Osteoarthritis experiences

[Matti Paalanen]

Hi everybody!

Age doesn't come alone - I'm getting closer to 40s and I was diagnosed with still relatively minor osteoarthritis wear and tear trouble in my hip joint which I have to cope with.

Now I am not here trying to find medical analysis, that is not the thing you look for on the internet but I am interested in hearing of possible experiences regarding osteoarthritis and how you have managed with it. Also any possible success stories and things that have helped you. Even miracle stories would be at least interesting to hear

So far I've understood that eventual replacement of the hip itself is the most extreme possibility and there are no ways to "turn back" the wear and tear, except there seems to be some new form of stem cell therapy available at a high price that may or may not give some more lenient solutions.

Anyways, anything you want to share would be appreciated!

 

[Nick Murray]

Terve Matti!

(sorry, that's all the Finnish I remember...apart from korvapuusti :))

I had a small amount of osteoarthritis in my right shoulder, right in the middle of the socket. There was a lot of other damage too, and the surgeon had to shift the end of my humerus (upper arm bone) up a little so it wouldn't rub on the osteoarthritic area.

Usually, this doesn't bother me, but after some of the overhead work in Handstand 1 my right shoulder gets a little sore.

I manage this by keeping the muscles around the shoulder as stretched as possible, and also doing shoulder dislocates with and without weight. This has helped the shoulder muscles work in all extremes of range (I mean with shoulder in front of me, behind me, overhead) and as a result none of these positions feel "threatening" to the shoulder- the practical result is that none of the muscles pull the shoulder back into the "arthritic" position.

I have found that traction helps as well: I hold onto a bar, lean backwards and turn my shoulder left/right/up/down, all with my bodyweight pulling on the arm. This is harder to do with a hip, although you could loop a strong rubber band around your foot, tie the band around something heavy, and sit on the floor as far away as the band will let you, then turn your body left/right/etc with the band pulling on your leg. (does this make sense??)

So keeping your hip strong and flexible, the focus of GST, seems like it would help. At some point the hip might be too irritable to tolerate stress and it might need replacing, but hopefully that is not in your future.

[Matti Paalanen]

Thank you for your experiences!

Luckily I have also managed to make the situation a bit better. I think the following exercises have especially helped:

Natural leg extensions - In the beginning I noticed that I definitely had some imbalances when it comes to my knees and tendons / muscles that connect to hips. This movement has given more mobility and stability while balancing out the problems.

Swivel Hips - likewise this has given wider range of motion and "greased" the joints

Natural Hamstring Curls - other side of the leg extension coin. These two together tend to make the whole hip area pretty bullet proof. 

"Knee and shin against the wall stretch" for the frontal thigh has been also important part of balance and mobility.

Crossing my fingers that these manage to alleviate the problems so that I can once again live painless life.