What Is Golfer’s Elbow?

Golfer’s elbow is pain and reduced load tolerance where the wrist and finger flexor tendons attach to the medial epicondyle, which is the bony point on the inside of the elbow. Health professionals may also call it medial epicondylalgia or medial elbow tendinopathy.

The condition can affect golfers, but golf is not the only cause. It also occurs in racquet-sport players, throwing athletes, gym users and people whose work involves repeated gripping, lifting or tool use.

Golfer’s elbow commonly develops when the demand placed on the tendon exceeds its current capacity. A sudden increase in activity can trigger symptoms. However, pain may also build gradually through repeated loading with too little recovery.

If your pain is not limited to the inside of the elbow, visit our main elbow pain guide for information about other elbow conditions.

What Are the Symptoms of Golfer’s Elbow?

Symptoms usually develop around the inner elbow and worsen during tasks that load the forearm tendons.

What Activities Commonly Aggravate It?

Any task that repeatedly loads the wrist and finger flexor muscles may aggravate golfer’s elbow. The relevant load differs between people.

• Golf swings, driving-range sessions and striking repeatedly from firm mats.
• Pull-ups, rows, curls, deadlifts and other gripping exercises.
• Carrying heavy bags, tools, boxes or work equipment.
• Repeated screwdriver, hammer or power-tool use.
• Racquet sports and throwing activities.
• Gardening, pruning and other sustained hand tasks.
• Sudden changes in technique, equipment, workload or training volume.

What Causes Golfer’s Elbow?

The common flexor tendon transfers force from the forearm muscles into the inner elbow. Repeated or unusually high gripping, pulling, lifting and swinging loads may make the tendon sensitive.

Symptoms can begin after one obvious increase in activity. Alternatively, the tendon may gradually become less tolerant when work, training and daily loads repeatedly exceed its ability to recover.

Contributing factors may include:

• a rapid increase in golf, gym, throwing or racquet-sport volume;
• repetitive or forceful gripping at work;
• reduced forearm or grip strength;
• limited shoulder, elbow or wrist capacity;
• changes in sporting technique or equipment;
• returning too quickly after time away from activity; and
• neck or nerve sensitivity that changes arm function.

Golfer’s elbow is one form of tendinopathy. Tendons usually respond best when irritating loads are adjusted and then progressively rebuilt rather than avoided indefinitely.

Could Inner-Elbow Pain Be Something Else?

Not every pain on the inside of the elbow is golfer’s elbow. An assessment may consider several other structures and conditions.

Joint injury, arthritis, fracture and other less common conditions may also cause medial elbow pain. Your history and examination findings help determine which structure is most likely involved.

How Is Golfer’s Elbow Diagnosed?

A physiotherapist or doctor can often diagnose golfer’s elbow from your history and a clinical examination. The assessment should consider when the pain began, which loads reproduce it and whether you have weakness, neck pain, tingling or a history of trauma.

Your examination may include:

• palpation around the medial epicondyle and inner forearm;
• grip-strength testing;
• resisted wrist and finger movements;
• elbow, wrist and shoulder movement testing;
• assessment of sport, gym or work tasks; and
• neck and nerve screening when symptoms suggest wider involvement.

Imaging is not always required. Ultrasound or MRI may be considered when symptoms persist, the diagnosis remains uncertain or another condition needs to be excluded. An X-ray may be useful following trauma or when a joint or bone problem is suspected.

How Is Golfer’s Elbow Treated?

Treatment should match your symptoms, current capacity and goals. Rehabilitation generally moves from reducing aggravation towards progressively heavier and more specific loading.

1. Identify the main load triggers

   Review the tasks, exercises or sporting loads that reproduce symptoms. This may include golf volume, grip demands, gym exercises or repetitive work.

2. Adjust rather than automatically stop

   Reduce the intensity, frequency, duration or grip demand enough to prevent repeated flare-ups while maintaining comfortable activity where possible.

3. Begin appropriate tendon loading

   Early exercises may use controlled wrist, finger or grip contractions at a manageable resistance. The starting level should reflect your irritability and strength.

4. Build forearm and upper-limb strength

   Resistance can progress as symptoms and function improve. Your program may include the wrist flexors, grip, elbow, shoulder and supporting muscles.

5. Restore work, gym or sporting capacity

   Later rehabilitation should recreate the speed, range, repetition and force required for your normal activities.

Load management and education

Load management does not mean avoiding all activity. Instead, it involves finding a level that the elbow can tolerate and then progressing from that point. Your response during the task, later that day and the next morning can help guide changes.

Progressive exercise

Exercise is usually central to rehabilitation because it helps restore the tendon’s capacity to accept force. Exercises may begin with simple wrist or grip loading before progressing to heavier, faster or more task-specific movements.

Your physiotherapist may also address shoulder and upper-limb strength when these areas affect how you grip, lift, swing or throw. Visit our exercise library for broader rehabilitation information.

Manual therapy

Joint mobilisation, soft-tissue treatment or nerve techniques may provide short-term symptom relief for some people. These treatments should support an active rehabilitation plan rather than replace progressive loading.

Taping and bracing

A brace or tape may temporarily reduce symptoms during gripping, work or sport. However, external support does not restore tendon capacity by itself.

Movement and technique coaching

Technique changes may help when a specific golf, gym, work or racquet-sport task repeatedly overloads the elbow. Changes should be practical and relevant to the person rather than based on one assumed fault.

Can You Keep Playing Golf?

Some people can continue playing with changes to volume and intensity. Others need a short period away from the most aggravating swings before gradually rebuilding their golf load.

Avoid repeatedly testing the elbow with high-volume practice when symptoms are worsening. Grip weakness, increasing pain during play or a prolonged post-round flare may indicate that the current load is too high.

How Should Gym Exercises Be Modified?

Pull-ups, heavy rows, curls and deadlifts may aggravate symptoms because they require sustained or forceful gripping. You may not need to remove every upper-body exercise.

Useful temporary changes may include:

• reducing resistance or total sets;
• changing the handle, wrist position or grip width;
• using a slower and more controlled movement;
• reducing repeated training to failure;
• avoiding several high-grip exercises in the same session; and
• using straps selectively when clinically appropriate.

The aim is to retain useful training while creating enough room for the tendon to adapt.

Should You Wear a Golfer’s Elbow Brace?

A counterforce elbow strap sits around the upper forearm below the painful tendon attachment. Some people find that it reduces discomfort during lifting, golf, gym training or manual work.

The strap should feel supportive rather than painfully tight. It should not cause numbness, tingling, skin irritation or increased forearm pain.

A brace may be a useful short-term aid, but it should not replace strength rehabilitation and activity progression. See our elbow strap guide or browse available elbow braces and supports.

How Long Does Golfer’s Elbow Take to Improve?

Recovery varies between people. A recent and mildly irritable problem may improve over several weeks. Longer-standing or repeatedly aggravated tendon pain can take several months to settle and rebuild.

Factors that may affect recovery include:

• how long symptoms have been present;
• the amount of gripping or lifting that cannot be modified;
• tendon irritability and current strength;
• associated nerve, ligament, neck or joint symptoms;
• the demands of your sport or work; and
• how consistently rehabilitation can be progressed.

Progress is not always linear. A temporary symptom increase does not automatically mean the tendon has been damaged again. However, repeated or escalating flare-ups usually indicate that the current load or exercise dose needs review.

When Should You Seek Assessment?

Consider a physiotherapy or medical assessment when inner-elbow pain:

• persists despite reducing the obvious aggravating load;
• limits work, sport, gym training or daily gripping;
• causes noticeable loss of strength;
• returns whenever activity is increased;
• includes tingling or numbness into the hand;
• followed a fall, collision or sudden force; or
• prevents you from fully bending or straightening the elbow.

What Happens During a Physiotherapy Assessment?

Your physiotherapist will first clarify the activities that matter to you and the loads that trigger symptoms. The examination then helps determine whether the tendon is the main pain source and whether other areas require attention.