Frozen shoulder
 

I've recently been diagnosed with a frozen shoulder. I had no idea that this condition is so painful! I am getting PT and had a cortisone injection (which helped), but I am so frustrated with finding exercise that I can do. Basically, I can do walking workouts and some gentle rebounding. I've tried Classical Stretch, but it just doesn't motivate me. Most yoga hurts. Weights are pretty much out of the question (my beloved kettlebells--forget about it!). Even the reformer causes problems.

My ortho says that this will take a many months to work through, so I am pretty discouraged. I think I need to just do the walking workouts and PT, but if anyone who has "been there" has any suggestions or experience to share, I would be appreciate it!

Gale,
I'm sorry. It sounds terribly painful.
I hope you do find something that motivates you and feels good to stretch.
I did find this article that said massage was useful and I thought that this article might be helpful.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/pain/...rozen-shoulder

There are some CS workouts that are better than others. So maybe one day you will be willing try it again. I also use what I learn from them to do on my own and they have helped with my knees and back. Also, after you have done a particular workout several times it's pretty easy to mute it, play your own music and just watch to follow along.

Anyway, hoping to see others pipe in with some helpful suggestions.

Sending you steady progress wishes!! :sun:

(((Gale))), so sorry, it does sound very painful. :( I’m no expert and you’ve probably already tried these. My son is a kinesiologist & he recommended very similar exercises to this YT video to a friend of ours who was having shoulder pain & mobility issues. He did them very passively with a broom stick & found them helpful. These guys are a bit goofy but they know their stuff.
https://youtu.be/SWqkf0m116Y

If you like workouts with good music & no talk, you might like Walking Online Workouts. All her cues are simple hand gestures & easy to follow after a couple of times.
https://walkingonlineworkouts.vhx.tv/

Have you tried foam/ball rolling?

I’m not sure if this was frozen shoulder or a cousin of frozen shoulder (:)), but in the past I have had extreme stiffness in my left shoulder blade area. It felt really heavy, and sometimes I could not move this area at all. It was worst in the morning, when I would wake up with it. I had to rely on my right side to move or prop myself up, and sometimes that was really difficult to do. I think pain was less of an issue for me, unless the overwhelming sense of immobility and heaviness masked the pain.

The thing that seemed to work for me was foam rolling. I used a soft foam roller, without any spikey parts. I may have also used a ball to target the area in a deeper way (but probably when my condition wasn’t that bad). After regularly doing this, the condition I had eventually went away. By the way, while I did take more time to roll my shoulder blade area, I also used the foam roller on other parts of my body, since they say everything’s connected.

Perhaps you can try this, with extra attention to the parts of your shoulder that need relief. There are foam rolling exercises that can target the front, side and rear of your shoulder. Since you already have a specialist that you are seeing about your frozen shoulder, maybe you can ask this person about it first to make sure it’s not something that would aggravate your problem. He/she may also be able to guide you through the specific foam rolling exercises that would be the most beneficial for your shoulder.

Thank you, Linda! That link is good info. I will likely revisit Classical Stretch. It really is the most sensible exercise for this. I have Season 8 and some Essentrics on DVD, which I will explore a bit more this weekend. I had been dabbling in EssentricsTV but canceled my subscription.

Thank you Pam--I love Bob and Brad! The wand exercises are part of my PT regimen, which I try to do daily. I did give WOW a try, and they transferred well to the rebounder. I just didn't want another subscription. I may revisit, though. Thanks again!

Thank you! I haven't done any foam rolling, but I have done some massage with Yoga Tune Up/Jill Miller. My PT thought that foam rolling might be a bit much right now, but that the Tune Up balls could be ok with certain motions. I hope your shoulder issue has resolved! BTW, I have two foam rollers :D. I've also experimented a little with MELT. I probably should revisit that again at some point!

Last year I was having some pain in my right shoulder. It would wake me up several times a night with throbbing and aching pains. During the day I could move it but extending my arm overhead was very painful.

I finally went to my OS and was diagnosed with calcific tendonitis. He told me that if it got worse, it could lead to me not being able lift or move my arm at all. He gave me a cortisone shot and it took a few days for it to stop waking me up at night. He told me my body would have to absorb the calcium deposits for it to go away. And if it didn't get better they would have to do a "needling" procedure where they would break up the deposits. :eek:

I just kept working on the mobility by extending my arm overhead, sideways, and backward. I did that several times a day when I thought about it. It was very painful in the beginning.

But eventually the pain went away (it took about a month). My mobility is back and I'm able to lift weights again for shoulder work but certain motions still cause a twinge (like a double arm upright row). So I modify and do single arm upright rows at a slower pace.

Hope you feel better soon! It's hard to have your motion limited by an injury. :(

There used to be some information on the Classical Stretch website about recovering from frozen shoulder.

All I found on the new site was this new page about breast cancer rehabilitation, and I guess the issues are similar.

Maybe take a look to see if the exercises they show might be any help?

https://essentrics.com/breast-cancer-rehabilitation/

I've had great success with Classical Stretch 930. It is even titled Frozen Shoulder.