With the nice weather, everyone is trying to do some yard cleanup.

Raking is good exercise but if you overdo it, your elbows can start to give you trouble. You can experience pain on the inside or the outside of the elbows. This is from heavy gripping or pulling during raking. You may even find that the simplest things like pouring coffee into a cup or turning a door knob become unbearable. It is hard to rest them, as everything you to it seems, involves your elbows, from washing your hair, to opening a jar.

How did this happen?

The muscles that help you grip things and pull things originate on the inside and the outside of the elbows, which is why you feel the pain often in your elbows and even down your forearm when you overdo it with certain activities.

What do I do about it?

You can try to ice your elbows three times a day for ten minutes in the first three days of the injury, and after that, heat might be more helpful. Stretching several times a day – with your elbow straight, bend your wrist and point your fingers to the floor. You can use your other hand to put a little overpressure on the wrist and hand to get a deeper stretch if you need to. The next stretch you start with your elbow straight but the palm of your hand facing up, and then you tip your fingers to the floor and use your other hand to apply a little pressure to the hand in that position to get a deeper stretch if you need it. Stretches should never be painful, just light to medium. It is painful, back off a little. You can also try to massage the inside or the outside of the elbow using cream of any sort, and also the forearm muscle.

And lastly, if your symptoms do not go away in a timely manner, come to see a physiotherapist. At HCRC our physiotherapists have taken advanced training in the area of orthopaedics in order to have the skills to effectively treat your problem as efficiently as possible. Bioflex laser or Class 4 laser can also help with healing initially so often this can be incorporated into your care. We look forward to seeing you if you need our help.