Golfer’s Elbow Physiotherapy in Coolaroo: Symptoms, Treatment, Exercises & Recovery

Picking up a coffee cup shouldn’t take thought. But with pain on the inside of your elbow, it does. Gripping the steering wheel. Carrying shopping bags. Opening a jar. By the afternoon your elbow’s throbbing and you’re not sure why.

Plenty of the people who come in with this have never swung a golf club. We’ve seen it from gym training. From tradies gripping tools all day. From someone who just started a new job. Honestly, the name doesn’t fit most of the cases we see.

The proper medical term is medial epicondylalgia, but almost nobody uses that outside a clinic. Golfer’s elbow is what stuck, decades back, and it’s just easier to say. It’s a tendon problem on the inner elbow, and most of the time it creeps up slowly rather than starting from one bad moment.

Looking into golfer’s elbow physiotherapy in Coolaroo? This page covers what’s going on with the elbow and roughly what treatment looks like, before you book anything in.

What is golfer’s elbow, exactly?

Short version, it’s pain and tenderness on the inside of your elbow.

You’ll hear it called medial epicondylalgia at most clinics now. Older textbooks say medial epicondylitis. Same spot, slightly different label.

Here’s the mechanism. The tendons that bend your wrist and fingers attach at a bony bump called the medial epicondyle, right on the inner elbow. Keep loading those tendons past what they can cope with and eventually they start to hurt.

And no, golf isn’t a prerequisite.

We see it in golfers a fair bit, sure. But also tennis players, gym-goers, tradies, warehouse workers, and pretty much anyone whose hands stay busy all day.

Load a tendon past its limit enough times and this is often where you end up.

What Does Golfer’s Elbow Feel Like?

Tenderness on the inner elbow is the main tell. Beyond that it varies a bit person to person.

Things people mention:

• A dull ache on the inside of the elbow
• Soreness when you press on it
• Pain making a fist
• Grip that’s weaker than usual
• Struggling to lift things you used to lift fine
• Pain during golf, the gym or racquet sports

Something that trips people up: pain often hits later, not during activity. You finish a workout feeling fine. Then it aches that night.

Get it looked at if it’s not settling. Golfer’s elbow isn’t the only thing that causes pain here.

Why Does Golfer’s Elbow Happen?

Rarely one thing. Usually the tendon’s just been asked to do more than it can currently manage, for too long.

Repetitive Gripping

Gripping puts real strain through the forearm and it builds up faster than people think. Manual work. Tools. Weights. A golf club. Even wringing out a towel enough times.

Golf and Racquet Sports

Golf swings and tennis strokes both hammer the wrist and forearm. Technique plays a part. So does simply playing more than usual, or changing your swing without giving the tendon time to adjust.

Gym and Weight Training

Pull-ups, rows, curls, deadlifts, farmer’s carries. All of these lean hard on grip. You probably don’t need to quit training over it. Usually it’s about spotting which specific movement is the trigger and adjusting that one thing.

Repetitive Work

Trade and manufacturing jobs, warehouse picking, anything with your hands moving constantly. These build the problem up over months, quietly, until it’s sore enough that you notice.

Sudden Increase in Activity

Coming back from a break and going straight to your old training load is a common trigger. The tendon hasn’t caught up yet.

Load versus capacity. That’s really the whole thing.

Is Golfer’s Elbow Only Caused by Golf?

No, not remotely.

Gripping, lifting, repeated wrist movement, whether it’s at work or the gym, can bring on the same symptoms. We see it in people who’ve never picked up a club. Someone starting a physical job. Someone hitting the gym hard again after months off.

Golfer’s Elbow vs Tennis Elbow: What’s the Difference?

Same family of problem. Opposite side of the elbow.

Golfer’s elbow sits on the inside. It’s tied to the tendons at the medial epicondyle. Tennis elbow sits on the outside instead, sometimes called lateral epicondylalgia.

Neither name is really accurate. Plenty of people with tennis elbow have never played tennis. If you’re not sure which side is actually the problem, a physio can usually tell in a couple of minutes.

Can Physiotherapy Help Golfer’s Elbow?

Yes. Figuring out what’s aggravating the elbow, adjusting it, then rebuilding tendon strength, that’s basically what treatment looks like.

It’s not just pain relief. The elbow actually needs to handle work and training again, not just feel okay while you’re resting it.

An assessment usually covers where it hurts, how the elbow and wrist move, and your grip strength.

It’ll also look at what sets your symptoms off, and how your work or training load might be feeding into it.

From there it’s education, a few activity changes, and exercise that gets harder over time. Individualised, progressive programs are what the research on epicondylalgia points toward. Not a single exercise handed to everyone.

Keep In Motion also runs a  sports injury physiotherapy service if that’s more relevant to your situation.

What Does Golfer’s Elbow Physiotherapy Treatment Involve?

No standard plan here. It’s built around your symptoms and whatever you’re trying to get back to.

1. Working Out What’s Aggravating Your Elbow

First step is usually pinning down the trigger. Golf, gym work, lifting, repetitive gripping, manual work, even housework sometimes. Once that’s clear you actually know what to change.

2. Activity Modification

This isn’t stopping everything. More often it’s small tweaks. Less weight for a while. Fewer reps. A bit more recovery time between sessions. Small changes that reduce strain without pulling you out of the gym entirely.

3. Progressive Strengthening

Once symptoms allow it, strengthening becomes the main focus. Wrist flexors and extensors. Forearm muscles. Grip. Shoulder and upper body strength too, since that often gets overlooked. It should get harder every few weeks, not stay the same.

4. Returning to Your Normal Activities

Feeling better isn’t the finish line. Getting back to golf or the gym means the elbow needs to actually handle those demands again.

That usually goes through basic movement first, then controlled strengthening, then resistance work, then the real thing. How fast that happens depends on you.

What Exercises Are Good for Golfer’s Elbow?

Everyone asks this first. Truth is there’s no single answer.

Early on when things are irritable, it’s usually gentle wrist and forearm movement, plus isometric holds. As tolerance builds, resistance gets added. Grip work comes later, once symptoms have settled a bit. Functional exercises that mirror your actual sport or job come last.

Don’t skip the assessment and jump straight to exercises off a website. What’s appropriate for you depends on your own strength and how irritable your elbow currently is.

Can You Go to the Gym With Golfer’s Elbow?

Usually, yes. With some adjustments.

Heavy gripping, pull-ups, deadlifts, heavy curls, these are the usual suspects that might need scaling back for a stretch.

Dropping the weight for a few weeks tends to work better than cutting the exercise out completely. It comes down to how your elbow responds. The goal is training through it while you rebuild, not sitting on the sidelines.

Can Work Cause Golfer’s Elbow?

Yes, and it’s a genuine driver, not a minor one.

Jobs with tools, repetitive lifting, warehouse work or manual handling load the elbow the same way gym training does.

If work’s the trigger, your rehab plan needs to account for that. A generic printed sheet of exercises usually misses this part.

How Long Does Golfer’s Elbow Take to Recover?

Honestly, there’s no fixed number. Anyone who gives you one is guessing.

A few things matter more than others here, how long you’ve had it, how bad it’s gotten, your strength before all this started, and whether you’re actually doing the rehab consistently or just some weeks.

It can take longer to settle than people expect, especially once it’s been hanging around for months already. Progress usually looks like less pain, a stronger grip, and daily tasks getting easier, more so than hitting some specific week on a calendar.

When Should You See a Physiotherapist for Inner Elbow Pain?

Don’t wait until it’s unbearable, is the short answer.

A few signs it’s time. It keeps coming back. Your grip feels noticeably weaker. Lifting’s started to hurt when it never used to.

Also worth checking if backing off the aggravating stuff hasn’t helped, or you genuinely don’t know what’s still safe to do. Persistent pain is worth a look regardless, since a handful of other things can cause something similar.

Golfer’s Elbow Physiotherapy in Coolaroo

If you’re in Coolaroo or nearby and dealing with this, having a clinic close by just makes sticking with rehab easier. That’s most of it, really.

Keep In Motion Physio’s Coolaroo clinic is at 1550 Pascoe Vale Road, Coolaroo VIC 3048. There are also clinics in Craigieburn, Wollert and Truganina.

Keep In Motion runs a sports injury service covering a wide range of conditions, and this page is here to go a bit deeper on inner elbow pain specifically.

Elbow pain not settling on its own? An assessment is the fastest route to actually knowing what’s going on, rather than guessing.

What Happens During a Golfer’s Elbow Physiotherapy Assessment?

First time getting an elbow looked at? Here’s roughly how it goes.

1. Your Symptoms Are Discussed

You’ll get asked when it started, where exactly it hurts, and what makes it worse. Whether you play sport, train at the gym, or have a job involving a lot of gripping usually comes up too.

2. Your Movement and Strength Are Assessed

This covers elbow and wrist movement, grip and forearm strength, and whatever specific activity actually brings your symptoms on.

3. Your Activity Load Is Reviewed

Your physio will want a picture of your actual work or training routine. That’s what’s loading the elbow day to day, not what happens in the clinic room.

4. Your Rehabilitation Plan Is Created

Usually covers education, adjusting whatever’s aggravating things, and a strengthening program that gets adjusted as you improve.

How Can You Reduce the Risk of Golfer’s Elbow Returning?

Once it feels better, the temptation is jumping straight back into full training. Going slower usually pays off more.

Increase Training Gradually

Avoid spiking your gym volume or golf sessions all at once.

Keep Strength Training

Keep up forearm and wrist strength work even after symptoms are gone. Not just while it’s sore.

Take Breaks From Repetitive Tasks

If your job has your wrist moving constantly, regular breaks genuinely help.

Review Your Technique

Pain during golf or gym lifts is worth a technique check rather than pushing through it every time.

Build Capacity Before High Loads

Don’t jump from barely training to heavy lifting overnight. The tendon needs a runway first.

Conclusion

Golfer’s elbow reaches further than your golf game. Work, gym sessions, gripping, lifting, most things you do with your hands can get affected once the tendon’s been pushed past what it can handle.

None of that means giving up everything. Mostly it’s finding what’s aggravating things and adjusting from there.

If inner elbow pain has been sticking around, getting it properly assessed is the fastest way to actually understand what’s going on.

Ready to Get Back to Moving?

Don’t let elbow pain keep dragging on and keeping you off work, out of the gym or away from sport.

Keep In Motion Physio in Coolaroo can assess what’s going on and build a rehab plan around your condition, your activity level and your goals.

Keep moving. Keep progressing. Keep In Motion.