What We Treat

Tennis & Golf Elbow treatment in North Liberty.

A tendon at the elbow is where you feel it. A wrist, a shoulder blade, and months of load are usually why. One cause-first evaluation sorts out which part of that chain is driving it.

Tennis elbow Golfer’s elbow Grip pain Book My Free Consult

Sound Familiar?

Does this sound like you?

  • Your grip gives out on a jar lid
  • Lifting a full coffee cup with that arm is a decision now
  • There is one sore point you can find with a single fingertip
  • The backhand, or the shot out of the rough, is the one that reminds you
  • Shaking somebody’s hand makes you brace first
  • You wore a strap, rested it, and the ache just moved around

Two or more? Then it’s time to find out what keeps loading that tendon.

Why It Happens

A tendon doesn’t fail on its own.

The tendon on the outside or the inside of your elbow is the part that got irritated. It is rarely where the story starts. A wrist and forearm without the mobility to absorb load. A shoulder blade that stopped stabilizing, so the forearm works harder on every swing. Grip strength that fell behind what you keep asking of it. And a tendon that never got real recovery between the days you loaded it hardest.

Straps and rest quiet it down. They don’t change the load that irritated it, which is why the ache returns on your first good week. If you already did physical therapy for this and it faded, that is usually the reason. Natalie Johnston, MPT, has 24 years and a fellowship in pain sciences, and the evaluation comes before the exercise. You have already read everything, and already tried the thing that didn’t work. That is exactly the kind of patient who does well here. Left loaded the same way, a tendon gets more sensitive, not less.

A therapist’s hands working on the upper arm and shoulder of a seated patient

The Honest Truth

Waiting doesn’t make it wait on you.

If you keep waiting

  • The rest of your body starts compensating, and the compensations start hurting too
  • Flare-ups get closer together, and take longer to settle each time
  • You move less to avoid the pain, which weakens the exact things that were protecting you

If you start this week

  • Visit one is a cause-first evaluation, and you leave knowing what we found
  • Hands-on treatment starts the same day, not after a second appointment
  • You get a plan with an endpoint: a real one, not an open tab of visits

Nobody regrets starting too early. Plenty of people tell us they wish they had come in sooner.

How We Fix It

The same four phases. Built for your elbow.

Every plan has an endpoint. Here’s what the four phases look like for an irritated tendon at the elbow.

Weeks 1–2

Pain

Quiet the tendon.

Hands-on manual therapy and, where it fits, dry needling settle the forearm and the tissue around it, starting your first visit.

Weeks 2–6

Prime

Free the wrist and the shoulder.

Mobility work restores what the forearm has been compensating for, above and below the elbow.

Weeks 6–10

Perform

Load it on purpose.

Tendons get strong by being loaded, so grip and forearm work is progressed deliberately toward your real swing or your real job.

Weeks 10+

Prevent

Change what caused it.

Grip size, technique, and how you space out your hard days get sorted, and you leave knowing how to load that arm. That’s the endpoint.

Natalie is wonderful. She is so patient, explains everything she is doing and works with your schedule to get treatments in. She listened to my concerns and tailored the treatments to start where my pain tolerance was and then increased them as I healed. I would 1000% recommend her!

Shared by Theresa H. · On how the care itself works, start where the pain is and build from there

Before: your grip gives out on a jar lid

After: you carry the groceries in one trip and think nothing of it

Tennis & Golf Elbow All four phases

Related Conditions

Pain rarely stays in one place.

Compensation patterns show up next door. Here’s what else we treat.

1

Shoulder Pain

The reach into the back seat you have started doing with the other arm.

Learn More 2

Neck Pain

The headache that starts at the base of your skull and takes the afternoon.

Learn More 3

Nerve Pain

Pins and needles down the forearm that follow a line, not an area.

Learn More

Questions, Answered

What people ask before booking for elbow pain.

Usually not, and it’s rarely the first step. Tendon changes show up on images of arms that feel completely fine, so a scan doesn’t name what is overloading yours. We start with a cause-first evaluation, one-on-one with a licensed physical therapist, and we test the wrist, the forearm, and the shoulder too. If imaging turns out to be genuinely necessary, we’ll help you get it.

Usually not entirely. Tendons get healthier under load and weaker without it, which is why complete rest can feel great for two weeks and then fail on the first hard day. The question is how much load, how often, and in which positions. A licensed physical therapist sets that at your evaluation and builds it up with you, one-on-one, every visit.

A full plan for tennis and golf elbow runs through all four phases, Pain, Prime, Perform, and Prevent. Tendons respond on their own timeline, so we won’t guess at a number before we’ve evaluated you. What you get either way is a plan with an endpoint. You’ll always know which phase you’re in and what’s left, instead of an open-ended string of appointments.

Book Your Visit

Ready when you are.

Request a time and a real person calls you back. No phone tree. No ‘someone will reach out.’ Just a plan.

  • Hours Mon-Fri: 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
  • (319) 382-2743 Prefer to talk now? Call us.
  • No referral needed in Iowa

4.9 · 79 Google reviews

Typical response: under 2 business hours

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So we know who to look for when you walk in.

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Care this good, this close.

Motion Matters Physical Therapy and Wellness

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