Tennis elbow (lateral epicondylitis) is pain on the outer side of the elbow where the wrist extensor tendons attach — it hurts with gripping, lifting, and twisting motions. Golfer's elbow (medial epicondylitis) is the same idea on the inner side, where the wrist flexor tendons attach, and shows up as pain with gripping and forearm rotation. Despite the names, you don't have to play either sport to develop them — these are overuse conditions that come from any repetitive loading of the forearm.

What causes tennis and golfer's elbow?

Most cases develop gradually through repeated gripping, lifting, or tool use — not a single injury. Painters, carpenters, office workers, cooks, musicians, and yes, racket sports players all develop these. The common thread is doing too much of the same forearm-loading activity without enough recovery. The pain can build slowly until one day lifting a coffee cup or turning a doorknob is genuinely uncomfortable. Most people wait too long before getting help, which makes the tendon harder to treat.

Kinesiology tape applied to the elbow joint for lateral epicondylitis (tennis elbow) treatment

Therapist applying kinesio tape to a patient's forearm and wrist during elbow rehabilitation

Who gets tennis or golfer's elbow?

We see these in office workers who mouse heavily, construction workers, mechanics, hairstylists, climbers, tennis and pickleball players, and golfers — basically anyone who uses their forearm repeatedly under load. It tends to develop in adults between 30 and 50, and it's often bilateral when the work is two-handed. If the pain has been there for more than a few weeks and isn't improving on its own, that's your signal to come in — because the longer a tendinopathy persists, the more the tendon tissue changes.

How do we treat it at Reach Beyond Therapy?

At Reach Beyond Therapy, every session is one-on-one — just you and your therapist, no aides, no rushing, no shortened sessions, and no shared appointments with other clients. We'll evaluate which tendons are involved, how irritable they are, and what in your daily activities is driving the load. From there, we build a program that typically includes a targeted eccentric or heavy slow resistance loading program — which is what the research says actually changes tendon tissue — along with activity modification, elbow counterforce bracing, manual therapy, and a return-to-activity plan built around what your arm needs to do. We move at the pace the tendon can handle.

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