After falling hard on my straight arm, I can't straighten the elbow

by Randy

During a wrestling match, I was lifted up and fell hard on the mat, with most of the other guy's weight on me. I landed most of the weight on my left arm, which was locked out straight. I could feel pain right away, and knew something was wrong with my arm, mainly in my elbow.

My inner elbow was swollen for about 2 weeks, and I havent been able to straighten it out or bend it all the way since the day of the injury. My range of motion with my elbow has grown to being fine all the way up to entirely straight and bent as far as it goes. Anywhere in this range of motion, my elbow feels fine; I have held 50 pounds with it, and had no problem, as long as I didnt try to straighten my arm or bend it to where my bicep was touching my forearm.

I got an X-ray, and the doctor said the bone was fine, just the tissue and stuff around it was hurt, and would heal soon. But, I havent really been seeing any improvement lately, 4 or 5 weeks after the injury.

Before my injury, I was doing intense workouts, both heavy weights and lots of calisthenics, and I noticed an occasional small ache in my left elbow, usually when I was doing homework at my desk, making me worried I was getting tennis elbow or something, though it never got bad. I don't know if that has anything to do with my injury now, but maybe it contributed to my lasting injury.

Anyways, do you have any way to get my arm to be able to straighten out and bend all the way? As I said, I am perfectly fine moving weights as long as I keep it within my range of motion with my elbow. Thanks!



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Joshua Answers:

Hi Randy.

I'm unclear, it looks like you said both that you do and don't have full range of motion with the elbow now.

Tendon injury is FAR different from joint injury.

Read this thread - Help Identifying Inner Elbow Pain Can't Straighten Arm - it talks mostly about the soft tissue side of things, and will be educational.



While you may have some Tendonitis dynamic at play due to being athletic etc, the description of the impact to the straight elbow is good information.

See: What Is Tendonitis

I would adjust the doctor's words to say 'the tissue -in- it' are hurt. Inside the joint. The tissue around the joint is unhappy too, of course, but that's all part of the Pain Causing Dynamic.

If you have bruised/inflamed the joint/joint lining of the elbow, that's a very specific animal. Quick results aren't to be expected, though you can do some specific things to speed the recovery up. Bone bruises are painful and slow to go away, even though there's not necessarily any 'injury' per see. They're just slow and painful.

Please clarify for me:

1. what is your current range of motion with the elbow.

2. Pain anywhere in the range?

3. Pain anywhere in the range with extra weight added.

4. Can you do a full push up? If not, what exactly is the experience consist of?

5. You were having elbow pain before the event. More details of how, where exactly, etc.

6. You said homework. Are you high school, college, or old man back to school and sports?

7. The more details, the better.


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Please reply using the comment link below. Do not submit a new submission to answer/reply, it's too hard for me to find where it's supposed to go.

And, comments have a 3,000 character limit so you may have to comment twice.
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Joshua Tucker, B.A., C.M.T.
The Tendonitis Expert
www.TendonitisExpert.com
















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Comments for
After falling hard on my straight arm, I can't straighten the elbow

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Apr 25, 2012
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starstarstarstarstar 		I have not been able to fully straighten my elbow for a while now and do not know why.
by: Davis

My name is Davis. I play baseball virtually year round. This fall after a game I tried to throw again for the second game and felt a good amount of pain from my elbow.

It does not hurt to fully extend or bend it. I have been working out as well as practicing every week day for a few months and have had minor pain sometimes in my elbow but nothing huge.

Recently I have noticed that I cannot extend my right arm fully to lock the joint in place like I can with my left arm. My coach does not know why I cannot straighten my arm but doesn't see it as a big deal. I would still like to know why this has happened and if I can fix it. If you can respond with anything it would be greatly appreciated


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Joshua Comments:

Hi Davis.

Randy's question and my response is relevant to you so I put this here (and for Randy's benefit too).

Randy had joint -compression-. You have -DEcompression-. Meaning, as your arm whips around, the joint gets pulled apart and ligaments and muscles/tendons get pulled apart.

This causes irritation of a different kind, but results in the same limitation of elbow range of motion.

Your coach SHOULD think it's a big deal...if he wants you to survive as somebody with the ability to throw a baseball.

Ultimately, you can't straighten your elbow because the muscle and connective tissue are locked tight and won't give you the range of motion. There are other factors involved, of course.

Read Randy's question. Read Help Identifying Inner Elbow Pain Can't Straighten Arm.
Apr 29, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Help straightening my arm
by: Davis true

Thanks but then how can I work my arm to be able to straighten it again?


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Joshua Comments:

Read the page I pointed you to.
Apr 30, 2012
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Cannot find any hot-spot
by: Anonymous

I read what I should do but I cannot find any pea sized or smaller bump on my arm anywhere in my bicep or tricep. Not sure where else to look or how else to make this go away.


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Joshua Comments:

There's no rule that there has to be a bump or lump in the muscle. But I guarantee you there's tight spots, and I imagine that there's tender spots.

On the off chance that you're soft as butter, then , pain is from nutritional and inflammatory issues.
Jan 31, 2013
Rating
starstarstarstarstar 		Fell on straight arm during a volleyball game
by: Jessica

Recently during a volleyball game I fell on my arm which was out straight. Now I can't fully extend or flex my arm and it is painful. I haven't noticed swelling. Normally my elbows hyper-extend, and I can't get anywhere near that range of motion now. I have a hard time flexing it much past 90 degrees.

When I am not trying to "push it", my arm doesn't hurt at all. Also, I can't lift, or twist things with that had without pain. Immediately after the injury I felt a tingling numbness spread through my arm. What might be happening here? Thank you!


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Joshua Comments

Hi Jessica.

-Probably- it's a scenario where you jammed your elbow and shoulder, and the elbow joint has swelling that is limiting range of motion.

Or it's out of alignment and can't swing through it's normal groove. I don't normally suggest chiropractic, but if you can find somebody knowledgeable with elbows it might be worth a visit. Having said, if it's in alignment but the bones/joint lining etc has some swelling going on, chiropractic isn't directly going to help that.

Tell me more about the tingling etc. That's likely a function of muscles having locked down tight and not let go yet, guarding and protecting the 'hurt' structures.

If you jammed your shoulder, that affected your neck too, so it's possible the neck/shoulder is contributing to that tingling. Again, not a big fan of chiropracty, but it's great for what it's great for. Might be worth it to un-jam anything that got knocked out of whack from the impact.

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