Frozen Shoulder – the Myotherapy Approach

I have been told by some people that there is no cure for frozen shoulder, nevertheless, at Pain busters clinic we have treated many frozen shoulders with great success.

Frozen shoulder is usually the result of trauma or overuse of the shoulder muscles. In practice I have found that although several muscles can, and often are involved in a frozen shoulder, the main culprit is usually the Subscapularis muscle.

This muscle as the name implies is located underneath the scapular or on its anterior surface, this makes it very difficult to reach for treatment. The way most masseurs reach this muscle is through the armpit, this is usually very painful.

My preferred approach to treating the Subscapularis is the method developed by Drs. Travell & Simons. That is the spray and stretch technique, which is almost painless.

To illustrate the effectiveness of this technique I would like to tell you the story of a man who came to see me last year.

This man worked for an armored truck payroll delivery service, and in the course of his work had picked up a bag of coins weighing 25 to 30 kilos, and swinging it to get momentum through it into the back of the truck. That activity cost him dearly as it tore the muscles in his shoulder, as confirmed by his x-rays.

When he came to see me on the recommendation of his friend, an ex client of mine, he'd had the problem for about a year, during which time he had seen various doctors and therapists without much success. At our initial interview he could not raise the injured arm above shoulder height without extreme pain.

I commencer treatment with the spray and stretch technique by raising his arm as high as it would go without pain, then applying sweeps of the coolant spray up his side and over the armpit followed by warm moist heat. Each time I did this his arm rose a little higher as the muscle lengthened, until eventually it was right up over his head, and full range of motion reestablished.

That was not the end of it however, because of the scarring and damage done to the muscles of his shoulder it actually took several months to get him completely back to normal, although he was able to resume his job after the first couple of treatments.

This was an extreme case, most frozen shoulders resolve after only two to five treatments.

Gary Clark

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1. Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis)