Lifters don't get frozen shoulder, so I have no experience with it. Try it and see.
✓ Member
Frozen Shoulder and Rippetoe Shoulder Rehab
The mother of one of my wife’s students has what she is describing as “frozen shoulder”. I haven’t had a chance to really talk with her about this to find out if it’s a medical diagnosis of adhesive capsulitis, a self-diagnosis, or something else. From the research I’ve done, most of the rehab protocols for frozen shoulder call for moving the affected arm using external assistance, but they look rather conservative. This has gotten me to wonder if trying something along the lines of the shoulder rehab you discuss in your video might be worth trying in the case of frozen shoulder. In your opinion, would using this rod-and-hoop assistance to move the shoulder, presumably in conjunction with some sort of NSAID, be likely to help or would it be more likely to aggravate the shoulder capsule? If you’re familiar with any other techniques that help, I’d appreciate your opinion.
Thanks,
Jeff.
TMPHBITEU
Lifters don't get frozen shoulder, so I have no experience with it. Try it and see.
✓ Member
I dealt with this in both shoulders. It came on in the first shoulder while I was doing a SS novice run back in about 2008 - may have been due to an injury or something. Don't discount her discomfort as it hurts like a motherfucker. I would bump my elbow on something and drop to a knee in pain. Tried PT as it was 'freezing' and there was no improvement. Essentially my ROM went to shit and it hurt with any movement. Couldn't get on my seatbelt normally, or reach behind, or get my arm above my head. It was a bad time.
Eventually it 'thawed' and I slowly got most of my ROM back. I've been using using cheesy handles to LBBS and more recently working with Paul Horn's stretch and the capsule seems to be loosening. But even that stretch hurts like a motherfucker and it scares me that I'll re-freeze the shoulder. Those fears are alleviating as I keep stretching and pressing and doing chins.
Not knowing any different, I got a cortisone shot in the second shoulder when that one started to freeze. The length of that freeze-thaw cycle was less and there was much less pain. I'm not wholly versed on all the drawbacks of those shots, but if I can't say I wouldn't do it again. The pain was that bad with the first one.
If it were to happen to me again, I'd do everything I could to maintain my ROM thru the freezing and frozen cycles while knowing that the ROM may reduce thru the process. Then once it starts thawing, fight thru the pain as much as possible to recover as quickly as possible. Not sure if I'd get a shot or not. Without really working on it I got most of my day to day ROM back but never really got external rotation back. That's what I'm working on now and still many years later.
Member
I've had this in both shoulders. The first time was after surgery to fix a slap tear, the second was after aggravating the (as yet untreated) slap tear in the other shoulder. In both cases I had two hyrdodilatation injections to stretch the capsule of the joint by injecting a mixture of sterile saline, local anaesthetic and steroid. Then into physio. Two quite different approaches - the second was more successful. This involved about a week's worth of stretchy band stuff then getting back into lifting again pretty quickly - very much in line with the shoulder rehab advice on this board. Full range of motion was regained in about a month after the injections. My physio's comment: "... if only everyone I see with a frozen shoulder actually did what I tell them they would recover as quickly as you have...".
✓ Member
Wish I had met your providers. The shot and weeks of typical shoulder PT was all I could get out of two different doctors here.Originally Posted by QuinceTree
cwd
I got it in my left shoulder. 51, male, possibly brought on by small SLAP tears seen on the MRI. Maybe from overdoing the weighted chinups. As Cinic says, extremely painful.
At the worst point I could raise my arm to the side only to about a 45 degree angle vs. my torso, and struggled with dressing myself.
Treatment: none. I'm your control case.
Bought some Hooker's Handles to allow high-bar squatting, but also took a lot of time off of lifting as it was discouraging. Did no dedicated stretching, no injections or surgery.
Outcome: after 18 months, pain-free but with about 75% of former range of motion -- side arm raise goes to 135 degrees.
Cannot overhead press (arm won't go straight up), cannot low-bar squat. Can bench, high-bar squat without the goofy handles but with bent wrists, can landmine press.
Lifting regularly again now, and doing stretches to see if I can get ROM back. No apparent ROM gained so far.
Member
BTW: frozen shoulder is a lesser-known complication of poorly-controlled diabetes. Don't know if that applies in this case, or not.
cwd
I'm not diabetic or pre-diabetic. When the adhesive capsulitis hit, was benching and chinning in PR ranges for me, with some pain. A lot of life stress at the time, and a bout of flu. Something in there triggered the inflammation I guess.
Frozen shoulder is most typically a little-old-lady problem. I have very low T (untreated so far) and wonder if this contributed.
✓ Member
What I've found so far is that if the stretch isn't pushing past uncomfortable and into painful, it ain't doing much to help ROM.
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