen the condition and prolong your recovery time.

Don’t just listen to your friend and/or personal trainer and start doing random exercises because as you will see later on, a lot of the time it is NOT your elbow tendon!

Mistake #2: Strengthening the Elbow without an Evaluation.

That's correct; the one most common issue we encounter daily is when players follow the advice of their friends, family, or personal trainers. While sometimes this approach works well for genuine tendon problems and responds positively to strengthening exercises, we often find that problems arise from overexertion more frequently.

Did you know that your “pickleball elbow can come from your scapula?

Yeah, that’s right! We see this a lot this is not me just saying it. this has been found over and over in the literature. Yeah, that’s right! We see this a lot this is not me just saying it. this has been found over and over in the literature.

A study looked at two ways to help people with diagnoses of pickleball elbow. One way was just local therapy (exercises and therapy to the elbow ONLY), and the other was local therapy plus exercises for the muscles near the shoulder. They found that both ways helped the same amount. People had less pain, could use their elbows better, and had stronger grips after the treatment. This shows that both treatments can work well for people with a pickleball elbow.

Another study wanted to see if doing exercises to make shoulder and arm muscles stronger could help people with a pickleball elbow. They looked at 26 people with a pickleball elbow and divided them into two groups. One group did these shoulder and arm exercises along with elbow-specific therapy, and the other group only did elbow-specific therapy for 6 weeks. They measured how much pain people had, how strong their grip was without pain, and how well they could use their elbow. They also checked the strength of certain muscles and how the shoulder blade was positioned. They used machines to see how these muscles were working. They found that after the shoulder and arm exercises, everyone felt better, had less pain, a stronger grip, and could use their elbow better. The muscles they exercised became stronger, and the shoulder blade was in a better position. This suggests that doing these exercises along with regular therapy can help people with a pickleball elbow feel better and use their arm more easily.

Mistake #3: Neglecting Rest and Recovery

After you play, it's important to let your elbow rest and recover. You can put ice on the sore area and use a special band if a doctor says it's okay. Rest is really important because your body needs time to fix itself.

Here's a fun fact: your tendons, which are like special ropes in your body, start to heal in stages. First, there's a small response, then the tendon cells come to help the injured part. After about three weeks, your tendon becomes stronger! We're not saying you have to take three weeks off from playing, but it's important to find a balance between resting and playing. If you play too much, your tendon won't have time to heal. Remember, this is a simple way to explain how tendons heal, and it's actually more complicated than this!

Let's take a look at how this process works! Oh, and we forgot to mention that not all tendons behave the same way. Here's an image showing how this process happens in the Achilles tendon

Remember, you can enroll right now on The Dink Docs Pickleball Health and Performance Platform, all from your phone!

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