Elbow Pain: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments

Medically Reviewed by Zilpah Sheikh, MD on May 23, 2024
Written by Matt McMillen, William C. Shiel Jr., FACR, MD, FACP
12 min read

Your elbow lets you throw, lift, swing, and hug, for starters. You can do all this because it’s not a simple joint. And that means there are a lot of ways things can go wrong.

Your elbow’s a joint formed where three bones come together -- your upper arm bone, called the humerus, and the ulna and the radius, the two bones that make up your forearm.

Each bone has cartilage on the end, which helps them slide against each other and absorb shocks. They’re latched into place with tough tissues called ligaments. And your tendons connect your bones to muscles to allow you to move your arm in different ways.

If anything happens to any of these parts, not to mention the nerves and blood vessels around them, it can cause you pain.

The most obvious symptom of elbow pain is pain. It hurts. But exactly how it hurts, as well as other types of discomfort that can come with it, depends on what caused your elbow pain. The following are possible symptoms of elbow pain:

  • Pain in one or both elbows
  • Pain on the inside or the outside of an elbow
  • Pain that feels like it’s deep inside the elbow joint
  • Sharp pain
  • Dull pain
  • Tingling or numbness in your arm or hand
  • Stiffness
  • Swelling
  • Reduced grip strength
  • Inability to move your elbow or limited range of motion
  • Bruising

Many different things can cause elbow pain, from arthritis to overuse to injury such as a fracture. Both the type and severity of the pain you feel depend on what’s happened to your elbow. Treatment also will depend on the cause.

The following are common causes of elbow pain:

Tendinitis

This is inflammation of the tendons, the tissue that connects your muscles to your bones. A common cause: overuse. Tennis elbow, for example, can cause this as a result of repetitive motions like swinging or twisting your lower arm.

Arthritis

Different types of arthritis affect your elbow joint in painful ways. In addition to pain, your elbow may become stiff and lose range of motion. You can also have swelling and inflammation.

Bursitis

You have small, fluid-filled sacs at the tip of each of your elbows. They provide cushioning between your skin and bone. These can become inflamed, causing pain, swelling, and redness. The area may feel warm when you touch it.

Injuries

There are numerous ways you can injure your elbow and cause pain, including fractures, sprains, strains, dislocation, and torn tendons.

Some injuries, hopefully, are one-time events, like when you fall or get hit hard while playing a sport.

Dislocated elbow. When one of the bones that forms the elbow gets knocked out of place, you have a dislocated elbow. One of the more common causes is when you put your hand out to catch yourself during a fall. It can also happen to toddlers when you swing them by their forearms -- that’s called nursemaid’s elbow. If you think you or your child has a dislocated elbow, call your doctor right away.

Fractured elbow. If one of your arm bones breaks at the elbow, you have a fracture. Usually, this happens with a sudden blow, as you might get in a contact sport or a car accident. And don’t be fooled if you can still move your elbow afterward. If you’re in pain and it doesn’t look right, it could be broken. You'll need medical attention.

Strains and sprains. File these under, “Oof, I think I pushed it a little too far.” When muscles get stretched or torn, it’s called a strain. When it’s ligaments, it’s a sprain.

You can get a strain when you put too much pressure on your elbow muscles, like when you lift heavy objects or overdo it with sports.

Elbow sprains are common in athletes who throw, use racquets, or play contact sports.

Both are treated with rest, ice and -- once the pain is gone -- stretching and strength exercises.

Can you get elbow pain from lifting weights?

Yes. The medical term is triceps tendinitis, but you may hear it referred to as weightlifter’s elbow. It causes painful inflammation of the tendon that connects your triceps muscle, located on the back of your upper arm, to your elbow joint. In addition to pain, your elbow may feel tight when you try to bend or straighten it and your grip strength may weaken.

You can develop weightlifter’s elbow doing exercises like pushups and bench presses by:

  • Doing too many repetitions
  • Lifting too much weight
  • Lifting weight improperly
  • Allowing yourself too little time to recover between workouts

Other injuries occur over time, as you repeat certain actions and put wear and tear on your elbow. You can injure yourself playing sports or in any number of work settings, from a factory to an office.

Bursitis

Often caused by repeating the same motion over and over, you can also get bursitis from an accident or infection. Bursa are small sacs with fluid in them. You have them in your joints to help cushion your bones, tendons, and muscles. They also help skin slide over bone. But they can get swollen and cause you pain. Often, bursitis is simply treated with pain medicine and starts to get better within a few weeks.

Tennis elbow and golfer’s elbow

These are both types of tendinopathy or tendinosis, which means you have damage in the tendons around your elbow from overuse. Despite the names, the injuries aren’t limited to golfers or tennis players. You’re just more likely to get them based on the arm motions used in those sports. The main difference between the two is that tennis elbow affects the outside of your elbow, while golfer’s elbow causes inner elbow pain.

Trapped nerves

You might be familiar with carpal tunnel syndrome, where a nerve that passes through your wrist gets squeezed and causes some wrist and arm issues. You can have similar problems in your elbow.

If you have cubital tunnel syndrome, one of the main nerves in your arm (the ulnar nerve) gets squeezed as it runs along the inside of your elbow and passes through tissue called the cubital tunnel. You may have burning or numbness in your hand, arm, and fingers.

If you have radial tunnel syndrome, you have a similar issue with the radial nerve as it passes through the radial tunnel near the outside of your elbow. You may have burning or numbness on your outside forearm and elbow.

Stress fractures

With a stress fracture, you have a small crack in one of your arm bones, usually from overuse. They’re more common in the lower legs and feet, but athletes who throw a lot, such as baseball pitchers, can get them in the elbow, too. The pain is usually worse when throwing.

Ulnar collateral ligament injury of the elbow

Your ulnar collateral ligament, located on the inner side of your elbow, helps keep your elbow joint stable when you throw something or perform some other type of overhead movement of your arm. While this injury can be caused by trauma, such as a fall, it most often results from repetitive movements like pitching a baseball. The symptoms include:

  • Clumsy or weak hand grip
  • Pain and stiffness in your elbow
  • Numbness or tingling in your pinky and ring fingers
  • Bruising and swelling
  • Reduced function and stability in your elbow and arm

Several diseases can also cause elbow pain, though it’s usually not the main symptom.

Arthritis: Many types of arthritis can affect your elbow.

  • Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common type of arthritis in the elbow. An autoimmune disease, it causes your immune system to attack your body’s healthy tissue. The result: swelling and pain in your joints, along with stiffness, reduced function, and, potentially, deformity.
  • Osteoarthritis develops when your elbow cartilage breaks down. This happens both with use and as you get older. As you lose cartilage, your elbow bones rub together and cause pain and stiffness, as well as difficulty moving your elbow.
  • Psoriatic arthritis typically develops in people with psoriasis, an autoimmune skin condition. It causes pain, swelling, stiffness, and inflammation in your joints, including your elbows.
  • Juvenile arthritis is an autoimmune disease that affects young people. Like other forms of arthritis, it impacts the joints, causing pain and swelling.
  • Reactive arthritis occurs following an infection in your digestive tract, your urinary tract, or your genitals. It can cause joint pain and swelling, but its symptoms typically clear up within weeks or months of treating the infection. However, symptoms sometimes become chronic, meaning they don’t go away.
  • Gout is a type of arthritis that develops when uric acid, a waste product, builds up as crystals in your tissues rather than being filtered by your kidneys and flushed out of your system when you pee. If the buildup happens in your elbow, it can be very painful. It also causes swelling and a shiny redness on the skin around your elbows.
  • Lyme arthritis is a complication of the tick-borne illness Lyme disease when left untreated. It causes joint pain and swelling, and the affected joint may feel warm to the touch. Most often, it affects the knees, but it can target your elbows.

Osteochondritis dissecans: Children and teenagers mostly get this condition, in which lack of blood flow causes a piece of bone to separate from the affected area. Experts don’t know what causes it, but it may be due to repetitive injuries or stress on the joint. It causes pain and swelling. In time, it may cause your elbow to lock up or catch.

Lupus: This is another illness that causes your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body, including your joints and organs. It more commonly affects your hands and feet, but it can cause problems in your elbow.

When you see your doctor, the exam will start with questions about the type of pain you have to narrow down the potential causes. These questions may include:

  • Does just one elbow hurt, or is the pain both elbows?
  • Have you had any recent injuries to your elbow?
  • Where in your elbow do you feel pain? The inner part or the outer part?
  • Did the pain develop gradually or suddenly?
  • Does it hurt constantly or does the pain come and go?
  • Does anything you do make it feel better or worse?

Once you have answered those questions, your doctor will decide which tests may help determine the cause. Such tests include:

  • X-rays of your elbow
  • Ultrasound of your elbow, a test which uses soundwaves to create pictures of the joint
  • Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), a test that uses magnets and radio waves to create images of your elbow joint
  • A nerve conduction study, which uses mild electrical shocks to stimulate your nerves and see how they respond

How your elbow pain will be treated depends on its cause. If it hurts because you overdid it at the gym, on the playground, or during some activity calling for repetitive moments, your recovery may require no more than a few days of rest combined with over-the-counter pain medication. However, serious injuries will need more involved, longer-term treatment. Rarely, elbow pain requires surgery.

Elbow pain medications

OTC pain medications may be all you need to relieve your pain as your elbow gets better. These include:

  • Acetaminophen
  • Aspirin
  • Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen and naproxen

If these medications do not adequately control your pain, your doctor may prescribe a stronger painkiller. Corticosteroid injections also are an option. These can provide several weeks of pain relief.

Physical therapy

You may need to do special exercises to help strengthen your elbow, reduce inflammation, and restore lost range of motion and flexibility. Your doctor can prescribe physical therapy, which will provide you with an individually tailored exercise program.

Easy elbow pain exercises

Exercise can ease some types of elbow pain. Talk to your doctor or physical therapist (PT) about the right types of exercises for you and how to do them properly. Here are a few examples of the types of exercises your doctor or PT may give you for repetitive movement injuries like tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow:

  • Wrist extension stretch, in which you straighten your arm and gently pull your hand toward you to stretch the inside of your forearm.
  • Wrist flexion stretch, in which you straighten your arm, with your palm and fingers pointing down, and then gently pull your hand toward you to stretch the outside of your forearm.
  • Wrist extension strengthening, in which you rest your forearm on a table, palm down, and bend your wrist upwards as much as you can. You’ll do this with your arm in different positions, eventually adding light weights to help you build strength.
  • Wrist flexion strengthening, in which you rest your forearm on a table, palm up, and bend your wrist up as much as you can. You’ll do this with your arm in different positions, eventually adding light weights to help you build strength.
  • Forearm supination and pronation strengthening, in which you rest your forearm on a table with your palm facing to one side before turning your palm until faces down then returning to the starting position. You’ll do this with your arm in different positions, eventually adding light weights to help you build strength.

Other elbow pain home remedies

You may be able to ease your pain with some simple home remedies. However, it’s important that you know the cause of your pain to be sure it gets the most effective treatment. For a common ailment like tennis elbow, caused by repetitive motions that put stress on your elbow, the following may help your elbow feel better:

  • Rest your elbow. You may simply need to take a few days off from the activity that caused your pain. You should limit how much you use your elbow during this time.
  • Ice your elbow. Use an ice pack or cold compress for 15 to 20 minutes at various times throughout the day. Wrap them in a cloth or towel to keep them from direct contact with your skin.
  • Wear a compression bandage on your elbow. Ask your doctor to show you how to properly wrap your elbow with a bandage.
  • Keep your elbow elevated above your heart.
  • Wear a wrist and elbow brace to aid the healing process. Your doctor can recommend the right type for you.

You can’t prevent all elbow pain. Sometimes, it’s caused by bad luck, such as an accident or the development of a disease like rheumatoid arthritis, or it can result from normal wear and tear as you age. But you can lower your risk of certain types of elbow, like tennis elbow and other repetitive motion injuries, by doing the following:

  • Warming up thoroughly before physical activities, like playing sports or working out in the gym
  • Practicing safe and proper technique when doing things that stress your elbow, such as lifting weights
  • Cooling down thoroughly after you exercise
  • Taking time to rest and fully recover between activities

Talk to your doctor or physical therapist about the right warm up, exercise, cool down, and rest routines for you.

If you think you’ve fractured or dislocated your elbow -- it hurts and doesn’t look right -- go to the emergency room.

Call your doctor if you have:

  • Elbow pain that doesn’t go away with rest and ice, or pain that doesn’t go away even when you’re not using your arm
  • Intense pain, swelling, and bruising around your elbow
  • Pain, swelling, or redness that gets worse, especially if you have a fever, too
  • Problems using your elbow, such as difficulty bending your arm

Elbow pain has a lot of possible causes. And the cause will help your doctor determine how to treat it. The best thing to do if you have elbow pain that’s severe, limits your movement, persists for more than 2 weeks, or comes with other symptoms like tingling, numbness, and fever: See your doctor and get diagnosed. 

What causes elbow pain without an injury?

Lots of things. Many different types of arthritis, for example, can cause elbow pain. Infections are another possible cause.

What does elbow tendinitis feel like?

In addition to elbow pain -- usually on the outside of your elbow -- your elbow may feel stiff and, depending on the cause, your grip may feel weaker than normal. When you move your elbow, the pain may be worse, and you may feel a cracking or popping sensation.

How do I know if my elbow pain is serious?

Most elbow pain goes away on its own, but your elbow is more likely to be serious if you have severe pain, you can’t move, bend, or straighten your elbow, you have numbness, tingling or weakness in your hand or arm, you have a fever, or your pain does not get better after 2 weeks.

What causes pain in the elbow when straightening my arm?

You may experience pain when you straighten your arm if you have osteoarthritis in your elbow. Injuries to your elbow also can make it painful to straighten your arm.

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