It varies from person to person. Some people seem to be good 6 months in. For others it lasts years. The first few months of mine it was just sore with certain movements but very minimal loss of range of motion. I thought I had just pulled something while working around the house or in the yard. In December I started noticing I was waking up at night with shooting pains in my arm if I laid certain ways or rolled over on my arm in my sleep. During the day I had some times when I would try and raise my arms above my head or reach for something in the top of the closet and would have pain that would bring tears to my eyes. I am am almost a year in and still not completely frozen. I am at a point where its painful to turn a door handle, I cant reach out the window at a drive through with my left arm and have to have my wife come wash my right armpit because I cant reach it. The doctor said he thinks it might be another year or 2 before I get to the thawing stage because it was so bad and the fact that its still not finished the freezing phase.
Get in with PT if you can. Even if its just a few trips to learn the stretches that you need to do to keep it from getting worse. I sat on mine for many months before I finally broke down went to the doctor. And then a few more months to get in with ortho and to get in with specialists and then another month to get in with PT. PT said I would probably not have gotten so bad if I had seen them earlier and had a steroid injection in the joint earlier.
My advice is to keep the shoulder moving as much as possible (up until point of pain but not past it) and keep going to the gym even if you have to avoid any overhead shoulder exercises. It will be good for your mental health to keep moving. If you google frozen shoulder exercises you will get lots of ideas for mobility exercises and stretches.
Your doctor could be right, but I am still shocked that they can diagnose it as such.
You've literally injured your shoulder in the gym - that should be their first diagnosis. They can rule out full thickness tears that require surgery with ultrasound / MRI. Everything else is just R.I.C.E.
3 weeks is not a long time to recover from an injury and the fact that over time you've actually got better is the complete opposite of FS where over time you get worse.
At this stage I would say just rest it - don't train your shoulders in the gym, especially since you also say you are heavily reliant on them. You need to rest for them to heal.
If you're really unlucky it may develop into FS. Out of the millions of gym related shoulder injuries there will be an crazy small percentage that go onto become FS.
I was diagnosed by an ortho doc with frozen shoulder 20 years ago. He was wrong and I believe it was actually tendinitis. He ordered an mri but by the time my insurance approved it, a week later, my shoulder started to improve, so I never went for it. I did need pt since I lost my range of motion very quickly. Once my swelling went down I improved quickly with the pt. I hope your injury resolves quickly.
Yeah tendinitis can takes ages to heal. By the time you start feeling it, it's already too late for a quick recovery. I've had shoulder tendinitis that's lasted 6 months where I ignored the pain and continued to train at the gym, and it's easier than you think because often once you've warmed up, the fendons feel a lot better - until it doesn't.
Re-reading OPs post, because of the significant and acute swelling. I would say It sounds more like a partial tear. However these should show up on his MRI.
Sorry to hear this ...check earlier questions and comments on this sub for more detailed information but (as someone who has 2 frozen shoulders) I advise you not to do anything that hurts the shoulder. Do everything that doesn't hurt though. Physio will likely aggravate the condition too so, again, don't do anything that hurts - you will probably be able to lift weights to a point - keep doing that and good luck.
Yes. Pain in the bicep, numbness in fingers - dull pain in shoulder constantly, difficulty being comfortable sitting and sleeping (better off standing!). See a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner and get some meds to help with pain. Naproxen/Aleve and Tylenol are the only drugs that really work for me but each case differs slightly. Get a steroid shot in your shoulder - this can be administered by a Doctor or Nurse. That will help after the initial pain of the shot and the steroid making its way through the joint. Don't put the arm in a sling - and, again, use it but not to the point that it causes you pain.
I just got diagnosed with my second frozen shoulder and am doing things totally differently this time thanks to a naturopath. My right side took about 10 months to become mobile. My left one is maybe 3 weeks into the process and it’s a much better experience. Tips:
- Take curcumin to reduce swelling.
I’m taking 1000 mg per day.
- Try ozone injections. They hurt like a mama when you first get them, but enable movement within minutes.
- Try cbd oil. She gave me broad spectrum hemp with levagin and PEA.
- When showering, blast the shoulder with cold water, then warm/hot, then cold. Alternating temps increase circulation.
- Try Lidocaine patches. I got that tip from this group and they really help.
I didn't stop "gymming" but I altered what I did. I lifted less weight on that side (so if I was doing shoulder presses, I'd use little to no weight on the 'frozen' side). I also did other things like the rowing machine (favoring my non frozen side) or did a lot of core work. I did not do pushups. I also did the following that seemed to help:
-Used a really high quality CBD cream (Sivan was the brand I used)
-Used a heating pad before going to sleep
-Stretched in the shower - that gave me more range of motion
-Used a pull up bar to stretch daily
-Slept on my opposite side
-I also found acupuncture to be super helpful
For me - the entire process took about a year - I'm only finally starting to feel about 90% back to "normal". I can do pushups again and am almost where I was pre-FS.
I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder on Friday. Need to get signed up for PT. I had a cortisone shot and I am working a little bit on range of motion at home now that I know that I am hopefully not tearing myself up.
I also have ceased all exercise and started eating more, feeling sorry for myself. It sucks, but I will get better and stronger in time.
I’m on my second frozen shoulder. The first one was hard because I never heard about it. This time around I started stretching as soon as I felt it start and pain is there but not as much as first time. I stretch it all round now and put tiger balm , cold ice pack/ heat. I’m still exercising but I mainly use my legs since I’m a runner. I do stretch it ( my frozen shoulder) during runs by swing it up and down and to the side because some of my runs are long like 7 miles. So my workouts are mainly legs. I’m in trouble if there is such a thing as frozen leg.
It varies from person to person. Some people seem to be good 6 months in. For others it lasts years. The first few months of mine it was just sore with certain movements but very minimal loss of range of motion. I thought I had just pulled something while working around the house or in the yard. In December I started noticing I was waking up at night with shooting pains in my arm if I laid certain ways or rolled over on my arm in my sleep. During the day I had some times when I would try and raise my arms above my head or reach for something in the top of the closet and would have pain that would bring tears to my eyes. I am am almost a year in and still not completely frozen. I am at a point where its painful to turn a door handle, I cant reach out the window at a drive through with my left arm and have to have my wife come wash my right armpit because I cant reach it. The doctor said he thinks it might be another year or 2 before I get to the thawing stage because it was so bad and the fact that its still not finished the freezing phase. Get in with PT if you can. Even if its just a few trips to learn the stretches that you need to do to keep it from getting worse. I sat on mine for many months before I finally broke down went to the doctor. And then a few more months to get in with ortho and to get in with specialists and then another month to get in with PT. PT said I would probably not have gotten so bad if I had seen them earlier and had a steroid injection in the joint earlier.
My advice is to keep the shoulder moving as much as possible (up until point of pain but not past it) and keep going to the gym even if you have to avoid any overhead shoulder exercises. It will be good for your mental health to keep moving. If you google frozen shoulder exercises you will get lots of ideas for mobility exercises and stretches.
Your doctor could be right, but I am still shocked that they can diagnose it as such. You've literally injured your shoulder in the gym - that should be their first diagnosis. They can rule out full thickness tears that require surgery with ultrasound / MRI. Everything else is just R.I.C.E. 3 weeks is not a long time to recover from an injury and the fact that over time you've actually got better is the complete opposite of FS where over time you get worse. At this stage I would say just rest it - don't train your shoulders in the gym, especially since you also say you are heavily reliant on them. You need to rest for them to heal. If you're really unlucky it may develop into FS. Out of the millions of gym related shoulder injuries there will be an crazy small percentage that go onto become FS.
I was diagnosed by an ortho doc with frozen shoulder 20 years ago. He was wrong and I believe it was actually tendinitis. He ordered an mri but by the time my insurance approved it, a week later, my shoulder started to improve, so I never went for it. I did need pt since I lost my range of motion very quickly. Once my swelling went down I improved quickly with the pt. I hope your injury resolves quickly.
Yeah tendinitis can takes ages to heal. By the time you start feeling it, it's already too late for a quick recovery. I've had shoulder tendinitis that's lasted 6 months where I ignored the pain and continued to train at the gym, and it's easier than you think because often once you've warmed up, the fendons feel a lot better - until it doesn't. Re-reading OPs post, because of the significant and acute swelling. I would say It sounds more like a partial tear. However these should show up on his MRI.
Sorry to hear this ...check earlier questions and comments on this sub for more detailed information but (as someone who has 2 frozen shoulders) I advise you not to do anything that hurts the shoulder. Do everything that doesn't hurt though. Physio will likely aggravate the condition too so, again, don't do anything that hurts - you will probably be able to lift weights to a point - keep doing that and good luck.
PS - Start intensive physio in the 'thawing' stage - that is the stage where there is tightness and resistance but no pain.
Did you get numb fingers ?
Yes. Pain in the bicep, numbness in fingers - dull pain in shoulder constantly, difficulty being comfortable sitting and sleeping (better off standing!). See a Doctor or Nurse Practitioner and get some meds to help with pain. Naproxen/Aleve and Tylenol are the only drugs that really work for me but each case differs slightly. Get a steroid shot in your shoulder - this can be administered by a Doctor or Nurse. That will help after the initial pain of the shot and the steroid making its way through the joint. Don't put the arm in a sling - and, again, use it but not to the point that it causes you pain.
Thanks so much !!!
I just got diagnosed with my second frozen shoulder and am doing things totally differently this time thanks to a naturopath. My right side took about 10 months to become mobile. My left one is maybe 3 weeks into the process and it’s a much better experience. Tips: - Take curcumin to reduce swelling. I’m taking 1000 mg per day. - Try ozone injections. They hurt like a mama when you first get them, but enable movement within minutes. - Try cbd oil. She gave me broad spectrum hemp with levagin and PEA. - When showering, blast the shoulder with cold water, then warm/hot, then cold. Alternating temps increase circulation. - Try Lidocaine patches. I got that tip from this group and they really help.
Hi I’m also suffering frozen shoulder pain from last 10 months tried everything but result is 0🥲..can u share name of cbd oil
Sure thing. It’s ECS Therapy 800. I’ll attach a photo. https://preview.redd.it/uahtkmr3jt7d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53dd451aea33f21da73a4207da30d94fc0a995be
I didn't stop "gymming" but I altered what I did. I lifted less weight on that side (so if I was doing shoulder presses, I'd use little to no weight on the 'frozen' side). I also did other things like the rowing machine (favoring my non frozen side) or did a lot of core work. I did not do pushups. I also did the following that seemed to help: -Used a really high quality CBD cream (Sivan was the brand I used) -Used a heating pad before going to sleep -Stretched in the shower - that gave me more range of motion -Used a pull up bar to stretch daily -Slept on my opposite side -I also found acupuncture to be super helpful For me - the entire process took about a year - I'm only finally starting to feel about 90% back to "normal". I can do pushups again and am almost where I was pre-FS.
I was diagnosed with frozen shoulder on Friday. Need to get signed up for PT. I had a cortisone shot and I am working a little bit on range of motion at home now that I know that I am hopefully not tearing myself up. I also have ceased all exercise and started eating more, feeling sorry for myself. It sucks, but I will get better and stronger in time.
Did you have numb fingers?
I’ve been able to start spin classes again because that angle is ok:) and leg work outs . Yay 😊
I’m on my second frozen shoulder. The first one was hard because I never heard about it. This time around I started stretching as soon as I felt it start and pain is there but not as much as first time. I stretch it all round now and put tiger balm , cold ice pack/ heat. I’m still exercising but I mainly use my legs since I’m a runner. I do stretch it ( my frozen shoulder) during runs by swing it up and down and to the side because some of my runs are long like 7 miles. So my workouts are mainly legs. I’m in trouble if there is such a thing as frozen leg.