Tennis Elbow is Common for Many Types of Athletes

Tennis elbow affects people who are in the age group of 35-65 years, usually associated with a pain on the outside of the elbow, tennis elbow as the name might suggest, does not affect only tennis players, in fact 95% of all reported cases in the Unites States alone are not reported by tennis players. A better understanding of the various groups of people more susceptible to tennis elbow actually aids faster diagnosis, and there is a high probability that such people might not know they are part of the high risk category, affected people usually ignore tennis elbow symptoms till it becomes a chronic problem.

Based on the occupation/sports that a person is engaged in there are two major group of people that are susceptible to tennis elbow:

People engaged in Manual Labor

There is a strong co-relation between the type of activity a person engages in and tennis elbow, since manual labor involves lifting of heavy weights, or involves more than normal stress on the writs, arm and elbow, people like laborers, carpenters, plumbers are usually a high risk category for tennis elbow. In addition tasks that involve long durations of wrist and elbow movement like painting also can lead to tennis elbow.

Apart from manual laborers, there are also weight lifters that are a part of this high risk category, especially professional weight lifters that have been lifting weights since a very young age, make themselves susceptible to tennis elbow.

Athletes

Tennis elbow is called so because, tennis players were one of the first group of people who reported the problem, this does not mean that only tennis players are afflicted by tennis elbow, however people who are engaged in racquet sports like badminton are also equally susceptible to tennis elbow. Athletes like golfers and those competing in more weight oriented sports like the shot put and the discuss throw have also been known to be affected by tennis elbow.

Essentially athletes that are susceptible to wear and tear of the forearm, and elbow. Or those that require extensive wrist movement are susceptible to tennis elbow.

Since certain activities are more likely to affect a particular part of the elbow or arm, the symptoms experienced by people suffering from tennis elbow also vary, where as pain on the outside of the elbow is a common symptom other than that the, symptoms can vary from shooting pain in the forearm, to pain while lifting weights or pain during simple activities like using a wrench.

Depending on the particular tendon group that is damaged and other deciding factors, differential diagnosis of tennis elbow is divided into categories like anconeus compartment syndrome, bursitis, cervical radiculopathy, radio-humeral joint dysfunction, lateral epicondyle avulsion, musculocutaneus nerve entrapment, non-union of radial neck fracture, osteoarthritis, posterior interosseous syndrome, posterolateral rotatory instability, radial nerve tension, radial tunnel syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, strained lateral collateral ligaments and snapping plicae syndrome

The only thing to remember is that tennis elbow is curable and when diagnosed on time, the time taken to recover is less.