How Your Elbow Works

You would have a hard time arguing against the point that “knowledge is power”.  From a general health perspective, it’s important to understand how our bodies function as it allows us to deal better with injury when it occurs and can sometimes help you recover faster.

This applies when you suffer from an elbow injury.  Learning the structures of your elbow will help you identify the specific tissues, muscles, ligaments and joint that have been injured but more importantly discover how you can repair them back to normal function.

Let’s examine the elbow joint and how your elbow works.

A world without the complete use of your elbow would be extremely challenging!  Simply because your elbow allows you to orientate your hand.  In marital arts and self defence programs, you are taught that your elbow is a dangerous weapon that can deliver a powerful blow to take down an enemy or opponent.

For most individuals, our elbow joint is not used as a weapon rather we rely on it to perform everyday tasks and chores.  Suffering from any one of the many elbow injuries, can severely impact our daily routine.  We even lean on our elbows when writing something down on paper, taking notes, or rely on it to help us type on a keyboard.

If we examine a little deeper how your elbow joint works, we need to know how the elbow joint is built.  Your elbow joint is comprised of three bones: your upper arm bone (aka the Humerus), and two bones in your forearm (called the Radius and Ulna).

All the joints in your body are covered with cartilage.  This allows for the smooth, fluent movement of your joints.  As we age however, it is not uncommon for the cartilage to wear down or simply tear.  This will cause joint pain as the cartilage that once allowed for smooth movements is gone and you now have bone on bone which causes friction.

Next we move onto the ligaments that attach at your elbow joint. There are 2 main ligaments, known as the collateral ligaments, which provide support, stability and strength to your elbow joint. Impairments or damage to these ligaments are not contributing factors to an injury such as tennis elbow.

When it comes to the movement of your elbow, picture it moving the same way as a hinge on a door. A door swings open, this is when your elbow extends or is in extension.  When the door closes, your elbow bends and is flexed or in flexion. As your forearm bends and extends your ulna and humerus bones move closer and away from your body.

You can also rotate your forearm which allows you to turn your hand so that the palm of your hand is facing up or down.

Now that you know how your elbow works, you can easily recover from an elbow injury such as tennis elbow.

If you want to learn more about tennis elbow or are suffering from tennis elbow(pain and tenderness on the outside of your elbow), follow the button below where a short video will explain everything you need to know about this most commonly reported elbow condition.