new back tips – battle against frozen shoulder – 9 tools to fight it

If you are suffering shoulder pain due a specific injury or cumulative trauma, then you are at risk for a condition commonly known as frozen shoulder, and clinically known as adhesive capsulitis.

Frozen shoulder comes with pain and stiffness… We are going to focus on how to prevent and to some degree, even reverse loss of shoulder range of motion. Keeping and/or expanding shoulder range of motion is critical, even and especially while you are in the process of working with your orthopedist, chiropractor, or physical therapist to resolve your shoulder soft tissue injury or pathology.

The question comes up frequently… How can I avoid losing shoulder range of motion when shoulder pain limits me from moving it?

The simple answer is… Move your shoulder passively. That is, find new ways to take your shoulder through its maximum range of motion without using and/or aggravating the injured soft tissue. Stay tuned for ways to do that.

As with any stretch or exercise program, get doctor clearance before starting… especially when you are dealing with injury or pathology to joints and/or soft tissues.

There are numerous active exercises that can be performed using bands, and even light dumbbells. What you can and should be doing specific to your condition typically requires the assessment of a shoulder healthcare specialist… most commonly, an orthopedist, chiropractor, or physical therapist. 

We will focus on what you can generally do on your own. Stop if and when any stretch or exercise begins to cause sharp pain. as with any exercise or stretch, we take it to “reasonable discomfort“ only.

You will want to warm up your shoulders even for passive stretching. We recommend a couple exercises that most people with shoulder soft tissue injuries can perform. Check out our videos on the “shoulder rolling exercise“, and the “rotator cuff realignment stretch/exercise“. These are the first 2 ways to fight frozen shoulder.

Remember, when performing the shoulder rolling exercise, you will be rolling from the shoulders, not just waving the hands. You will be rolling forward, and then backward in 6 inch diameter circles. The goal is to have your arms at a 90° angle to your body, but keep them as low as necessary to avoid sharp, tearing pain. This is a great exercise to safely warm up the rotator cuff tendons, and wring out some of the inflammation.

Also, remember when performing the rotator cuff realignment stretch/exercise, you need to work in 90° patterns, and you’ve got to get those thumbs straight up… especially when moving your elbows from pointing straight ahead to straight out laterally.

So that covers the first 2 active ways to fight frozen shoulder. The next 7 ways to battle frozen shoulder will be passive stretches.

Taking your shoulders through full range of flexion motion means raising your arms straight up over your head. Sound painful? Not if done slowly using one or both of our first two passive stretches… Check out our “new back tips” videos on the “bowing stretch“ at the counter, and “child’s pose“.

Remember, the key to the bowing stretch is easing into a 90° bend at the waist, working to get your body perfectly straight from the tailbone to the top of your head. You can point the thumbs straight up to take some of the pinching pain off the shoulders.

As with all standing and seated positioning, even in the child’s pose, you must squeeze your abs to stabilize your lower back. The child’s pose works to achieve the same shoulder flexion the bowing stretch at the counter provides.

Our fifth way to fight frozen shoulder and our third passive stretch is the abduction stretch at the wall. Abduction is that motion where you raise your arm from your hip all the way up laterally straight over your head.

Start by using your opposite arm to place your hand flat against the wall. Straighten your arm at the elbow and position your body so your arm aligns lateral to your trunk. Now, squeeze your abs and slowly squat to effectively abduct your arm above your head. Do this as slowly as is necessary to avoid sharp pain. Raise yourself back upright, and use the opposite arm to raise your hand higher on the wall. Repeat the squat procedure as slow as is necessary… Return to upright and continue raising your arm up incrementally higher until you maximize your capacity to abduct the shoulder.

The fourth passive shoulder stretch is a cross body movement performed at different elevations with the assistance of your other arm. Grab hold of your elbow from underneath the straight arm of the shoulder to be stretched, using the upward facing palm of the opposite hand. Slowly draw the straight arm across your body. Stop each time there is a sharp, painful sensation in the shoulder being stretched. You can typically get a bit more motion out of it if you wait and move slowly. Once you have stretched maximally across your body, release the tension and move that straight arm up a few inches. Repeat the cross body pull as before. Continue up the ladder of motion until your straight arm begins to cross over your face.

The fifth passive stretch works to increase your ability to retract your shoulder at different elevations. Using the doorjamb, start low with a straight arm, and palm facing the doorjamb. Starting with your arm lateral to your body, press your body forward slow and easy to a maximum retraction of that shoulder. Release the tension and passively move your arm up a few inches using the other hand. Repeat the shoulder retraction stretch. When your arm gets to 90° lateral to your trunk, bend your elbow to 90° relative to your arm. This will be the toughest and last elevation of the retraction stretch. 

Winding down… The sixth of the seven passive shoulder range of motion stretches is to help increase your capacity to extend that shoulder. Extension is the motion where you draw your arm backward. This is especially difficult if you have a subscapularis rotator cuff tear.

Place your hand facedown, on a surface that is a little above waist level, like a countertop. Now slowly begin to turn your body away from your hand until your arm is behind you maximally (i.e. as far as you can stretch, or as far as you can go without inducing sharp pain). With your arm pretty close to straight behind you, move forward and down into a squat, slowly increasing the extension motion of your shoulder. Incremental movements will get you to a place of maximum extension.

The seventh and final passive stretch will increase shoulder internal and external rotation. You will perform this stretch from flat on your back  (i.e. the supine position). First, prepare your shoulder for this stretch by performing a couple rotator cuff realignment stretches. Then, with your arm straight 90° lateral to your body, bend your elbow 90° relative to your arm, and point your fingers straight in the air with your palm facing toward your feet.

Start with internal rotation of your shoulder by allowing your hand to drop under the force of gravity slowly toward your feet. The goal is to gain small increases in movement. You have the same goal for external rotation. Bring your hand back to pointing straight up and slowly allow gravity to pull the arm backward (i.e. the back of your hand, moving in the direction of your head). These are tough… but you are fighting for your range of motion.

That’s it! You now have several exercise and stretch tools to prevent a shoulder injury or pathology from limiting your shoulder range of motion.

Remember, when your alignment is less than perfect and/or you have suffered recent injury, joints get stuck, soft tissues have memory for what doesn’t work, and we can help. 

Contact us at New Back Chiropractic today. We can help you move better to feel better for life.