Pre-Therapy for Frozen Shoulder

Frozen shoulder is a debilitating pain of the shoulder that mostly affects ladies between about 40 and 60. This excellent review paper summarizes pretty much everything that is known about frozen shoulder. As the paper explains, the cause of frozen shoulder is unknown, but one possible explanation is that the shoulder capsule does not receive a plentiful supply of blood. As a result, cellular wastes might collect inside the shoulder capsule, which leads inflammation, and then to a cascade of negative events.

Moving your shoulder through its full range of motvement will facilitate the delivery of nutrition to, and clearance of wastes from the shoulder capsule. External shoulder rotation, which you see in these images, is a shoulder movement pattern that is often neglecte. We do this exercise seated in a chair to increase your proprioception of the movement of your shoulder.

This exercise is an example of pre-therapy, which is the idea that if you practice physical therapy exercises before you are in pain, you might be able to avoid the need for physical therapy in the future.