G'day everyone!
Welcome back to another exercise video. What we're going to go through today are the best
exercises for adhesive capsulitis, otherwise known as frozen shoulder.
With these exercises today I’m not just going to demonstrate the exercises, or tell you what
exercises to do. We are going to go through the exercises together so you can follow along
with me, which will help with the pain and stiffness associated with frozen shoulder.
What frozen shoulder basically is, is when the shoulder capsule surrounding
the main joint of your shoulder known as the Glenohumeral joint.
It's the joint which allows the movement of the arm in all different planes, it becomes
inflamed that's why it's called adhesive capsulitis because the capsule
comes inflamed. When this happens, your shoulder becomes painful and stiff. With frozen shoulder
as well, it can affect people differently so some people may have their arm completely locked up,
others may just have a milder form which they do get more range of motion in the shoulder.
I’m going to try and do my best with doing these exercises today to cover for all people. However,
only go as far as you can with these exercises, and don't push into too much pain. A little bit of
pain or soreness is okay, but you don't want to be pushing into too much pain. You also want to make
sure these exercises are nice slow and controlled. If you don't have adhesive capsulitis and you just
have shoulder range of motion issues, you can also follow along to these exercises. However,
make sure to see your doctor before undertaking these exercises, or see a physiotherapist who
can help you with these exercises and show you exactly how to do them if you're having trouble.
That's enough chat from me, let's now get into the exercises. You're going to be sitting up,
nice and tall in your chair. Actually before we get into it, we will be using a towel which I’ve
got over here which I’ll grab in a second, and a pole which I thought I had behind me as well,
but it's over here as well. I’ve got my towel, so a longer towel may be a little bit better
than this one depending on your range of motion, and I’ve got a light pole. You can use anything
that's nice and light, you can use a piece of pipe, you can also use a piece of dowel,
or a broomstick, just something light so you can do these exercises today.
That is enough chat for me, now we are going to get into the exercises. You want to make sure
your shoulders are warmed up. Placing a heat pack on your affected shoulder can help loosen up the
area, and also help with the pain, and also help you get more out of the exercises today. The first
exercise we're going to get into is a standing exercise, it's known as a pendulum exercise,
standing up behind your chair or next to a bench or a table. I’m going to use this bench here to
do the exercise today, you can also use some light weights for this exercise which we'll go through
today. Not heavy weights, it's not about how heavy you can lift, it's just a lightweight so one kilo,
half a kilo, or just a can of food to do this exercise.
What you're going to do is place your unaffected arm on a bench like this, and with your affected
arm, you're just going to allow it to just rest down like this, so just relax into position
your arms straight nice and relaxed just let gravity do its work.
You're not straining for this, it's just nice and relaxed movements.
It’s very simple, and then what you're going to do is just some gentle circles like this,
just around, that’s it. We're going to get five, four, three, two, and one, great work!
Let's go around the other way, five, four, three, two, and one. You're not straining for
this movement, you just let allowing momentum to do its thing. It's like a pendulum, that's
why it's called pendulum exercise. Once it gets moving, it's just going to continue to go round.
Grabbing on to a light weight if you've got one, you can still follow along without a light weight.
With the weights you’re going to see that it is easier to get the momentum. Back into position,
keeping that arm straight. What you're going to do is just those circles coming around
and just let momentum do its thing, nice and relaxed.
You don't need to be using your weight to do this exercise. Nice and gentle,
and three, two, one, great work.
Let's go a little bit bigger now with the circles, getting a little bit more range in that shoulder,
just let the weight do its thing. You're nice and relaxed, you're not straining,
your whole body is relaxed. You do need to come up a little bit more, come up a little bit more,
using a high bench or a high chair, that's it, it’s bigger circles.
Let's go the other way, nice little circles, that's it,
some bigger circles now, and three, two, one.
Now what we're going to do is just go back and forth with that movement. We
did circles just then, I’m just going to do some little back and forth movements.
This is more like a pendulum, just back and forth,
let momentum do its thing, just let the weight guide the movement. You're just holding on to it,
you're not straining, you're not pushing it. Let's do it a little bit bigger, three, two,
and one, excellent work. Placing the weight down, let's just wiggle out those fingers.
This next exercise is known as a towel stretch in which we're going
to stretch our arm behind our body. I have gone and grabbed a larger
towel since the start of this video to make the exercise a little bit easier.
What you're going to do is grab a towel, and you're going to roll it up just like this,
and then what you're going to do is take your unaffected arm,
and place the towel behind your back like this. I’ve got the towel behind my back like this,
and then I’m going to take my affected arm and grab onto the towel like this. What I can do
is increase the stretch in my shoulder behind the back by lifting up with my unaffected arm,
or if you do have trouble lifting your arm up you can just do it like this, lifting,
pulling this the towel down, or before how I had my arm above the head, you’re lifting
the hand up, so you're just lifting it up as far as you can go,
and you're holding, and then you're relaxing bringing it back down.
It's behind the head, pulling up or bringing down just like I’m doing now.
Let's go through that again, bringing the arm up, getting to your limits, making sure you're not
pushing into any pain, holding, and then coming back down. We're going to go through that once
more, bring the arm down to increase that stretch in the affected arm, holding at your limits,
and just keeping it there for about five seconds and then relaxing, taking the towel out.
The next exercise we're going to do is a finger wall crawl. If you've got a tablet,
or you're using another portable device, walking over to a wall, I’m just going to grab a makeshift
wall so we can do this exercise. You can do this exercise in standing or sitting, again I’ll just
get my wall be back in one second. You can see I’ve got a makeshift wall which I’ll be doing this
exercise with, you can go walk over to a wall to do this exercise. You want to start by standing
or being seated perpendicular to the wall, and what we're going to do is place our
hands or our fingers on the wall, we're just going to crawl up the wall like a spider.
Crawl our fingers up like a spider nice and slow, and as you can see by doing this, I’m increasing
the range of motion in my shoulder allowing the wall to assist with it.
That's it, going up as high as you can nice and slow, you're in no rush,
going as far as you can, not pushing into pain, coming down nice and slow.
We're going to do that again, let's go. Crawling those fingers up,
that's it, nice and slow. Going at your own speed, going as far as you can, not causing any pain,
that's it, coming up. Holding it there,
slowly coming down, if you can go further go as far as you can.
Let's go again, crawling those fingers up, I’m going to go a little bit further this time,
try to go a little bit further each time, but again not pushing into any pain.
The main goal is to increase that range of motion in the shoulder. That's it, coming all the way up,
increasing that range, slowly coming down.
Let's do the exact same exercise again, but this time we're facing front onto the wall. We're up
nice and tall, shoulders are back and down, hands are on the wall, and we're crawling those fingers
up the wall just like this, and as you can see we're increasing the range of motion in our
shoulder this time to the front. You're doing the exact same thing, your fingers are on the wall,
you're climbing them up the wall, going as far as you can. When you start to feel that tightness,
hold and then slowly bring your arm back down. Each time you do this exercise,
try to increase that range just a little bit more. By range, I mean try to go a little bit further,
but if you do experience or you don't want to be pushing into pain when doing these exercises,
let's go, a little bit of pain's okay, but not too much pain. You don't want to be aggravating the
area. Back into that upright posture, fingers are on the wall, let's climb them up again
nice and slow, pushing into the wall, using the wall to assist.
That's it, going as far as you can. You might not be able to get this high,
that's okay. Going as high as you can, maybe it's here, maybe it's here, that's okay.
Bringing the hand down, excellent work!
Let's go once more, let's just give our shoulder a bit of a rest, placing your fingers on the wall,
slowly climbing them up,
that's it. Focusing on your fingers, pushing into the wall as far as you can, let's just go
a little bit further now, making sure there's no pain, hold, slowly coming back down, great work.
For this next exercise, we're going to make use of our sticks. Grabbing on
to your stick, and what you're going to do is place your hands on top just like this,
and you're going to use your unaffected arm to get more range of motion or external rotation
in that affected arm. Your elbows are locked in, your elbows are bent at 90 degrees,
and what you're going to do is just keep that elbow locked in as best you can, and you're just
going to use the unaffected arm to get more range or rotation. By rotation I mean this movement
in that affected arm. I’m grabbing onto the stick,
and I’m gently pushing my arm out making sure I’m not getting any pain so it looks like this.
I’m feeling a slight stretch, and making sure there's no pain, and then I’m coming back. Again,
pushing the arm out using that unaffected arm. To do the movement, the other arm’s just being
guided, but you're also thinking about moving it out as well. That's It it, coming back,
let's do the same thing again. Coming out, pushing it out, feeling that light stretch, holding it,
and coming back. Let's go two more, pushing out,
feeling the stretch, making sure there's no pain, you don't want to push into any pain, coming back,
again, coming out, feeling that stretch keeping the elbow locked in,
coming back. For this exercise, if you've gone through that and you're lifting your elbow up,
make sure when you go through it again you correct it. Your elbow stays locked in,
and your arms rotating out. It's not coming up,
you're not pushing your arm out like this, it's just rotation, rotation looks like this.
The next exercise we're going to do will be making use of the stick as well. You can do this exercise
lying on a firm bed, or on the floor if you can get up and down off the floor. I’m going to get
down on the floor now. When you're in the lying position, what you're going to do is bring your
arms out straight like this, and again using your unaffected arm to assist with the affected arm. So
both arms are straight, and you're going to lift that unaffected arm up, guiding the affected arm,
nice, slow, and controlled, going as far as you can, keeping everything relaxed,
and then coming back down. Let's do that again, coming up nice slow and controlled,
not rushing it, nice and slow, not pushing into any pain,
just coming a little bit further as far as you can go. You might not be able to get this far,
coming back down. Let's go again, coming up, nice slow and controlled,
and slowly coming back down.
All right, now taking a seat back in your chair again. Now that you're seated back in your chair,
what we're going to do is a posterior capsule stretch. If you can't do it that's fine,
leave it out. You can progress to this as your shoulder starts to improve. Sitting up nice and
tall in your chair, shoulders are back and down, you're going to place one hand over your shoulder
just like this, and then you're going to use the other arm just to assist with the stretch
by helping give a little assistance by just pushing it up a little bit.
So you maintain that upright posture feeling a stretch in the back of the shoulder.
With the assistance we’re just going to hold this for thirty seconds.
Feeling that stretch, adding a little bit more pressure if you need to,
remember you should not have any pain with this exercise. Holding it another ten seconds,
and relax. Bring that arm down, going to do the same with the other arm
crossing it over your body, holding on to the back of your shoulder
using the other arm just to give a little bit more assistance,
and holding this stretch for thirty seconds, feeling it in the back of the shoulder.
Don't slouch over, maintain that upright posture, ten seconds to go,
and relax. Bringing those arms down, shaking them out.
And there you have some exercises
help with the pain and stiffness associated with frozen shoulder.
Stay consistent with these exercises, you want to be doing them at least once per day,
but go at your own pace. Don't rush them, don't be pushing into any pain, a little bit of soreness is
okay but you don't want to be over doing it. Also if you're struggling with the exercises
see your physiotherapist who can help you individualize or create an individualized program
for you because you may be beyond these exercises, or these exercises may be too difficult for you.
That's it from me for today, if this exercise video did help you make sure to give it the
thumbs up, and subscribe to this channel for regular exercise videos to help you
improve your health and fitness. That's it for me for today,
I’ll catch you again soon. Until next time, stay happy, and I’ll see you then.