Do I have tennis elbow?

Lately, I'm experiencing pain in my arm when I play for an extended period of time. It's not really in my elbow, though. It's an oddly general pain. I can't really point to one spot and say "that's where it hurts." I seem to feel it mostly in my bicep, but it can extend to the elbow area sometimes. It also feel it in my shoulder some.

There is very minimal to no pain when I'm not playing. It hurts worst when serving a big flat serve.

Any thoughts are very appreciated!

Actually, after reading up, I think it might be bicep tendinitis. There's a tendon that connects the bicep to the shoulder and that's kind of right where the pain is.

It doesn't sound like you do. The classic test for TE is to hold out your arm in front of you palm facing down. Have someone put their hand on top of your fingers while you try to lift your fingers straight up. You would experience severe pain in your forearm near and at the elbow.

If you don't have anyone to help, put your hand under a table with your arm extended and palm facing down with the tips of your fingers just under the table touching the underside of the table. Try to lift the table with your finger tips. The pain will be immediately obvious.

I would also be checking your rear traps and neck which can refer pain down your tricep and make your shoulder feel weak.

I posted this in another thread but will share it here.

A good tool to use is a wooden massage tool like shown below. Hold on to the big roundish part and rub your tendons with the smaller part length wise down your forearm and the outside of your elbow up and down for about 2 mins. It'll get blood flowing and you forearm should heat up. Its a great preventative measure to use before and after a match. My elbow no longer hurts.


https://www.massagewarehouse.com/products/knobble-massage-tool/?F_All=Y

They've got others as well and this is just an example one. My wife has bought tools from this site when she was doing massage therapy. Kinda pricey for just a wooden knob thing but it's great for tennis elbow.

HouTex said:

It doesn't sound like you do. The classic test for TE is to hold out your arm in front of you palm facing down. Have someone put their hand on top of your fingers while you try to lift your fingers straight up. You would experience severe pain in your forearm near and at the elbow.

If you don't have anyone to help, put your hand under a table with your arm extended and palm facing down with the tips of your fingers just under the table touching the underside of the table. Try to lift the table with your finger tips. The pain will be immediately obvious.

Click to expand...

Great simple test! I had no pain doing that, so it must be something else. Maybe in the shoulder or bicep.

Crocodile said:

I would also be checking your rear traps and neck which can refer pain down your tricep and make your shoulder feel weak.

Click to expand...

I thought maybe it could be something like that too. I will look into it.