Golfer's Elbow

Golfer's elbow isn't just for golfers, and it's not the same thing as tennis elbow. If you're dealing with pain or tenderness on the inner side of your elbow, our Burlington clinic can help you figure out what's driving it and get your grip, strength, and movement back.

What Is Golfer’s Elbow, Exactly?

The elbow is a surprisingly busy joint. It’s involved in almost everything your arm does, gripping, lifting, throwing, pulling, typing, and when the tendons on the inner side get overloaded, you feel it fast.

Golfer’s elbow (medial epicondylitis, for the curious) is a tendon condition that develops where the forearm flexor muscles attach to the bony bump on the inside of your elbow. Despite the name, most of the people we see with it have never swung a club in their lives. It’s just as common in climbers, baseball players, construction workers, and anyone who does a lot of repetitive gripping or wrist flexion.

In some cases, symptoms come on after a clear overload — a new training block, a weekend of heavy lifting, a sudden increase in grip-heavy work. In others, they creep in gradually and you can’t pinpoint a single moment it started. Both patterns are normal, and neither changes the general direction of care.

It’s also worth knowing that golfer’s elbow and tennis elbow are not the same condition, even though they’re often mentioned together. Tennis elbow affects the outer elbow; golfer’s elbow affects the inner side. The location matters because the muscles involved, the movements that provoke symptoms, and the way you load through recovery are all different.

Pain along the inner elbow isn’t always about structural damage. More often, it reflects a tendon that’s been asked to do more than it’s currently conditioned for. That’s actually good news, because it means the path forward is about building capacity, not waiting for something to heal on its own.

What Can Contribute to Golfer’s Elbow

Golfer’s elbow rarely develops from a single event. More often, symptoms build when the load placed on the forearm tendons exceeds what they’re currently conditioned to handle, and that threshold is different for everyone.

Common contributors may include:

Sudden increases in grip-heavy activity, training volume, or sport intensity
Repetitive wrist flexion or forearm rotation — common in golf, baseball, climbing, and racquet sports
Insufficient recovery between higher-load sessions or work shifts
Limited wrist or elbow mobility that changes how force is distributed through the arm

Changes in equipment, technique, or workload without adequate adaptation time
Reduced forearm or shoulder strength that shifts more demand onto the tendon
Previous elbow or wrist injuries that were never fully rehabilitated
Prolonged desk or manual work that keeps the forearm in a sustained gripping position

Getting to the Bottom of Your Elbow Pain

An assessment starts with a detailed conversation about your symptoms, when they started, exactly where you feel the discomfort, and which activities make it better or worse. Things like gripping a mug, shaking hands, lifting with your palm facing down, or typing for long stretches often tell us quite a bit before we’ve even touched the elbow.

From there, the focus shifts to how the forearm, wrist, and elbow are actually functioning. This may include grip strength testing, resisted wrist flexion, and specific provocation tests that help pinpoint which structures are involved. The strength and coordination of the forearm flexors, shoulder, and surrounding muscles are all part of the picture, because what happens upstream influences how load is managed at the tendon.

Range of motion through the wrist and elbow, as well as neck and shoulder mobility, is also assessed. Because the arm doesn’t work in isolation, restrictions or compensations elsewhere can quietly shift more stress onto an already irritated tendon.

Rather than looking for a single “problem structure,” the goal is to understand how well the tendon is tolerating current demand. Imaging isn’t always necessary early on and is typically considered when clinical findings suggest it would meaningfully change the direction of care.

Physiotherapist performing manual therapy for golfer's elbow treatment at Burlington Sports Therapy clinic

How Golfer’s Elbow Is Treated

Getting Your Grip — and Your Strength — Back

Treatment starts with understanding what you want to get back to, whether that’s training without restriction, doing your job without discomfort, or just getting through the day without that nagging inner elbow ache flaring up every time you pick something up.

Because golfer’s elbow is a tendon load issue at its core, care tends to focus on rebuilding the forearm’s capacity to handle demand. This typically involves progressive strengthening of the wrist flexors and forearm muscles, gradually reintroducing the movements and activities that were previously aggravating.

Rather than avoiding grip-heavy activity indefinitely, the goal is to reintroduce it in a structured, progressive way. Exercises are progressed carefully, starting with isometric loading to calm things down, then building toward the dynamic, higher-load movements that matter most to you.

Hands-on treatment may help reduce short-term sensitivity and improve tissue mobility, but lasting improvement usually comes from building strength, improving load tolerance, and managing how much demand the tendon is absorbing at any given time. Adjustments to technique, equipment, or workload habits often make a meaningful difference alongside the rehab work.

Education is a central part of the process. Understanding why the tendon got irritated in the first place, how to pace your return to activity, and what to watch for if symptoms flare helps you stay on track and reduces the risk of ending up back at square one.

Who Treats Golfer’s Elbow at Our Burlington Clinic

Golfer’s elbow doesn’t always require just one approach. Depending on what’s driving your symptoms, care may draw from different disciplines to address tendon load, tissue sensitivity, and strength — with the goal of getting your elbow back to doing what you need it to do.

Physiotherapy

Building the forearm’s capacity to handle load is often the central focus of recovery. Physiotherapy for golfer’s elbow may include progressive tendon loading, grip strengthening, and a structured return to the activities and movements that matter most to you.

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Chiropractic Treatment

If restricted movement through the elbow, wrist, or neck is contributing to how load is distributed through the forearm, chiropractic care may help restore motion and improve how the arm functions overall. Attention is often given to how the shoulder and upper back interact with the elbow during gripping and lifting movements.

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Massage Therapy

When the forearm muscles become tight, overworked, or sensitive, soft-tissue treatment may help ease discomfort and improve your comfort with activity. This can be a useful complement to an active rehabilitation plan, particularly in the earlier stages when the tendon is most reactive.

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What Golfer’s Elbow Recovery Actually Looks Like

Recovery is shaped around how your tendon responds to load over time. The process is gradual by design and adapts as your strength, tolerance, and confidence with activity improve.

Initial Focus

Reducing sensitivity in the tendon and identifying the gripping, lifting, or forearm-loading activities that are currently exceeding what the tissue can comfortably handle.

Progressive Care

Gradually rebuilding forearm and grip strength through structured loading, starting with movements the tendon can tolerate and working toward the demands of your sport, work, or daily routine.

Active Involvement

Participating in a progressive exercise program designed to increase tendon capacity and restore the strength and function you need for the activities that matter most to you.

Ongoing Reassessment

Tracking how symptoms respond as load increases and adjusting the program to keep progress moving in the right direction without pushing the tendon faster than it can adapt.

Golfer’s Elbow Questions We Hear All the Time

These are some of the most common questions we get from people dealing with inner elbow pain.

Helping Burlington patients move better since 2005.

Do I actually have to stop training while this heals?

Not necessarily, and in most cases complete rest isn’t the answer. Total avoidance can actually slow tendon recovery by reducing the stimulus the tissue needs to adapt. The goal is to find a level of activity your tendon can tolerate and build from there. That might mean modifying load, adjusting technique, or temporarily dialling back volume, but staying active in some capacity is usually part of the plan, not the exception.

Is golfer's elbow the same as tennis elbow?

They’re related but not the same. Tennis elbow affects the outer elbow where the wrist extensor tendons attach. Golfer’s elbow affects the inner elbow where the wrist flexor tendons attach. The location, the movements that provoke symptoms, and the way you load through recovery are all different. Getting the diagnosis right matters, because treating one like the other tends not to work particularly well.

Do I need imaging to figure out what's going on?

Usually not right away. Most golfer’s elbow presentations can be assessed thoroughly through a hands-on clinical evaluation. Imaging can be useful in specific situations, but findings on scans don’t always correlate with symptoms, it’s entirely possible to have tendon changes on an MRI with no pain at all, and vice versa. If we think imaging would meaningfully change how we manage your elbow, we’ll let you know.

Why does my elbow feel fine at rest but flares up when I grip things?

Tendons are load-sensitive structures. At rest, there’s minimal demand on the tissue, so symptoms settle. When you grip, lift, or flex your wrist, that load spikes quickly and an irritated tendon lets you know about it. This pattern is actually a helpful signal during recovery, it gives us a clear way to track how the tendon is responding as capacity builds back up.

How long does golfer's elbow typically take to improve?

Every case is different, and I’d be doing you a disservice by giving you a single number. Mild cases that get addressed early can turn around in a matter of weeks. Cases that have been grumbling for months tend to take longer, tendons adapt more slowly than muscles, so the timeline for meaningful progress is often measured in weeks to months rather than days. The good news is that most people see consistent improvement when the loading program is right and they stick with it.

Can golfer's elbow come back after it's resolved?

It can, particularly if the activity or demand that originally overloaded the tendon hasn’t changed. That’s why building and maintaining forearm strength is such an important part of the long game, not just getting out of pain, but making sure the tendon is conditioned well enough that the same load doesn’t become a problem again.