Frozen Shoulder Exercises,how often ?

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Hi,can I ask how many times a day you do exercises for your FS ? & how many exercises do you do in any one time. I do 3 twice a day  & today I have started to do 3 times a day.Also can anyone tell me if we accidently hurt the shoulder/arm [that excruciating pain] ,which I do daily ie through waking at night, exercise or other,is it damaging the healing process ? 

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Sheila,

    I VERY carefully and slowly do my exercises in the shower and after the shower.  (So the muscles are more relaxed.) I found it causes me inflammation if I am aggressive at all, and in severe pain the next day. I stopped being so aggressive.  I think we are all different in our healing and need to be very careful with our bodies.  The doctors really do not know much about FS how to treat it, even per my doctor, so why power through this when trained medical professionals do not know if being  so aggressive even helps!  All I know is if is too painful, I slow down so I am injuring myself.  All I know is that none of us need more pain!  This is not something we can rush through, unfortunately. 

    I try to walk a few miles a day if I am not in too much pain. That seems to help keep my blood flowing. 

    Take care of yourself.

    • Posted

      Hi Jenn,

      Thanks for your reply, I do try being careful when exercising & have never really over done it or been aggressive,but there's hardly a day

      goes by that I don't accidently hurt myself one way or another, ie sneezing,  reaching to far etc.

      I find heat doesn't really help although I do blast it on my shoulder 

      whilst having a shower or have a nice hot bath,I've also brought a 

      wheat heat pack which I do use.

      Your right about the doctors,I was refered to a physio & after 3rd appointment was discharged with exercises to do,it seems you are left to your own devices to get on with it !!

      I paid to see another physio just incase he could help any further but

      he said it would take time & he gave me different exercises to do 

      saying a couple of the ones I was doing were for further down the 

      line when I was at another stage,but did advise me to get a shoulder

      pulley which is really good & you can't go wrong with it.

      Thanks again for your reply.

    • Posted

      Sheila- I bought the shoulder pulley from physical therapy. It does really help with my stretching my muscles. Wish u luck
  • Posted

    If you think about the joint capsule being absolutely shrunken and tight around the joint you can see why exercise is pretty useless although every doctor  and therapist prescibes it. The shoulder joint now acts like a hinge rather than a  joint which has to roll and glide to enable it to move normally. All you can really do is to move it just short of pain and do accentuated body movements to compensate. As time goes by whether it is 18 months or 3  years the capsule will have completed it's cycle and regain it's previous shape and laxity. Anything and everything will seemingly work if that treatment is begun at the defrosting stage. What I did for my several shoulder injuries,which does not cause frozen shoulder if you look at the pathology of the FS capsule was to test regularly for the glide to return and hopefully restore it. I have written of this previously. On the FS side sit on the palm of your hand, Relax the arm completely and raise your shoulder up and contine to relax the arm. In a normal arm you can feel the glide. Try this on both arms and compare. Get your partner or yourself to feel the difference. Let us know what you feel. It was the maneuver which seemed to help me most.

    Just reading  biomechanics for dummies, should have concentrated on mathematic when I was at school !

    • Posted

      EXCELLENT post!! Thank you for that information. Logic somethings escapes the medical community, at least a few of those that I have dealt with, this makes the most sense.

      The physical therapy doesn't help, for me at least, and several others I have talked to. I think the huge heated pads I was able to spend time on, was the only reason I found it helpful to be honest. That machine that shocks the nerves, gave me an awful headache! I completely agree, it's a waiting game and maybe the body shut down temporarily for a reason.

    • Posted

      Thank you. I have been suffering from FS since the day I retired in August 2015. It started off with a sensation of my arms being pulled out of the socket. I have 2 frozen shoulders. One has more ROM. Then they became so bad felt like electricity running down my arms. One wrong movemail or sudden jolt I would scream. Went to an orthopedic surgeon, had MRI which showed bursitis tendinitis frozen shoulders and degeneration of cervical disc. Never had an injury or broken bones. Opted out on the cortisone shots but took meloxicam. It seems to help with the inflammation. Found a chiropractor in Dallas that specializes in FS . He said most GS root cause is the Cranial nerve 11. Which controls your shoulders and arms. He does adjustment to your neck but this adjustment really cracked loud. Doesn't hurt at all. Then works deeply on shoulders front and back and arms. This hurts a little. I had to quit going because it's a 2 hour drive for me. But had great improvement. Now it's been 8 months I really have no pain only in morning feels like a knuckle punch in the shoulders. My orthopedic surgeon wants to do MUA manipulation under anesthesia. Not sure I want to do this. If you have pain, the best thing that help me was the Tens Unit. Bought mine at CVS the ordered one from Amazon. Miracle on pain. Let me know what you think or any more advice is wonderful. This FS takes the life out of you. God Bless
    • Posted

      Also both my shoulders are still Frozen. I also use the pullies and a stick walking cane to do exercises.
  • Posted

    Hi Sheila:

    That jarring, excruciating pain probaby isn't good for us, but it happens when we least expect it, so I decided not to worry about what I might have just done. I did try to be as careful as possible, but we can't prevent every reaction that makes us reach out.

    Like many others, I only did gentle motions, and I tried to be intentional about using my FS arm as best as I could within its tiny little range - rather than setting aside certain exercise times per day. 

    I think I am thawing now, because that range is getting so much better - maybe halfway there! I walk lots too, like Jenn.

    Be encouraged by this forum and take care!

    Liane

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