Gym workouts and frozen shoulder

Sorry - typo in above post - I meant Nov 2013.

Gerry

have you had an EMG (nerve testing) done?? the pain extending from your neck should and arm sounds similar to what I was having during my first frozen shoulder and we discovered through the nerve testing my nerves had been damaged during frozen shoulder manipulation. I'm hope thats not your case but just thought I would bring it up...

My left shoulder started 'freezing' 5 months ago when I could suddenly no longer wash my hair or dress easily with my left arm, started to have more and more pain in the shoulder joint radiating or suddenly appearing in upper arm, down towards hand, behind shoulder blade, into neck etc with extreme pain on some sudden movements or if I was knocked etc, trouble sleeping and being woken up to 20 times a night in face-wincing pain, confusion, bewilderment about what was happening to my body, visiting every kind of practitioner under the sun to try to find out what was causing this and how to fix it etc etc etc etc etc etc..... You know the story...... So anyway, after a few months and having to stop work because my other 'good' shoulder then got overworked and developed all sorts of pain and bursa problems, I was in tears at my physiotherapist appointment saying that I was missing my fitness and felt a desperate need to be able to move my muscles and my body, and we figured out a plan to exercise the rest of me without aggravating the shoulders. The short story is that she knew a good physical trainer and upon meeting him I booked in for 3 personal training sessions per week and began my 'recovery'. We did NO strength or flexibility work of any kind on my shoulders, but rather focused on legs, back, abs, and general strength and core strength as well as cardio. My understanding of health is that this would have helped to support my immune system, my muscle health, cardio-respiratory system, my mental and emotional wellbeing, and my overall general health and wellness. I felt pretty drained by the sessions, and basically rested in bed most of the rest of the time as I still had heaps of shoulder pain and wasn't sleeping well. But my body felt like it was on the right path and my doctor said that I was doing the right thing for my body. I have been doing this training for about 9 weeks now and I can say that about 10 days ago my traininer and I officially began gently including my arms and shoulders into my workouts. This is a day to day and minute to minute journey where some days I am stronger than others and sometimes I have had to pull back a bit from certain movements that don't feel right. But, I am steadily improving in my range of movement and in my strength in my frozen shoulder. Honestly this feels like a miracle as you would know having been on this journey before. I have less pain, I am now sleeping so much better, and I genuinely feel as if I am turning a corner. I want to explain that I could only hold my shoulder out about 10 inches from my side, on abduction, and could not lift it as hig as my shoulder out in front of me. I could not put it behind my back at all, and my rotation was way less than half. 9 weeks later, I have the typical deformity of the whole shoulder joint lifting or moving with motion as it is all glued stuck in there, BUT the surrounding areas are compensating with less pain and my range of motion is getting better. I don't feel it pulling quite so much into all of the surrounding tissues and it is resting better. Some days I still get aching pain but if I just rest and put a rolled up towel under my arm for a few hours it helps and I am not as debilitated for days on end. I am sleeping better which is giving me more energy and I am getting all over stronger and this is improving my posture. Now that we are working my arms and shoulders, I can feel my shoulder muscles starting to enjoy engaging and working as a coordinated team again instead of a drivelling mess of dysfunctional disjointed discombobulated weaklings that just can't move properly. I can touch my head and started drying my hair with two hands (gently!) for the first time in over 4months! What a thrill!!! This is all contributing to me using that arm more which is building the strength which helps the shoulder to stabilise and relax a bit more etc. everything feeds into a cycle of improvement, strengthening, energising and building up my whole health and now my shoulder is coming along for the ride. I cannot tell you how good it felt yesterday to feel myself enjoying a rowing machine, and although I still have a long way to go, I know that this strength training is key to my recovery. My shoulder did not like the stretching pathway... Stretches just seemed to aggravate things, and they are still aggravating things. My shoulder does not like stretching, but it does like strengthening, and so this has been my chosen focus. Listen to your body and feel out for yourself what kind of healing your shoulder needs, and if you feel that strength training would be good for you then I would encourage you to try it, be patient, find a good trainer or physiotherapist who will work with you and trust you to know what feels healing for your shoulder but who will encourage you to try and who knows how to build a whole rehab recovery program for you. Sorry to make this post so long, but I cannot emphasise enough how much the strengthening approach has helped me and I am hoping to make it through this AC journey in a shorter time and with better overall as well as better shoulder health at the end of it. Good luck and let us know how you go!! Hilary 

I absolutely understand about the limited resources. And I agree that safety is paramount in whatever training you do (either with a trainer or self-directed), as AC is an illness, our body and our whole inner health is disrupted and compromised and we must take extra special care of ourselves at this time as we are vulnerable. Our capacities are limited and we are having to get used to living with a huge amount of pain and disability with mostly very little preparation and very little recognition and meaningful help. I have had to be very mindful and also assertive at times about what I can and cannot do in a training session. But yes, I consider myself incredibly lucky to have an opportunity just at the moment to invest in this training. It costs me $150 per week for the three sessions ($50 per session) and my trainer is very generous with his time so I am very lucky indeed. I have borrowed money from my family to make it happen, but I will get back to work sooner this way and will move forward with better health eventually. I could tell you all the exercises that I have been doing, but if you have trained before perhaps you can work out your own program. It's so important to listen to our body and our shoulder all the time for what works and what doesn't on any given day. There will come a time when I will have to cut back my sessions and work on my own program. There is no doubt though that the training sessions have moved me forward a long way in a short time. Once again good luck, and you know, even if you just visit the gym and hang out and do a little bit here and there it might be inspiring and will probably be healing and helpful if you like feeling strong.