Hello Doctors! I’ve had a contracture in my elbow for 25 years now. I have osteochondritis dissecans. I’m not sure if the contracture is due to a loose body obstructing the joint, or if it’s just a side effect of having an osteochondral defect. Oddly enough, the condition completely went away about 10 years ago, for 2 years. During that time, I had a job where all I did was dig, with a shovel, in the ground, all day, every day. I was really happy that the condition had disappeared, and attributed it to the job, but there’s no way to tell if that’s true
The condition came back many years ago after suffering a hard blow to the elbow. It’s quite annoying to have such limited range of motion in the elbow. It’s sometimes difficult to groom, eat, and perform certain lifts such as OHP, and completely impossible to do any type of clean/oly lifts. I can front squat by crossing arms, but that’s it.
I’d like to know if you, or your colleagues, have any experience, knowledge, advice, for those who have joint contractures, on how to relieve them, or at least improve range of motion. I’ve been reading quite a bit on the subject, and it seems that there aren’t many options out there besides surgery for relieving a contracture. But I’m puzzled as to how mine was fully relieved for 2 years.
I have been lifting weights for 4 years now, and while I sometimes try to force the range of motion during certain lifts to see if the range of motion will improve, it has never helped.
Thank you for the great podcasts and reading material!