There was a great discussion after my last post on tennis elbow straps. While the article we discussed dealt with the efficacy of straps, there was some discussion on treatment in general, including the use of eccentric exercises.
A new study presented at this year’s AOSSM meeting looked at the effect of an eccentric exercise using the Thera-Band FlexBar. 81% of patients using this eccentric exercise reported improvement in comparison to only 22% in the control group. Interesting results and worth considering in your patients as the Thera-Band FlexBar is fairly inexpensive and a good home exercise program adjunct (get them here from Amazon for under $20).
The injured wrist holds the bar in position as the healthy wrist adds a twist (still not injured wrist movement). Then, the eccentric component is the injured wrist slowly flexing to let the twisted bar release back to normal. Below is a clip of the exercise in action. In this video clip, the injured wrist is the right wrist:
See the full article > AOSSM: Tennis Elbow Eases With Eccentric-Twist-of- Wrist Exercise
Buy a Flex-Bar here and try it yourself > Thera-Band FlexBar from Amazon
