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Patient Education

2018-05-04
Everything You Must Know About Frozen Shoulders

Physio Clinic

Your shoulder is a vital part of your body that offers you the most varied and flexible degree of motion. Any stiffness or shoulder pain can have an adverse effect on your lifestyle. It may limit you from performing the daily activities effortlessly. A frozen shoulder is an ailment that results in chronic pain, stiffness, and loss of movement in shoulders. It is a disorder which is commonly diagnosed in people between the age of 40-60 years. Frozen shoulder is referred as, "Adhesive Capsulitis". Here are some of the things which you must know about frozen shoulders:

Most people with a shoulder dislocation experience sudden, severe pain in the shoulder after a fall, an injury or a traumatic event. It can result in an internal dislocation, and you may find it difficult to move your arm. A frozen shoulder can take place when there is a scar tissue. It develops when the tissue in shoulder joint becomes thicker and tighter. As a result, your shoulder joint doesn’t have enough space to rotate properly. There are three stages of developing a frozen shoulder.

1. Pre-Freezing

It is the onset of the condition of frozen shoulder. The mobility of the shoulder becomes limited. You may not be able to raise the arm or reach the arm behind the body effortlessly.

2. Freezing 

This is the initial stage of development of frozen shoulder. Freezing occurs when the shoulder is restrained and the tissue surrounding the shoulder joints contracts and becomes stiff. There can be a significant increase in the pain while doing any activity with your arm. It is identified by constant pain and stiffness in the shoulders due to loss of movement in the glenohumeral joint contracts.

3. Frozen

It is an advanced stage of the disorder where the pain minimizes, but the range of motion becomes restricted. You need a physiotherapist to help you overcome the problem.

How can Physiotherapy Help?

Physiotherapy helps in providing pain relief at every stage of frozen shoulder and ensures complete rehabilitation and restoration of strength in your muscles. There are different physiotherapy techniques or exercises used to provide pain relief to your sore muscles like acupuncture, dry needling, and massage therapy.

There are muscle release techniques to restore the maximum range of motions to your shoulder. This includes a wide range of exercises such as joint mobilization, and muscle strengthening to strengthen your muscles and restore healthy muscle mass to your weakened shoulder.

If you experience any of these stages of frozen shoulder or if you know anyone who experiences constant pain in the shoulders, then visiting a physio clinic can help you get relief from frozen shoulders as soon as possible. The physiotherapist will assist you to improve your shoulder alignment and provide you with a detailed list of activities that you need to avoid to prevent your condition from worsening as well.