Not to do exercises for frozen shoulder?

[SilkieChick]

I was diagnosed with the beginnings of a frozen shoulder a few weeks ago by a physiotherapist. She gave me some exercises to do which she said might help to shorten the duration of the problem.

I promptly got covid and shortly after that was on holiday...basically life got in the way and I haven't done any of the exercises yet and the condition hasn't really changed much for me so far.

Thing is, I'm seeing a lot of people say it just has to run its course and I'm wondering if doing any of the stretches will really make a difference - or just be time wasted and discomfort for no real improvement?

Fwiw my shoulder is not (yet) very painful, but uncomfortable some of the time, with certain movements.

Does anyone have experience of noticeably improving a frozen shoulder with exercise?

I have had frozen shoulder in both my shoulders. The first in my right shoulder, which took a year. The second in my left which took a year. The PP talking about getting frozen shoulder every so often and it lasting 8 weeks is not suffering from frozen shoulder imho.

Exercising made zero difference to the condition.

Physios are a bit clueless with frozen shoulder I think. Exercising will just give you more pain. You’re going to freeze over eventually anyway and when you reach that stage the pain of merely moving your arm a millimetre the wrong way will bring on a zinger - this is an intense shooting pain which is so intense you will cry and want to die. Do not under any circumstances exercise at this stage. Just take painkillers, use a cool pad or heat pad to help ease the constant throbbing and find a comfortable position for sleeping which doesn’t bring on a zinger. It is hell, not going to lie.

At some point a few months later, you will notice you are getting slightly fewer zingers, and the throbbing isn’t quite as bad. This is the first sign you may be thawing out and THEN is the time to do stretching exercises, ever so gently until it starts to ease and movement starts getting back to normal over the course of several weeks.

Some people have had success with steroid injections. They didn’t do a thing for me. There is an op you can have to sort the adhesions that cause frozen shoulder, but I’m guessing the waiting lists will be long and you’ll probably be getting over the condition anyway.

So OP, everyone on here slagging you off for not doing the pointless exercises can do one imho. Best wishes to you.

Thing is, Don't Become Disabled is a pretty important thing to put on your list.

Mine was extremely painful and I had very limited movement. A steroid injection didn't help. I saw a physio and did the exercises regularly at every opportunity. I was sleeping so badly due to the pain that I did the exercises during the night as well! It wasn't a long routine, just stretches, little and often.
In 4 weeks I was better.
If I do too much, eg digging or carrying loads of stuff, my shoulder starts to ache. I do the stretches and the pain goes.
So yes, do the exercises you'll be glad you found time for them!

You haven't seen any improvement, because you haven't done the exercises. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to work that one out!

Sorry, just to be clear, the anaesthetic and manipulation procedure I had wasn't steroid injections. The surgeon said that some people have this with varying degrees of success but mine was past that stage.
Totally agree with PP who said that exercise won't cure frozen shoulder. This horrible condition won't be prevented by being healthy or doing yoga - I can personally vouch for that!

I have had a frozen shoulder. It was bloody AWFUL. Absolutely excruciating.

DO THE EXERCISES. Even if you end up doing them alongside other treatment. The exercises definitely did help me. It requires a fuck-ton of patience and it's boring as hell, but they will definitely help with mobility over time.

The thing is, even if your shoulder does 'just right itself' in the end, if you've spent a very long time barely moving it, that in itself leaves you with long-term problems. The pain might go, but you'd still be left with reduced mobility in your arm because you'd gone for such a long period without keeping it moving. So yeah, just do the exercises.

Yes, this.

Believe me, ten minutes of exercises every day is a lot bloody better than needing help to put a jacket on or fasten your bra. I've been there.

OP won’t be able to do this anyway. Her shoulder will freeze with or without exercising. It’s not about keeping the limb moving so it doesn’t freeze up, it’s literally going to freeze up because the adhesions are going to freeze it up.

I had one a few years ago and despite starting with the exercises it did freeze as puppymonkey says, and then I couldn’t physically do them.

the whole thing lasted over a year (was so painful at times) and years later I still don’t have full range of mobility.

I had two frozen shoulders at the same time - hurt like all fuck if I moved wrong. I did not do any exercises - GP told me it would run its course, and I got completely better, but it took 6 months.

I’ve had it and I’ve had NHS physio. Which they were very keen to do. It felt like it helped a bit and it can strengthen muscles that get weaker through under use.

But. I was getting fed up with slow progress and I was a bit worried so I paid to see a private consultant, one who also does a lot of nhs work and specialises in these issues. He said he wasn’t a fan of exercises for this and in his (long) clinical experience frozen shoulders can take about 3 years to get back to normal whether you do physio or not.

His only advice was reassurance that there was nothing seriously wrong and to get on with life as as much as possible without worrying and accept it’s going to be 3 years. It took less than that for the pain to go fortunately. The pain mostly went after about a year and then longer to getting more flexibility back.

Mine didn't. I recognised the symptoms and did loads of exercises throughout, along with some very painful massage to reduce the adhesions as much as possible. Still hurt, still had reduced mobility, but it never fully froze.

I think you'd be a fool not to. If it's not too bad atm and exercises will help then it's better to do them than let it get worse.

That said, I had a bad knee for a while and HATED doing the exercising the physio gave me. Not sure why really, it only took about 10 minutes but it was dull and difficult. I figured out that an exercise class I liked had the same impact (it was just targeted strengthening of the leg and bum muscles) as the exercises so I did that instead. Is there anything similar you could try?

I was told you can get a partially frozen shoulder.

"Should I treat my injury or let it get worse?" Should be your title

Should I do some simple daily exercise to help my body heal, or should I do nothing and let it get worse until I need to see a surgeon who may or may not improve the chronic pain I then find myself in? Gosh...

This isn’t the usual progress of the condition tbf.

@milkyaqua @Carrieonmywaywardsun thanks for that . Please see the range of experiences of the PPs on this thread, which is exactly why I posted - to find out if others had found it pointless or not. Some have, some haven't. If I thought the exercises would fix it, of course I would do them! But it sounds very much like it's something that is going to happen no matter what I do, or don't do.

@Obimumkinobi and @PuppyMonkey especially interesting to read your experiences of the condition.

I haven't had much improvement, but it also hasn't got much worse in the past few months. I'm interested to hear there such a thing as a partial freeze @Shoulderingtalk, and also what your specialist said.

I'm not looking for excuses not to do it - I'm looking for some advice from those who've been through it and as I thought, there's a mix of views.

There was a programme on bbc2 a few months ago where they looked inside the body with various scans and helped people with various ailments, it had Kate Garraway presenting. I could only watch a couple and that was painful for just the way she presented the show. It could have been a 30 min one instead of an hour going over the same thing multiple times.
Anyway, one lady had a really painful frozen shoulder which she had to have surgery on in order to move her arm without pain. I think if she knew had she been able to do the physio to stop it getting to that point she would have probably not needed the op.

If I thought the exercises would fix it, of course I would do them!

You're a physiotherapist now?

He did MRI which I had to pay for obviously but wanted the reassurance if no injury.

Report stated (apart from some age related changes of no significance which were detailed)
”Thickening of the right AIGHL and the anterior inferior capsule with associated soft tissue inflammatory change and focal fluid within the rotator interval. Features are likely related to adhesive capsulitis.”

He did all the usual flexibility exam. Diagnosis was milder form of frozen shoulder.
Was told this is why it’s partially but not completely frozen. It never became frozen just very restricted in most directions. (I had difficulty dressing myself). It was extremely painful though for 8 months. It would wake me up at night sometimes and occasionally I would actually cry from the pain in the day if I moved a certain way.

He said he has never found exercises to make much difference and I just had to accept it will improve over time but would take up to 3 years. No further advice about it but reassurance given. That’s it really.

Just to add I did do the exercises for a time as my nhs physio was very convinced (passionate even) that they would make a difference. The consultant I saw was a shoulder surgeon and specialist. I stopped doing them after that though. So I guess there are different opinions. It continued to get better anyway.

I was lucky enough to have medical insurance for mine. It took twice weekly physio, two cortisone injections and home exercise several times a day. In the end I hung off a doorframe and bent my knees to free it, beyound painful but did the trick, I was so bored by the exercise. I still cannot quite straighten my arm though, that was about ten years ago.

What you are describing is worlds apart from true frozen shoulder, it is an excruciatingly debilitating condition which robbed me of sleep for 6 months and is still ongoing 2 years later after 3 proceedures with limited range of movement and pain when I push too far.

OP I started with the exercises but it did not stop the onset of fully frozen shoulder. I'd start doing them to keep your shoulder as mobile as possible. If it gets worse go back to your gp.

there was relatively little pain. I also swam regularly for a few months

Again, this is not a typical presentation of, nor ability level 9f frozen shoulder. I can still barely brush my hair 12 months (and 3 proceedures) later. This after 3 months off work, tramadol, morphine, co-codamol and naproxin and sleeping tablets barely making a dent in the pain.