Slow Wrist Extension

1. 1Rest the forearm on a table, palm down, hand over the edge, holding a light weight or a tin.
2. 2Use your other hand to lift the weighted hand up.
3. 3Let go, and lower it back down over three slow seconds using only that hand.
4. 4Help it back up again each time.

Easier

Use no weight at all, lowering just the weight of your own hand over three seconds.

Harder

Once 15 slow lowerings feel easy and your elbow is no worse the next day, move up to a slightly heavier weight, such as a 500 ml bottle of water.

Commonly used for:

Where it fits in the step-by-step plans on our condition pages.

• Tennis elbowWeek 2–8

• Rebuilds tendon capacity at the outside of the elbow
• The best-evidenced loading approach for tennis elbow
• Restores pain-free grip

• Start with something lighter than feels necessary — a 400g tin is plenty.
• Mild ache during the exercise is expected; sharp pain is not.

• !Lifting with the sore side instead of helping it up.
• !Dropping the weight instead of lowering it.