When we think of elbow pain, the lateral aspect is the one that springs to mind first. The poor old anterior elbow gets very little attention. And even worse, the medial elbow is often considered the “black sheep” of the elbow family, whispered about as “golfer’s elbow” in hushed tones.
No longer! The anterior and medial elbow have decided to steal back the spotlight, with their very own online courses!
In this online course, you’ll find out what is causing your patient’s medial elbow pain, the tests you can perform, and how to assess your patients. You’ll identify the local structures that are irritated and painful, figure out what has overloaded them, and whether you need to incorporate the kinetic chain in your rehab.
Your gymnasts, weightlifters, gym junkies, throwers, pitchers, tennis players and golfers can get the assessment, diagnosis and treatment they desperately need from you to keep playing their sport or hoisting heavy items around.
Dive into this online course now
Part A - Differential diagnosis
- Why treating medial and anterior elbow pain is so rewarding
- Common differential diagnosis
- Biceps tendon
- Pronator Teres
- Median and Ulnar nerves
- Medial elbow pain is often labelled golfers elbow. Is there more to it? Explore differential diagnosis including
- UCL/Medial elbow joint capsule
- Medial elbow tendinopathy
- Pronator teres
- Median or ulnar nerve irritation
- C/sp referred pain
- How to use your patients area of pain to help your diagnosis
- Aggravating activities & how they help your diagnosis
- Carrying items
- Playing golf or tennis - is it gripping, or serving/hitting with load on the medial elbow/UCL structures.
- Weights - which exercises, or after what workouts
- Irritability and how this guides your treatment
- Common gym exercises that cause or aggravate elbow pain, and specific guidance on how to modify these in your treatment
- Analysis of research around the medial elbow, implications and potential over-extrapolation of EMG results
Part B - Objective assessment
- Active movement and ROM assessment of the wrist and elbow
- Restrictions in ROM that may overload the elbow
- Why grip strength assessment is important
- Resisted Isometric Muscle Test (RIMT) for the elbow and wrist and how to vary these tests in patients that are irritable or non-irritable
- Palpation of:
- Biceps tendon
- Wrist flexor tendon
- Pronator Teres
- Ulnar & median nerve
- Neurodynamic screening
Part C - The C/sp & functional elbow tests
- Assessment of the C/sp in elbow pain patients
- Additional screening tests for the C/Sp
- Functional elbow tests
- Load tests for the elbow and biceps
- How to assess your patients when biceps strengthening or chinups are aggravating their elbow pain
- Different chin-up grip positions and movement patterns associated with elbow pain
- Assessing patients with pain while playing tennis
Part D - Load management & the Kinetic chain
- Assessing the Kinetic chain elements that impact your patients elbow pain
- Assessing Kinetic chain ROM and strength relevant to your patient’s elbow pain - the T/sp, Shoulder & upper limb
- Lower limb control and strength assessment
- The best way to structure your initial and follow up assessments
- When is it appropriate to perform functional tests and assessment of the kinetic chain
- How to use the history and your assessment to guide load management and improve pain
In Part 6 (available next week), you’ll explore how to use your assessment findings to treat medial and anterior elbow pain, with exercise demonstrations, progressions, and specific load management strategies.