How to Fix Pickleball Elbow
“Help! My elbow starts to ache and hurt after playing pickleball! I am addicted to pickleball and CANNOT take “rest” as an answer! What can I do to get rid of this pickleball elbow pain and stay on the court longer!”
If this is you, you are not alone! “Pickleball elbow”, also known as “tennis elbow,” or “lateral epicondylalgia” is a commonly experienced area of discomfort for players. In this blog we break down strategies and methods to keep you pain free on the pickleball court!
Often lateral epicondylalgia occurs when the muscles and tendons in your forearm are “overloaded” past what they are used to. Our muscles and tendons have a certain capacity it can handle. Whenever we exceed the capacity and load tolerance it is able to handle, our brain will start sending pain signals to let our bodies know “hey! This is probably too much! We aren’t ready for this load yet!” For some people this can be a load management issue ex. (doing too much too soon of an activity they hadn’t done before.)
Short Term Temporary Fixes
Rest: while “resting” and not playing pickleball may alleviate some irritability, let's face it, the majority of us are addicts to a certain healthy extent and aren’t willing to stop playing pickleball because it's too fun to stop!
Ice: ice can certainly numb the discomfort temporarily but won’t necessarily do anything from an inflammatory standpoint that the body goes through when sustaining an increase in load
Elbow Brace: can help keep the tissue warm while playing which can decrease sensitivity, but ultimately this is simply a temporary band aid fix instead of a long term solution.
Modifying Your Swing: one way to offload pressure through the elbow is by manipulating other body parts to generate the power in your shot instead of the elbow. Here are a few different options:
Hit the ball and make contact with the paddle in front of you
Utilize your shoulders and wrists and less of your elbow
Move your feet, get ahead of the ball and generate power from your torso and legs
Getting a Lighter Paddle: Yes, while opting for a lighter paddle will allow your elbow to not work as hard, there is also a tradeoff of being unable to generate as much power in a shot as you would a heavier paddle.
Long Term Solutions & Permanent Fixes
Improving the overall capacity and strength of the elbow.
If we know this is primarily an issue that is caused by the tissues in the elbow being “overworked” and “overloaded”, the long term solution is very straight forward. You need to improve the overall capacity and tolerance of the elbow tissues so that it can tolerate the loads and movement patterns in pickleball without any issues. Here are some of our favorite ways to improve capacity and resiliency at the elbow so that you can stay on the court longer without any pain.
When dosing these, you’d want to perform these about 3x/week to start off 2-3 sets of anywhere between 10-15 reps of a weight that is challenging but doable. (Typically around a 6-7/10 on a difficulty scale is a good place to start!) The weight needs to be heavy enough so that the tissues have a reason to adapt and get stronger.
Hopefully if you’re still reading this article, you have a good sense of direction on how to go about fixing your pickleball elbow for good so you can stay on the court longer without any limitations! If you have any further questions and would like to discuss your specific situation, you can always Book a Free 15-min Phone Consultation with one of our sports doctors to help answer any of your questions and see how we can help you stay active and stronger on the pickleball court pain free!
Happy Pickling!
Dr. Peter Yu
About the Author
Dr. Peter Yu (PT, DPT, Cert-DN, Cert-CMFA, CSCS, TPI, USAW, USAT, CF-L1) is a performance physical therapist from MOTION RX here in Jacksonville, FL specializing in the management and care of athletes and active adults. He was introduced to the sport of pickleball a few months ago by a couple of friends and just like everyone else, was instantly hooked and addicted! He is an avid pickleball player and competes locally at the 4.0 level and has dreams of playing on the Tour someday!
