Body Sense

AUTUMN | 2019

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www.massagetherapy.com—your resource for all things bodywork 13 One of the most common upper extremity overuse problems is lateral epicondylitis (LE), more commonly referred to as tennis elbow. Despite its common name, only about five percent of the people with LE developed the condition from playing tennis. 1 The dramatic increase of repetitive motions in numerous jobs has led to a surge of tennis elbow over the last several decades. And there are heavy socioeconomic burdens because of it: lost productivity for employers, lost or diminished wages for employees, long periods of pain, and significant workers' compensation claims. Massage is one way to tackle this common, frustrating problem. WHAT IS TENNIS ELBOW? Tennis elbow is most commonly associated with repetitive overuse actions of the wrist extensor muscles. These actions could include repetitive or forceful wrist extension, long periods of gripping objects, or movements that include forearm supination or radial deviation. Repetitive eccentric loading on the wrist extensors is also a primary cause. What does this mean? A repetitive eccentric load would be one where your wrist extensors are trying to prevent your wrist from moving into flexion while slowly resisting that motion. Imagine curling a dumbbell with only your wrist. In addition to repetitive motion, long periods of contraction of the wrist extensors may also lead to LE. For example, grasping tools or implements during work activities might not involve repetitive motion as much as constant contraction to hold the implement in a certain position. Computer users who spend much time operating a mouse develop epicondylitis The dramatic increase of repetitive motions in numerous jobs has led to a surge of tennis elbow over the last several decades. Massage is one way to tackle this common, frustrating problem. for this reason. It's not so much about the repetition of movement of the wrist as much as the wrist extensors and flexors are both in a chronic state of tension when holding and manipulating the mouse. Other factors play a role in developing epicondylitis. Body mass index, history of rotator cuff disease, de Quervain's tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, and a history of smoking are all correlated with a higher incidence of tennis elbow. It may be that some of these factors developed from the same mechanical stressors and just happened to occur simultaneously.

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