Elbow Zone (Zone 60): Foot Reflexology for Elbow Pain

Where the Elbow Zone Sits

Look at the outer edge of your foot, the side furthest from your other foot. Start at the little toe and slide a fingertip back along the edge toward the heel. About halfway along, your finger will ride up onto a firm, rounded bump that stands out from the side of the foot. On most people you can see it as well as feel it, a small knob low down on the outer edge. In foot reflexology, that bump and the tissue around it make up the elbow zone.

The bump is the back end of the long bone behind the little toe (the base of the fifth metatarsal). Right behind it, that bone meets a squarer bone in the middle of the outer foot (the cuboid), and the joint between them is where the foot flexes a little as you walk. The bump sticks out sideways, which is why it is so easy to find. It is also why it often takes a knock against a bed leg or a door frame.

Several things anchor on or near the bump. A strong tendon comes down the outside of the lower leg, passes behind the outer ankle bone and fastens onto the bump itself (the short fibular tendon). It helps steady the ankle and turn the sole outward. A smaller tendon on the top of the foot attaches close by. Along the bottom of the bump runs the front part of the muscle that pulls the little toe outward, which began back at the heel.

The skin over the bump is supplied by the sural nerve. It comes down the back of the calf, curves behind the outer ankle bone and runs forward along this edge, passing close to the bump on its way to the little toe. Pressing right over the nerve can send a tingle along the edge. That is a sign to move your thumb a little, not to press harder.

The bump also matters for safety. When people roll their ankle inward, the tendon on the bump can pull hard enough to crack a small piece of bone. The bump then stays sore to touch for weeks. That is why we ask you to leave it alone after a recent twisted ankle.

Why This Area

Foot reflexology reads the two feet as a map of a person. The toes are the head, the inner edges are the spine, and the outer edges are the outside of the body. On that map the shoulder sits at the knuckle of the little toe, the arm runs back along the outer edge, and the elbow sits on the bump where the arm strip ends.

Please read the next part plainly. This is a map, not anatomy. Nothing connects the bump on your foot to your elbow. Practitioners use it because it is a set of correspondences they have found useful, and that is the only claim we make for it.

The Vietnamese manual we follow lists this zone for injury to the elbow joint and for an elbow that aches and tires. Its author adds his own experience. He has worked with elbows that ached and would not move fully, and he writes that a recent elbow ache sometimes eased after very few sessions. We pass that on as one practitioner's observation, not as a promise. An elbow that has ached for a year is a different matter from one that has ached for a week.

Where This Map Comes From

Foot reflexology is a modern system, and the honest place to start is there. The classical Chinese medical texts, which give us the hand points on our other pages, do not contain a map of the body on the foot. Reflex zones like this one were drawn in the twentieth century, and nobody should tell you they are thousands of years old.

The first step came in 1917, when William Fitzgerald, an American ear, nose and throat doctor, and Edwin Bowers published Zone Therapy. Fitzgerald divided the body lengthways into ten zones, five on each side, ending in the ten fingers and the ten toes. He claimed that pressure in one part of a zone could dull sensation elsewhere in it. He was not drawing joints or organs on the foot. His zones were long strips, nothing more.

That changed in the 1930s, when Eunice Ingham, an American therapist, began working on the feet alone. She pressed many feet, noted where people were tender, and gradually drew a full chart of the body on them. Her charts placed the head in the toes and the limbs along the outer edges, and later charts kept that layout. Where exactly each joint goes along the edge has never been fully settled. Some charts put the elbow on this bump. Others put it a little further back, or spread the whole arm along the edge without marking the elbow at all.

From the 1980s onward, foot reflexology spread widely through Taiwan, mainland China and Vietnam. There it was organised into numbered zones with set borders, so that a learner could find each one by a clear landmark. The bump on the outer edge is one of the best landmarks on the foot, and the system set out by Gu Peide and Zhu Zuocai places the elbow there. The Vietnamese manual by Nguyen Thanh Nhan, published in Hanoi in 2020, follows that system, and we use its numbering.

All of this is a working tradition. It was built by people who press feet and write down what they see. It has not been tested the way a medicine is tested, and we would rather you knew that before you start.

Zones That Work With the Elbow Zone

The strip along the outer edge in front of the bump. From the knuckle at the base of the little toe back to the bump, the outer edge is mapped to the arm. Walk it first, then finish on the elbow. See the arm zone.

The knuckle at the base of the little toe. The firm knuckle where the little toe joins the foot is mapped to the shoulder joint. When the ache runs from the shoulder down to the elbow, start there and work back. See the shoulder zone.

How to Press the Elbow Zone

Getting Into Position

Sit in a firm chair with your back supported. Lift one foot and rest the ankle across the opposite knee so the outer edge turns up toward you. If your hip will not open that far, rest the foot on a footstool in front of you and lean forward a little. Take off your sock.

If bending is hard, sit with the foot on the floor and tip it gently onto its outer edge over a tennis ball, finding the bump and resting there. Keep your weight light. This is a substitute, not the main method.

How to Find It

Put your fingertip on the outer side of the little toe and draw it back along the outer edge. You will pass the knuckle at the base of the toe, then a long, firm ridge. About halfway to the heel, your fingertip will meet a hard, rounded bump that stands out from the side of the foot. That is the place.

Now find its edges. Trace a small circle around the bump with your fingertip: its front, where it rises from the edge; its lower side, toward the sole; and its back, where it dips toward the middle of the foot. Those edges are where you will press. Most people find one of them more tender than the others. That tender edge is your starting point.

How to Press It

Use a rounded-tip pressing tool, or the tip of your thumb with the nail cut short. Wrap your fingers over the top of the foot so your thumb has something to press against. Place the thumb on the soft tissue at the front of the bump and press in gently toward the middle of the foot. Hold, then move to the lower side, then to the back.

Two rhythms are used. The circle: sink in over two or three seconds, rub small circles on the sharp point while you breathe out slowly, ease off over another two, then rest for a breath. Or small circles at the same depth, about the size of a pea. Stay off the very top of the bump.

How Much Pressure

Gentle at first, then a little more. Always end by easing off slowly. Because the bump is bone with little padding, it needs less pressure than the sole. You want a sharp, pinpoint tenderness, the kind you could keep talking through.

If you feel a tingle running along the edge toward the toes, you are on the nerve. Move your thumb a few millimetres and lighten your touch. If you are holding your breath, back off.

How Long

Hold or circle for five slow breaths, rest for one, and repeat three times. That is about a minute on each foot. Then do the other foot, even if only one elbow aches. Once or twice a day is enough.

When to Do It

Use it when the elbow has been working: after gardening, carrying, a long session with a screwdriver, or an afternoon of knitting. Do it soon after you sit down rather than the next day. Wait an hour after a meal, and drink a glass of warm water when you finish.

What This Won't Do

It will not mend a damaged tendon at the elbow, and it will not undo the strain of years of gripping. Anyone promising that is selling something. What people describe is smaller. The elbow feels less sore after a session. Turning a door handle or lifting a kettle is a little less of an effort. Some notice a change within days, some after a couple of weeks, and some never. We say so because it is true.

It does nothing about the cause. An elbow that hurt after a fall, or looks out of shape, needs an X-ray. See a doctor if the elbow is hot, red or swollen, if it locks or will not straighten, or if you have a fever. Do the same if numbness or tingling runs into the ring and little fingers, or if your grip is getting weaker. If arm pain comes with pressure in the chest, breathlessness, sweating or nausea, call emergency services at once.

Pressure work sits alongside medical care. It does not replace physiotherapy, prescribed medicine or an appointment, and should never be the reason you put one off.

Safety First

Do not press on skin that is broken, cracked, infected or bruised, and stay off an outer edge that is swollen or hot. If you have twisted your ankle in the past few weeks, or the bump itself is sore to touch, leave this zone alone and have it checked. If the skin on your feet is damaged, use the matching place on your hand instead: the outer edge of the palm, halfway between the little finger and the wrist.

Wait an hour after eating, and drink a glass of warm water afterwards. If you have kidney disease, keep that drink to about 150 ml. If you have diabetes, keep a session under 10 minutes and check your feet. If the feeling in your feet is poor, ask your doctor first. With a serious heart condition, keep the whole session under one minute. This method is not suited to pregnancy, or to the days of your period. If you take blood-thinning medicine or bruise easily, halve the pressure.

Stop if the sensation turns electric or numb, or the pain stays after you lift off, and read the full safety guide before you carry on.

Questions People Ask

Where is the elbow reflex zone on the foot? It sits on the outer edge of the foot, on the hard, rounded bump about halfway between the little toe and the heel. That bump is the back end of the long bone behind the little toe. The zone covers the bump and the soft tissue around it, and it is found on both feet.

Should I press right on top of the bump? No. Press around it, on the softer tissue at its front, its lower side and its back. The top of the bump is bare bone, and the Vietnamese manual we follow warns against pressing hard on bone, because its thin covering bruises easily.

Can this help tennis elbow? Some people with an ache on the outside of the elbow from gripping use this zone alongside rest and the exercises a physiotherapist gives them, and say the elbow feels a little less sore. It does not replace those exercises, which are the main way that kind of elbow ache improves.

I twisted my ankle recently and this bump hurts. Should I press it? No. Leave it alone and have it checked. The bump is a common place for a small crack in the bone after a twisted ankle, and it can feel like a bruise. Pressing on it will not help and could make things worse.

Which foot do I use for a sore left elbow? Start with the left foot, then do the right so the two match. Both feet carry an elbow zone, because you have an elbow on each side. If both elbows ache, give each foot the same time.

How long before I know whether it is worth it? Give it a week or two of short, daily sessions. Some people notice the elbow feels easier after the first few days. Others notice little. If nothing has changed after two weeks, spend your time on the things that do help you.

Other Zones on the Foot

These zones sit close by on the same foot and are often worked in the same sitting.

This page shares general information about a traditional practice. It is not medical advice and does not replace what your doctor has given you. If you are pregnant, managing a health condition, or unsure whether this applies to you, check with your doctor first.

The whole inner edge of the foot, laid out on one page with photographs, is in The Foot Map — the free book. For every zone on the foot, see the full foot zone index.

Prefer to work on your hands? See the hand pressure point library — 15 points you can press with your thumb, sitting in a chair.

(Zone shown: 60 · Elbow zone · Khu phản xạ Khớp khuỷu tay.)