Frozen shoulder is a common condition that can have a huge effect on the quality of day to day living. It can make simple tasks such as bathing, dressing, driving and sleeping uncomfortable in mild cases to extremely painful in more chronic situations.
Phases of Frozen Shoulder
During the initial stage, often referred to as the “freezing” phase, the shoulder will start to ache and become painful when reaching out for things.
The pain is often worse at night and when lying on the affected side. This can cause restless sleep as pain forces you to constantly turn over to get comfy.
In stage two, the “frozen” phase the shoulder may become increasingly stiff, but the pain will not necessarily get worse and may even decrease. This is when you find you lose the range of movement you once had and everyday tasks can become more difficult.
Shoulder muscles may start to waste away slightly because they are not being used which can cause weakness.
In stage three you may gradually regain some movement in your shoulder and pain may begin to fade, although it may come back as the stiffness eases.
Unfortunately you may not regain full movement of the shoulder unless you take active steps towards rehabilitation.
Treatment of frozen shoulder
Chiropractic work has been shown to be supportive in the whole management for conditions such as frozen shoulder. During a treatment gentle and specific techniques are used to align the joints and restore nerve and muscle function and balance. This is aimed to relieve pain and reduce muscle spasm, as well as helping restricted joints to move better.
The aim of treatment is to restore movement to stiff joints whilst strengthening and re-educating muscles and ligaments.
The chiropractor may also recommend simple stretching and relaxation exercises to be practised at home which can be very useful to keep the shoulder moving and reducing pain.
Click on this link to see Tone showing how to ease frozen shoulder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g-Art6r0LQ
You may also like to download the lucksyardclinic app from your app store, which shows you how to exercise, stretch and move to enhance the heating process:
