Category: Arthritis

Have neck arthritis? Avoid these three exercises
Were you aware that the pain in your neck could be caused by arthritis? Arthritis is an inflammatory condition that affects the joints, and it can develop in the facet joints of the cervical spine or neck. These joints are found at the back of each neck vertebrae. When facet joints wear out naturally over time, you have a condition called neck osteoarthritis.

Physical therapists often prescribe a program of exercises for neck arthritis. Such exercises can help strengthen neck muscles, which helps reduce pressure on arthritic facet joints. Beneficial therapy exercises can also help improve neck mobility and reduce pain. However, there are also some exercises you should avoid if you have neck arthritis.

Three exercises to avoid if you have neck arthritis

To be clear, avoiding some exercises doesn’t mean avoiding all exercise when you have neck arthritis. As mentioned above, certain therapist-prescribed exercises can benefit your condition. There are certain exercises that could lead to increased neck arthritis pain, and three examples of such exercises are:
1. Situps — Core muscle strengthening is the benefit that draws many people to situps. However, this exercise can lead to more neck pain if you have neck arthritis. For instance, many people clasp their hands behind their head or neck to do situps. This posture makes it easy to put too much pressure on arthritic neck joints, which can lead to increased neck pain.
1. Bridges — This exercise is wonderful for strengthening your core and glutes, but it’s not so good for your neck. Bridges are done with your shoulders and neck resting on the ground while raising your lower torso off the ground. This position places a lot of strain on the shoulders and neck, which can cause more pain in your neck.
1. Lat pull-downs — A common back exercise, lat pull-downs should be avoided by people with neck arthritis. People with poor posture should be especially wary of this exercise. Often, lat pull-downs are done behind the neck, and this means you must bend your neck forward repeatedly. Repeated forward bending can aggravate neck arthritis and increase your pain.
Find out the best exercises for your neck arthritis at Border Therapy Services

Are you looking for effective physical therapy exercises for neck arthritis? Our Border Therapy Services team can help you find them and so much more. We offer free screenings, and this service is designed to help us learn as much as possible about your condition and symptoms. We’ll then use this information to build you a personalized therapy plan, which could include therapy methods like:
- Therapeutic exercises
- Manual therapy
- Spine care and stabilization
- Aquatic therapy
- Functional dry needling
Take the next step to start getting our help with your arthritis. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
February 1, 2020
Try these two neck exercises to reduce arthritis symptoms
Arthritis can attack almost any joint in your body, but you might not realize that you can develop arthritis in your neck. The neck vertebrae are connected by pairs of joints called facet joints. Over time, these joints can wear out and become inflamed and painful.

Physical therapy is an effective option for treating cervical or neck arthritis, and one therapy technique your therapist might use is therapeutic exercises. Such exercises are designed to improve neck strength and flexibility as well as decrease neck pain and other arthritis symptoms. Here are two neck exercises that your therapy specialist might use to treat neck arthritis:

1. Chin tucks

There is a group of muscles at the top of your neck called the suboccipital muscles. When these muscles get tight, they can cause headaches, but they can also pull on arthritic neck joints. In turn, this can lead to increased pain. Chin tucks are a therapeutic exercise that physical therapists recommend to stretch and strengthen the suboccipital muscles, and it’s one of the most commonly used neck exercises for cervical arthritis.

Steps for performing chin tucks
- Start by sitting up straight with your head centered over your shoulders.
- Push your head backward until you get a double chin. You can use two fingers to help if necessary.
- Hold the stretch for three to five seconds, and then return to the start position.
- Repeat these steps until you’ve done a total of five reps. This exercise can also be done throughout the day if your neck starts feeling tense again.
2. Neck rotations

Tight muscles on the sides of your neck can also cause you problems if you have neck arthritis. There are several neck exercises for cervical arthritis that can stretch these muscles, and a common option physical therapists choose is the neck rotation exercise.

Steps to performing neck rotations
- The starting point for this exercise should be to sit with good posture in a stable chair.
- Next, slowly turn your head to the left until you feel a stretch in the right side of your neck.
- Hold this stretch for three to five seconds before returning your head to the starting position.
- Then, slowly turn your head to the right to stretch the opposite side of your neck.
- Continue to repeat these steps until you’ve stretched both sides of your neck five times.
Advent Physical Therapy offers neck exercises and other treatment options for cervical arthritis

Are you having trouble moving your head and neck due to arthritis pain? Our team at Advent Physical Therapy can help. We offer a free screening service that’s designed to help pinpoint the issues your cervical arthritis is causing. Our team can also use therapy methods like therapeutic neck exercises for arthritis in a personalized plan for you, and your plan might also include other therapy techniques like:
- Joint mobilization
- Instrument assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM)
- Dry needling
- McKenzie Method^®
Don’t wait to start getting our help with your arthritis. Contact our team today for more information about how we can treat arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.
February 1, 2020
Exercises to use for finger arthritis in Creve Coeur, MO
Do you wake up with stiff, aching hands? Are your hands achy after you use them a lot? These symptoms could be early signs that you’re developing finger arthritis. Some other signs you might notice are swelling and stiffness. If you’re in the Creve Coeur, Missouri, area, there are physical therapists who can help you treat all these symptoms. Some physical therapy techniques that can be very helpful are therapeutic exercises. Here are two exercises that can be useful for treating early signs of finger arthritis:

1. Four-way wrist stretch

It’s important to stretch the wrists when you have early signs of finger arthritis since the same structures that run through your wrist continue into your hands and fingers. An easy exercise that can give your wrist a good stretch is the four-way wrist stretch.

Steps for the four-way wrist stretch
- Support your forearm — Before starting this stretch, you’ll want to support your forearm so that you can concentrate on stretching the wrist. You can use almost any flat surface, such as a tabletop, as a support, but your wrist and hand should be over the edge of the surface. This will give you move your wrist through its entire range of motion.
- Stretch it up and down — Once your arm is comfortably positioned, slowly move your wrist down toward the ground as far as you can. Then, hold this position for one to two seconds before curling the wrist upward as far as you can. Continue to move between these positions until you’ve stretched the wrist up and down 10 to 15 times.
- Stretch it side to side — Bring your wrist back to a neutral position and then move it to the right to stretch the left side of your wrist. After holding the stretch for a second or two, slowly move your wrist to the left to stretch the other side of your wrist. Repeat these movements until both sides of your wrist have been stretched 10 to 15 times.
2. Ball squeeze

After your wrist is warmed up, you can move on to strengthening exercises. These are intended to strengthen the muscles, ligaments and tendons in the hands and fingers, which can provide greater support to arthritic finger joints. One strengthening exercise your physical therapist might recommend is the ball squeeze.

How to do the ball squeeze exercise
- Find an appropriate ball — As the name of the exercise suggests, you’ll need some type of ball to do this hand exercise. It’s important to choose a ball that’s hard enough to challenge you but not so hard that you increase your arthritis pain. Most therapists recommend using a stress ball or tennis ball for this exercise.
- Squeeze the ball — Grab the ball you’ve chosen in your right hand and then squeeze it as hard as you can without causing pain in your fingers. Try to hold the squeeze for three to five seconds before resting for a few seconds. Continue to repeat these steps until you’ve done about 30 seconds of squeezing total with your right hand. Then, switch to your left and do likewise.
Find out how Excel Sports & Physical Therapy in Creve Coeur can help with finger arthritis

Physical therapy can help treat the symptoms of finger arthritis and slow the progression of the disease. Our team at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy in Creve Coeur can help you work toward these goals. We perform free screenings that can help people learn how far their arthritis has progressed. Our team also has experience creating personalized arthritis treatment plans, which might include therapy methods such as:
- Therapeutic exercises
- Joint mobilization
- Trigger point therapy
- Ergonomic recommendations
Are you ready to start getting our help with your arthritis symptoms? Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
January 9, 2020
Two early signs that you might have finger arthritis
The Arthritis Foundation reports that almost 54 million adults are living with doctor-diagnosed arthritis. Are you concerned that issues with your fingers might be a sign of finger arthritis? Physical therapists can help you determine if you have this condition. There are also two early signs that could mean you’re developing finger arthritis.

1. Morning finger stiffness

One common finger arthritis symptom that people can have is stiffness in the fingers, and this symptom is often most noticeable when first waking up in the morning. How long this stiffness lasts can depend on several factors. One factor that can affect the amount of time your fingers are stiff in the morning is the temperature in your bedroom. Arthritic joints are often more sensitive to colder temperatures, and a colder room can easily lead to stiffness in your fingers in the morning.

Another factor that can dictate how long finger stiffness lasts in the morning is what type of arthritis you have. There are two basic types of arthritis. Osteoarthritis is one type, and it’s caused by natural wear and tear on your fingers joints over time. Another type of arthritis that can affect your fingers is rheumatoid arthritis. This form of arthritis is caused by an immune system issue that causes your body to attack the linings of the joints. People with osteoarthritis can often have stiff fingers first thing in the morning, but this symptom often lasts for less than 15 minutes after waking up. However, rheumatoid arthritis tends to cause morning finger stiffness that can last for an hour or longer.

2. Finger pain after high finger usage

A second common early sign of finger arthritis is pain in the fingers after a period of high usage. Movement is a double-edged sword for people with finger arthritis. A moderate amount of movement can be helpful for this issue, because it can help keep your joints loose and promote blood flow to them. However, too much movement can tire out your joints and lead to pain. In the early stages of arthritis, it might take quite a bit of movement to cause finger pain, but your movement tolerance often gets lower as finger arthritis progresses.

Advent Physical Therapy can help you treat finger arthritis in Grand Rapids, MI

Do you have these two early signs of finger arthritis in Grand Rapids? Advent Physical Therapy has a clinic nearby that can help you. We offer free screenings, and this screening can help you determine what type of arthritis you’re dealing with. It can also help you learn how far your arthritis has progressed. Using all of this information, our highly trained physical therapists can build you a treatment plan to fit your needs. This plan will likely include multiple therapy techniques, and some of the techniques used in your plan may include:
Don’t wait to start getting our help with your finger arthritis. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
January 7, 2020
Knee arthritis exercises to avoid — and ones that help
Osteoarthritis is an extremely common, almost unavoidable, condition that affects millions of people. Due to the effects of aging, the cartilage that cushions the joints becomes more brittle and starts to wear down over time. This in turn leads to increased bone-on-bone contact and the joint inflammation that is the primary indicator of this condition.

Among the load-bearing joints of the body, the knees are very prone to arthritis because of the tremendous weight they support during our normal activities throughout the day. Upon diagnosis, knee arthritis can be successfully managed — and exercise is a very important part of this process. However, there are some higher-stress exercises that should be avoided.

One of the best ways to safely exercise arthritic knees, and avoid harmful exercises, is with the guidance of a professional physical therapist.

Avoid these knee arthritis exercises

Any type of exercise that puts repetitive motion strain on the knees, or overloads them, can speed up cartilage degeneration and increase inflammation. This includes the following exercises and athletic activities:
- Running and jogging
- Weightlifting, especially heavy loads and deep squatting
- Sports that involve sudden stopping and starting, such as tennis
- Sports and exercises that involve jumping, such as basketball and plyometrics
In contrast, lower-impact exercises such as walking, cycling, restorative yoga and therapeutic exercises can actually help to keep the knee joint stay mobile and strengthen the area to relieve stress. One of the best ways to ensure that you are performing these exercises in a way that promotes knee health is by working with a qualified professional, such as a physical therapist.

Knee arthritis treatment at Back in Motion

If you’ve been diagnosed with knee arthritis, we want to help you achieve the level of activity and quality of life you deserve. When you come to us for physical therapy, you can find a team who is committed to patient-centered care and individualized treatment plans. With our expert instruction, you can receive evidence-based information on exercises and other therapies that can help you achieve your treatment goals for arthritis of the knee.

Don’t let your condition run your life any longer. Reach out to our caring team to schedule your initial appointment today.
January 5, 2020
Avoiding some exercises is smart when you have knee arthritis
People might think that exercising is something they should avoid altogether after developing knee arthritis. However, moving your knee daily can help reduce the pain and other symptoms of this condition. With that being said, there are some exercises that can increase the severity of your symptoms. Four exercises, in particular, should be avoided when you have knee arthritis.

Four exercises knee arthritis sufferers should avoid

Knee arthritis wears out the cartilage in your knee. The worn-out cartilage can make it harder and more painful to move this joint. Arthritis in the knee can also lead to stiffness, inflammation and swelling. Because of symptoms like these, people with arthritis in the knees need to avoid these four exercises:
- Deep lunges — Doing a deep lunge often means you’re bending your knee past 90 degrees. Also, this activity puts most of your weight on the bent knee. Both of these factors increase the stress on the knee joint, making deep lunges an exercise you shouldn’t do.
- Deep squats — Deep squats are activities that involve a lot of bending of the knees that can be done with added weight or with bodyweight alone. Many people with knee arthritis can find deep squats painful. However, you might still be able to gain some of the advantages of squats by doing partial squats or wall squats instead.
- Running — Running places a high level of stress on the knees, hips and legs. The stress can be increased by poor running posture or technique and unsupportive or worn-out shoes.Running with knee arthritis should be avoided for most people. Instead, you can try cardio exercises like stationary biking or treadmill walking that place less strain on your knees.
- Jumping — For most people, exercises that incorporate jumping can help increase strength and stability. Yet, the impact of landing from a jump places a lot of stress on the knee joint, which means many people with knee arthritis should avoid exercises that include jumping.
Excel Sports & Physical Therapy can help treat knee arthritis

Are you living with arthritis in your knee? Our physical therapy specialists at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy are here to help you. You can start getting our help by coming in for a free screening, and we’ll use the information gathered from this screening to build you an individualized therapy plan that may include therapy methods like:
- Joint mobilization
- ASTYM^® therapy
- Aquatic therapy
- Therapeutic exercises
Contact our team today for more information about how we can help with knee arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.
January 5, 2020
What is good for you to try to help treat arthritis pain?
Arthritis causes pain and stiffness in the joints, which affects your daily life and prevents you from enjoying some of your favorite activities. There is no cure for arthritis, but treatments can help to reduce the pain and improve your range of motion.

You should always visit a professional for treatment when you have arthritis, but there are also some steps you can take on your own initiative to help with arthritis pain.

What steps are good for you if you have arthritis pain?
- Exercise — Stiff and weak muscles increase pressure on your joints. This can lead to an increase of pain in the joints affected by arthritis. Stiff and weak muscles also limit your range of motion.You should try some gentle exercises to help improve your strength and flexibility if you have arthritis. If you have any questions or concerns about which exercises are safe for you, talk to your doctor or a physical therapist.
- Good posture — Poor posture increases pressure on the joints, which leads to further pain. Do you slouch when you stand or sit? Do you sleep on your front side or in another awkward position?Focus on standing and sitting with your back and neck straight to help reduce pressure off the spine. Sleep on your side or back and try to keep your spine in a straight line to reduce pressure.
- Healthy diet — Improving your diet can help you lose weight, which reduces some pressure off of the joints. A healthy diet includes lean proteins, unsaturated fats, vitamins and minerals. Your body can use all of these to help support the joints.
- Quitting smoking — Smoking constricts your blood flow. This inhibits the ability for your joints to receive a healthy amount of nutrients and oxygen, which can increase pain and stiffness caused by arthritis.
Visit SOL Physical Therapy + Performance in Oakland, CA, today for arthritis treatment

Is arthritis causing pain and stiffness to interrupt your daily life? Our physical therapists at SOL Physical Therapy + Performance specialize in many treatments that can help reduce arthritic pain and improve your range of motion.

All of our treatments are natural and focus on empowering your body’s own resources to fight arthritis. This can help reduce your dependency on drugs and surgery for arthritis treatment. Contact our team today for more information about arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.
December 6, 2019
Four types of exercises you should avoid when you have hip arthritis

Hip arthritis causes pain and stiffness that limits your ability to enjoy many physical activities. Many people with hip arthritis exercise on their own or under the guidance of a physical therapist to help reduce arthritic pain and improve their mobility.

It’s great if you’re thinking about taking up exercising to improve your hip condition when you have arthritis. However, there are some exercises that can make your hip pain worse. Take a look below to discover which exercises you should avoid if you don’t want to make your hip arthritis worse.

1. Exercises that require a lot of bending at the hips

Many exercises for hip pain will involve some amount of bending at the hips, but some exercises put too much strain on your hips. You should avoid any exercise that causes further strain and pain when bending at the hips.

Try exercises that require more bending at the knees rather than the hips. These tend to help take some strain off the hips while strengthening the muscles connected to them.

2. Exercises on uneven terrain

Exercising on uneven terrain like stairs or when hiking outdoors puts additional strain on your hips. This can cause your pain and stiffness to grow worse. These exercises also increase your risk for falling, which can result in a serious injury.

Instead, focus on stationary exercises that you can perform while standing, sitting or lying in one place.

3. High-impact exercises

One of the most common ways people stay active is to run. However, when you have hip arthritis, running can be painful. Running is a high-impact exercise that sends shock all the way up your legs and into your hips and lower back.

Instead of running, try swimming or bicycling to stay fit and reduce the impact on your hips.

4. Weightlifting exercises

Exercises that involve lifting heavy weights with your legs increase strain on the hips. Avoid these exercises and focus on exercises that just use your body weight instead. If you make enough progress, your physical therapist may recommend some light weights or other exercises with increased resistance to meet your needs.

Visit Panther Physical Therapy for hip arthritis treatment

Are you looking to reduce pain and stiffness caused by arthritis in your hips with natural treatments like physical therapy? Our physical therapists at Panther Physical Therapy are highly trained and skilled in identifying which exercises can be most beneficial for you. Contact our team today for more information about treating hip arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.

December 5, 2019
What to do if hip arthritis is causing pain down your entire leg

Arthritis in the hips causes pain and stiffness that limits the range of motion of your hips. However, hip arthritis isn’t limited to causing pain in your hips. It can cause pain to shoot down your entire leg.

Limited range of motion in your hips has a domino effect on the surrounding muscles, ligaments and tendons in your legs. Stiffness and weakness can develop in these muscles and soft tissue due to inactivity caused by the pain in your hip that limits your mobility. However, exercising helps reduce and prevent this kind of pain.

Treat your hip arthritis with physical therapy

Exercising is difficult when you have hip pain, so you feel like you’re stuck in a loop if you need exercise to help reduce pain but cannot exercise because of the pain. This is where physical therapists come in.

Physical therapists are licensed health care professionals who specialize in treatments that help reduce pain and improve your range of motion. They frequently work with conditions that cause pain and stiffness in the joints like arthritis.

Physical therapists customize treatments to the needs of each individual patient. If you visit a physical therapist for help with hip arthritis and leg pain, they’ll examine your condition to determine which exercises and other treatments are right for you.

The exercises that physical therapists guide you through are designed specifically with people like you in mind. These exercises are gentle on the hips but challenging enough to engage the muscles and help improve their strength and flexibility. The goal of increasing strength and flexibility in these muscles is to help improve your range of motion and reduce pressure off the hip joint that contributes to arthritis pain.

Visit Peak Performance Sports and Physical Therapy for hip arthritis treatment

Is your hip arthritis causing pain to shoot down your entire leg? It’s time you talked to a physical therapist about your treatment options to help reduce your pain. Contact our team today for more information about hip arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.

December 2, 2019
Three exercises to avoid when you have neck arthritis
Arthritis can affect any of the joints in your body. While many people think of arthritis as something that affects the hips, knees and hands, it can also affect the vertebrae in the spine and other smaller joints. When arthritis affects the vertebrae in your cervical spine, or rather, your neck, it can make your daily life more difficult.

Exercising is a great way to help reduce pain and stiffness caused by arthritis. Stronger muscles provide better support and mobility in the affected areas. However, if you have neck arthritis, there are a few exercises you’re better off avoiding if you don’t want to make your pain worse.

Three exercises to avoid when you have neck arthritis
1. Situps — Situps are helpful exercises for engaging the muscles in your core, which helps reduce lower back pain. However, situps can often lead to back pain and neck pain when done improperly. If you have arthritis in the neck, it’s best to avoid situps unless instructed otherwise by your physical therapist.
2. Bridges — Bridges are exercises that involve lying on your back and raising your hips into the air while keeping your feet flat on the ground. These are great exercises for engaging the muscles in your core and thighs, but they put a lot of pressure on the neck. This can exacerbate your symptoms if you have neck arthritis, so you may want to avoid bridges and other similar exercises.
3. Military press — A military press is any exercise that involves pushing a weight above your head. Military presses are useful for helping to strengthen the shoulders and even the neck muscles. However, when you have arthritis in the neck, these exercises can cause a lot of pain.
Visit Excel Sports & Physical Therapy for neck arthritis treatment

Are you living with arthritis in the neck that affects your daily life? Our physical therapists at Excel Sports & Physical Therapy can help you figure out which exercises to try and which ones to avoid. Contact our team today for more information about neck arthritis or to schedule an initial appointment.
December 2, 2019
Two exercises for arthritis finger pain in Ferndale, WA
When your fingers hurt when they bend but aren’t swollen, there are several issues you could be dealing with. Osteoarthritis is the most common issue that causes these symptoms in Ferndale, Washington, and physical therapists in this area can help you find ways to treat your arthritis symptoms. Therapeutic exercises are one tool a therapy specialist might use to treat finger arthritis. Here are two exercises that your therapist might ask you to do that can help with your symptoms:
1. Finger bends
Although it might not seem like it, movement can actually be good for arthritis in the fingers. It can help reduce how much your fingers hurt when bent, and certain movements are intended to help decrease swelling or prevent it if you have no swelling yet. One therapeutic exercise that can provide these finger arthritis benefits is finger bends.

Before you start this exercise, you’ll need to hold your left hand out with all the fingers straight. If you have difficulty holding your hand in this position, you can rest your forearm on a flat surface with your hand hanging over the edge. From this position, slowly bend your left thumb down down toward your palm. People who can’t touch their palms with their thumb shouldn’t worry. Just bend your thumb down until it’s as close to your palm as you can get it. Hold your thumb in a bent position for three to five seconds and then return the thumb to its starting position. Repeat these steps with each of the fingers on your left hand. Then, switch hands and repeat the steps for the right thumb and fingers.
1. Finger lifts
Another type of therapeutic finger exercises your therapist might show you is strengthening exercises. These exercises are designed to move your fingers, but they are also intended to strengthen the ligaments that move your fingers. An example of an exercise that helps strengthen the fingers is finger lifts.

The starting position for this exercise is pretty easy to get into. First, place your hand and forearm on a table or other flat surface; make sure your palm is facing down. Start your finger lifts by placing your left hand in the starting position. From this position, slowly raise your left thumb off the table as far as you can while keeping your palm on the table. Hold your thumb up for three to five seconds before slowly lowering it back to the table. Your goal should be to repeat these steps five to 10 times with each finger of your left hand, and then, repeat the process with the fingers of your right hand.

Come find out how Whatcom Physical Therapy in Ferndale, WA, can help with your finger arthritis

Arthritic fingers that hurt when bent, even if they aren’t swollen too, can make it harder to do routine activities. At Whatcom Physical Therapy, our goal is to help you return your fingers to the highest possible level of function. We can get you started with physical therapy with a free screening. This tool is designed to help our team learn how your arthritis is affecting you, and the information we gather from it is used to build your therapy plan. This plan will be personalized to your symptoms, and it can be designed to use therapy methods such as:
- Therapeutic exercises
- Manual therapy
- SCENAR therapy
- Kinesio Taping^®
Don’t wait to start getting our help with your arthritis symptoms. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
November 7, 2019
These issues can feel like arthritis in the elbow
Rheumatoid arthritis is a common issue that affects the elbow, leading to symptoms like pain, swelling and joint stiffness. However, these symptoms can also be caused by other elbow issues. In some cases, you could even feel like you have arthritis in your elbow when you actually have a completely different elbow condition.
1. Tennis or golfer’s elbow
Repetitive elbow movements can cause parts of the elbow joint to wear out, and this is consistent with arthritis. However, these movements can also cause tennis or golfer’s elbow, and these conditions can make it feel like you have arthritis in the elbow in question.

Tennis and golfer’s elbow involve overstretched or torn tendons on the inside or outside of the elbow joint, respectively. These conditions are two common sports injuries that affect the elbow, but they can also be caused by repetitive motions you do at work or at home, such as typing or weightlifting. When you have one of these injuries, common symptoms you’ll notice are elbow pain, stiffness in the joint and swelling. Since these symptoms are a match for those of arthritis, you might think you have arthritis if you actually have tennis or golfer’s elbow.
1. Bursitis in the elbow
Another condition that might feel like elbow arthritis is bursitis. Bursae are thin, fluid-filled sacs that provide cushioning between muscles and bones. When these sacs become irritated and inflamed, the condition is called bursitis. The elbow contains a bursa called the olecranon bursa, located at the bony tip of your elbow.

Repetitive motions and impacts on this part of your elbow can lead to elbow bursitis, and this condition closely mimics many of the symptoms of elbow arthritis. For example, elbow bursitis causes achy feelings and stiffness in the elbow joint, and the pain of this condition often gets worse with movement or pressure. Elbow bursitis can also cause the elbow to appear swollen. The combination of these symptoms may encourage your belief that you have elbow arthritis when you don’t.

Excel Sports & Physical Therapy can help confirm what is causing your elbow symptoms

It’s easy to feel like you have elbow arthritis when another issue is causing your symptoms. This is why we begin every patient’s treatment process with a free screening. These screenings allow our team to determine precisely what’s causing your symptoms. We can build you a more effective treatment plan for your elbow issue, and we’ll pick the most helpful therapy methods for your needs, such as:
Take a positive step toward treating your elbow issue. Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.
November 4, 2019