RESISTIVE TENNIS

ELBOW TEST

(Cozen's Test)

​• ​​Test positioning

​The client is seated with the arm being tested resting on a table.

The therapist is seated opposite the client and stabilizes the involved elbow with one hand and places the palm of the other hand on the dorsal aspect of the client's hand just distal to the proximal interphalangeal joint of the third digit.

​• Action

​The client extends the third digit against the therapist's resistance.

​• Positive finding

​A reporting of pain along the lateral epicondyle region of the humerus or objective muscle weakness as a result of complaints of discomfort may indicate lateral epicondylitis.

​• Special considerations & comments

​​Clinicians have reported differentiating between the extensor carpi radialis longus (resistance over the second metacarpal) and the extensor carpi radialis brevis (resistance over the third metacarpal).

Though this may be possible, often both may present with a positive finding and the area of local palpable tenderness is at or near the lateral epicondyle.

The Resistive Tennis Elbow Test, also known as Cozen's Test, was developed by Dr. Fritz Cozen.

His pioneering work on lateral epicondylitis has been instrumental in creating and standardizing this assessment, with contributions from Dr. James Cyriax.