Frozen Shoulder: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

Frozen Shoulder, essentially, is a condition that causes a lot of pain in the shoulder area and also stiffens the shoulder, limiting its movement. Many people around the world struggle with frozen shoulder.

People with a frozen shoulder face immense difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks, even simple tasks, such as putting on clothes.

However, Myotherapy is one of the practices that can significantly contribute to frozen shoulder treatment. Below is a brief rundown of how Myotherapy combats frozen shoulder and other muscle pain disorders.

What is Frozen Shoulder?

Frozen Shoulder or Adhesive capsulitis is a condition that adversely impacts the shoulder joint.

This condition, essentially, causes inflammation of the joint capsule (capsulitis) and fibrotic adhesions, considerably limiting the shoulder's movement.

An individual suffering from Frozen Shoulder experiences frequent pain in the shoulder area, which can intensify every time they attempt to move their shoulder.

What are the symptoms of Frozen Shoulder?

Adhesive capsulitis or Frozen Shoulder develops gradually, going through four primary stages, over the span of several months. These stages are:

• Gradual adhesion: The shoulder joint, or the Gleno-Humeral Joint (GHJ), slowly tightens overtime, getting thicker and thicker.
• Inflammation of GHJ: After the tightening, inflammation spreads across the tendons inside the GHJ joint. This is when patients start experiencing pain.
• Limiting of motion: In the next stage, patients experience a decline in their ability to move the shoulder joint or GHJ.
• More prominent symptoms: Gradually, the pain spreads across the arm and the shoulder movement keeps on getting more and more limited due to the increased stiffness and pain.

During this stage of enhanced symptoms, many patients complain of pain even during the night time. Other symptoms that become more prominent in this stage are as follows:

• Swelling in the shoulder
• Pain in and around the shoulder area
• Stiffness in the rotator cuff
• Difficulty and pain in moving the arm out to the side of the body, or abduction movement
• And pain and stiffness in any kind of rotation movement of the shoulder such as putting hands behind the back

Frozen Shoulder occurs when the tissues within the shoulder joint thicken over time, leading to excessive tightening of the joint. Consequently, the shoulder joint is left with little room for free-movement or rotation.

What causes Frozen Shoulder?

The concrete cause behind an individual developing frozen shoulder disorder is not known as of yet. However, there are certainly some factors that are responsible for elevating the risk of developing a frozen shoulder condition.

• Individuals over the age of 40 years are more prone to this condition.
• Women are more likely to develop frozen shoulder disorders than men.
• People who are less mobile or are forced to remain immobile( due to accidental harm or injury of the shoulder or arm) are also more prone to getting frozen shoulder conditions.
• Individuals who have recently undergone mastectomy are also in a higher risk group.
• Individuals who overuse or perform repetitive actions using shoulder or arm(athletes or sports persons) are also exposed to a greater risk of developing a frozen shoulder condition.
• People suffering from other medical conditions such as diabetes, an overactive or underactive thyroid, cardiovascular disorder, and Parkinson's disease are also at risk.
• People who have suffered through stroke are also prone to developing frozen shoulder disorder.

How to fix a frozen shoulder?

When considering frozen shoulder treatment, the one treatment that dominates the conversation is Myotherapy.

It is a non-invasive therapy that focuses on reducing the pain that the patient suffering from frozen shoulder experiences. Any pain that is troubling the patient because of muscle or soft tissue injuries, is lessened through Myotherapy.

This kind of therapy involves massage, alongside other techniques. These techniques are commonly used by professional physical therapists and osteopaths to release muscular tension and diminish pain.

How to fix frozen shoulder with Myotherapy?

Myotherapy, essentially, is an advanced form of massage that intends to remedy pain in specific parts of the body. Also called sports massage or clinical massage, Myotherapy is quite an effective frozen shoulder treatment.

The therapist or practitioner of Myotherapy uses a range of different muscle-relieving techniques that requires them to massage with their hands, fingers, elbows, or even knuckles.

These specific massage techniques diminish myofascial pain. Some notable techniques deployed in Myotherapy are as under:

• Myofascial release;
• Dry needling;
• Electro dry needling;
• Shoulder mobilization; and
• Other corrective exercises.

How Frozen shoulder Treatment through Myotherapy works?

• Firstly, Myotherapy helps the client identify the location from where the pain and restriction is originating. Finding the location of the pain is the very first step towards relieving the pain.
• Once, the location of the pain is identified, then the entire frozen shoulder treatment is framed around that spot. The intent is to reduce the pain and increase the mobility of the shoulder and arm. The treatment is focused on restoring the functioning of the shoulder to its optimal state.
• Myotherapy involves the identification of the cause so that the condition can be quickly treated with effectiveness. Not only does Myotherapy aid to diminish the symptoms of frozen shoulders, but it also assists in overall prevention.
• Myotherapy is most commonly used to counter trigger points. These are spots that have accumulated tight muscle fibres. This tightening of the muscle fibres is usually associated with: physical or emotional distress; some kind of injury inflicted on the body; or some kind of disorder within the body. By releasing these trigger points, Myotherapy curbs chronic and agonizing pain.

Other Benefits of Myotherapy

• Myotherapy helps alleviate delayed onset muscle soreness.
• It also helps in lowering stress and anxiety.

Conclusion

A Myotherapy treatment session focuses on releasing the muscle contracture circling the shoulder joint.

This would lead to enhanced movement of your arm and shoulder, while you will also experience a considerable decline in pain.

Professional practitioners will use a combination of different techniques to treat and correct your frozen shoulder.

Hence, if you are struggling with a frozen shoulder then you should certainly include Myotherapy as part of your treatment plan without any delay, from a professional practitioner. Book a session today to receive proper care and a comprehensive frozen shoulder treatment.