strained elbow (very weak!!!but no pain!!!)?

2 Comments

1. fizziest_physio says:

   September 30, 2009 at

   Easy question first, tennis elbow affects the muscles of the forearm that attach near the elbow, it isn’t actually a disorder of the elbow at all. A "strain" refers to a muscle injury, and a sprain refers to a ligament injury and therefore an injury at a joint. So yes, tennis elbow and an elbow strain have the same basic pathology eg muscle related. Tennis elbow and an elbow sprain are not the same (one being muscle related and the other ligament related).

   Was there an injury to your elbow? If yes, then you may have sprained a ligament in your elbow, which could explain why it feels loose. However, this wouldhave been pretty painful at the time.
   Because you don’t say you injured it and you don’t have any pain and it is mainly weakness you are suffering from, I’m tempted to ask if you have any loss of sensation or pins and needles in your arm or hand?

   WIthout the answers to these questions it’s hard to say what’s wrong exactly but my feeling is that it could be neurological…which isn’t as scary as it sounds. Basically I think you may have trapped or damaged the nerve that supplies either your biceps or triceps (depending on which direction your muscle feels weakness in) resulting in the weakness of motion at your elbow.

   Either that or it’s an elbow strain, but that generally would still be causing some pain.

   The time it will take to heal depends on what is actually the problem. I suggest you go to your doctor or a good physiotherapist and get their opinion. In the meantime as you aren’t in any pain with it, continue to use it as normally as possible or muscle may start to get weaker.

   Hope that helps!
2. James King from Physio Supplies says:

   June 21, 2011 at

   What is the cause of having strain?