Much like tennis players who put tremendous repetitive strain on their elbows, musicians often suffer from “tennis elbow.” Musicians who play guitar, bass, banjo, ukulele, merlin, lute, or other stringed instruments, push their strumming elbow and connecting ligaments, tendons, and muscles to the limit, often leading to painful inflammation, restriction, and inability to play. If caught early, understood, and strategically addressed, the dysfunction that causes the inflammation and pain can be addressed, getting you back to playing while getting stronger and more resilient.
This is where lateral epicondylitis hurts! Do you have it? Do you need help? Are you at risk of losing your ability to play? Call Dr. Lou at (207) SPINAL 1. Telechiro available!
PRMD’s or playing-related musculoskeletal disorders are common in string players of all kinds. They tend to build over a long period of time with repetitive stress, and then, seemingly out of nowhere, a “straw” breaks the camel’s back and you are unable to play comfortably, or at all. If this type of injury gets out of control, injections, medications, and even surgery may be recommended. Most musicians I work with can neither spare the recovery time nor risk their futures as musicians if something goes wrong or gets worse. It’s often a life or death of the music situation. The first thing to remember though is that this doesn’t happen overnight and even with perfect form, you can overuse your body. If you are experiencing pain, tenderness, and swelling over the lateral elbow, look back at your playing history and ask yourself, “have I been playing a lot? Have I just started playing again after a hiatus?” If so, you may have lateral epicondylitis.
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Lateral epicondylitis is common in strummers of string instruments! Dr. Lou is an expert in musician injuries and healing from a non-invasive chiropractic perspective. “Telechiro” with Dr. Lou is available anywhere in the world.
Lateral epicondylitis may be diagnosed in a person, over the phone, or through video chat. During the time of COVID-19, people have been at home and playing more music. Unable or unwilling to step foot in a medical facility is understandable. Evaluation over a video conference call with a strategic home care plan may be the safest and fastest way to get relief from this problem.
While they may seem like common knowledge and a bit mundane, the following recommendations pose little to no risk for further injury and would not require a diagnosis to get started.
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Rest. If you are willing to take a week or two off, practice your music in your head. If you are not willing to rest, be more conscious of your playing, don’t push too hard, and do the following.
Heat and stretching the area before playing (warm it up) to improve blood flow and reduce inflammation going into practicing or playing.
Remember that you are a “musical athlete.” If you treat yourself like you are the musician equivalent of Serena Williams or Tiger Woods, you’ll fare much better over time and remain “in the game” with fewer setbacks.
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Get help if home care isn’t working. A musician health specialist will be able to help you navigate your injury or disability. They will get you back to playing sooner. They will reduce your risk of pain and losing your ability to play.
Dr. Lou Jacobs is a chiropractor – acupuncturist in Portland, Maine who has been specializing in musician injuries and crew injuries for 20 years. Dr. Lou is available for telemedicine consultations for music-related injuries and health problems. Among some of those he has permission to mention, Dr. Lou has worked with Mumford & Sons, The Pixies, Steve Vai, Tommy Emmanuel, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, Blackberry Smoke, Gogol Bordello, Trey Anastasio, and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. PHOTOSYes, whether you call it Guitar Elbow or, more clinically, Tennis Elbow or Golfer’s Elbow, you can all too easily develop one of these painful injuries from playing guitar or any other stringed instrument.
Injuries that often take many weeks – but more likely months – or even years to build up and to begin causing pain.
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At first, you tend to just dismiss and ignore the initial, relatively minor symptoms of these things – You take a break for awhile… You ice it up, you wrap it up and you pop down a few anti-inflammatories…
But it just doesn’t seem to resolve and keeps flaring up on you – And as the pain intensifies and gets more persistent it starts keeping you from playing and perhaps even from sleeping properly!
You start getting desperate and throwing more things at it: Braces and bands, lotions and creams silly supplements? – Even Cortisone Shots – If you seek medical attention.
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Guitar players seem to develop Tennis Elbow (OR Golfer’s Elbow) in their fretting hands a lot more often than they experience these injuries in their strumming hands and elbows.
Obviously, there are a lot of fine, repetitive motions and finger positions that involve the finger muscles and tendons when it comes to playing various chords.
Just the same, it’s not exactly rare for guitar players to develop Tennis Elbow (OR Golfer’s Elbow) on their strumming-hand side, either! (Not to mention wrist and shoulder problems.)
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If the pain/injury primarily involves your Wrist or Finger Extensor Muscles and their tendon ‘origins’ at your lateral elbow, (the “back side” of the wrist/forearm and “outer” elbow) it’s probably Tennis Elbow.
If the pain/injury primarily involves your Wrist or Finger Flexor Muscles and their tendon ‘origins’ at your inner elbow, (the palm side of the wrist and inner forearm and elbow) it’s likely Golfer’s Elbow.
(And you can also develop wrist and finger Tendinosis of these same muscle groups, as well as thumb tendon issues, like Dequervain’s Tenosynovitis and the frightening Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.)
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Not Sure Whether You Have Tennis Or Golfer’s Elbow? Get your free ‘Tennis Elbow 101’ video course – If you’re not sure which of these injuries you have (perhaps neither) and don’t know very much about them, then take my free video course, Tennis Elbow 101… I’ll show you the simple tests you can do to assess and basically “diagnose” yourself, and help you get off on the right track understanding your injury and treating it! Learn more and get your free Tennis and Golfer’s Elbow course hereHow Does Playing The Guitar Cause An Injury?
The causal dynamic of these insidious injuries is often misunderstood, over-simplified and/or glossed over in the haste of treating the symptoms. It involves:
Hopefully, before it causes you any real, significant damage and before it separates you from the guitar you love to play (or NEED to play because it’s your livelihood!
Tennis Elbow Treatment
And doing everything you can to stimulate healing and regeneration in your tendons if your injury has progressed to the point of damage (which is typically degeneration / Tendinosis.)
And here’s where you can learn more about my self-help programs if you want to learn the best techniques from me, through video lessons:
A huge pitfall with these injuries is that there is SO much bad advice that encourages you to focus on the wrong issues and to “chase the symptoms!”…
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Advice that does not direct you to address the real causes: The muscular tension, adhesions, weaknesses (and eventual tendon damage, if allowed to progress far enough.)
I can’t stress this enough. It’s not like the myths, misconceptions and the misguided treatments based on them are harmless, little errors.
So, keep reading. The first step is to avoid stepping in all the B.S. and making all the same mistakes as everyone else!
Tennis Elbow Pain
Now, it’s also possible that optimizing your guitar technique and posture may be enough to stop the progression of your injury – IF you’re in the early stages of it (and if you’re lucky)…
Meaning when you’re in the mid-to-latter stages of a Golfer’s or Tennis Elbow injury, because the patterns of muscle tension and adhesion don’t necessarily just go away without direct intervention.
So, if you’ve been diligently working on your technique and posture because of an injury (and have accepted the other myths, to follow) and you’re not getting better, don’t be too hard on yourself…
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The second myth you’re likely to hear is the idea that all you need to do to heal and recover is rest.
Don’t fall for that bad advice, however, no matter how “true” it sounds – Not even coming from trusted musician friends, music teachers or medical authorities!
And I’m sure the suggestion that you have to put down your guitar and not play it for weeks or months in order to heal is the last thing you want to hear, anyway!
Top Exercises To Avoid If You Have Tennis Elbow
Now, although it’s true that resting may be enough to alleviate some or all of your pain in the initial phases of an RSI like Tennis Elbow…
Rest alone is unlikely to break the cycle!… And, the minute you pick up your guitar and start strumming again, the vicious cycle of tension and pain often ratchets right back up again!
– Meaning the kind of rest where you simply stop doing the activity that’s causing your pain and nothing more, and I talk more about why it’s the wrong treatment approach here:
Golfer's Elbow: Exercises
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