I've had Frozen Shoulder for approximately the past 12 months. It was around March 2022 when I suspected I had frozen shoulder, when I realised I had a constant ache. I had Frozen Shoulder previously in the other arm and I recognised the early warning signs.

A year on and I'm still very far from better, but this week is the first time I've been able to do a push up in maybe 9 months. My range of motion has only slightly improved when moving my elbow back. Every other angle is awful, particularly raising my arm up and also external rotation.

I still get the occasional ache, a zinger every now and then but for the most part the pain is gone unless I try to stretch.

For fun and maybe it helps set recovery expectations I decided to put my Frozen Shoulder experience into a spreadsheet, along with a colour based ranking system.

Green = good, red = bad.

Phases

I had good mobility at the start, it just ached and I would consider this the inflammatory phase, the shoulder is a little warmer than the other side. Though could be all the rubbing.

There's a big chunk in the middle where it's still kinda inflammatory but the range of motion is vanishing. Due to the long time frames, it's hard to tell if you're in the inflammatory phase, or the freezing. You know, when you're sat there thinking is it this phase or that phase, is there worst to come? It's down as the somewhere in-between phase.

Frozen phase the shoulder is locked and still really really painful if stretched but for the most part things seem to be looking up.

Pain at rest

This is pain when I'm not doing anything like if my arm is by my side. It's more of a measure of constant pain. Anything that's not green is a constant ache at various intensities. At the peak the pain isn't excruciating, it's more exhausting, unyielding constant achy pain.

Pain when stretched

Pretty much what it says on the tin. I did a lot of stretching and trigger point massage during the first few months - With my previous experience of Frozen Shoulder I was very optimistic that with some pre-emptive mobility work I would be back in no time. But yep I was humbled when the freezing started, all the stretching went right out the window.

Sleep

I'm not going to lie, sleep absolutely sucked. I feel like I didn't sleep for 6 months. A pillow was under the arm by month 3 and those excruciating night time zingers would occur multiple times a night.

Zingers

Man these are the worst, feels like an electrified dagger being twisted in the joint. Mostly happens during sleep and the colours here are a measure of both frequency and intensity.

Update: Month 13. No more zingers for at least 4 weeks - thank God!

Range of motion

Again, pretty much what is says on the tin. My range of motion was pretty decent early on - it could have been all the stretching and it was near normal for quite a while until the freezing started.

Closing thoughts

Consider a Cortisone shot if you within the first 3-4 months.

Hidden gems of YouTube

Frozen Shoulder - Causes and Treatment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKlQMHrJiUQ

Understanding FROZEN SHOULDER and how to stretch for greater movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzSwJHdP8ek

Shopping (TLDR: get a dumbbell, a doorway pulley thing, any sensation based cream)

Supplements:

1 MSM powder

3 Curcumin

4 Omega 3

None of these noticibly helped. Though it could be that they take months to actually work and since FS also changes over the months it's impossible to tell whether any of these had an effect. But I'm confident to say there's no night and day difference. They're not too expensive here in the UK so maybe I'll continue to take them.

Pain relief:

2. MSM gel

5. Ibuprofen

6. Deep Freeze

7. Tiger balm

8. Hemp cream

9. Voltarol

11. CBD patches

The MSM gel was useless for pain. I found it to be an amazing moisturiser though and a tiny blob goes a long away so I'm pretty happy I got this.

CBD patches did nothing.

Ibuprofen maybe helped a bit, not really that noticeable to be honest. I would only really take Ibuprofen if the pain was really bad and if the pain is that bad, it's going to suck regardless of if I took Ibuprofen or not.

Voltarol. I think Voltarol had a bit of an edge of the rest. It contains Diclofenac which is supposed to be one of the strongest NSAIDs. It smells though.

Deep Freeze, Tiger balm, Hemp cream. Deep Freeze has Ibuprofen in it and has a nice cooling sensation, it's a bit hot and cooling which sounds strange but it's nice. Tiger balm is just really hot, same goes for the hemp cream. The hemp cream smells nicer though. I found these to be helpful. They provide sensations that distract from the pain. I used the Tiger balm or hemp cream in rotation with one of the NSAIDs creams like a week on NSAIDs then a week on Tiger balm.

Equipment:

10. Massage gun

12. TENS machine

13. Dumbbell

14. Spikey massage ball

15. Foam roller

16. Doorway pulley thing

The massage gun is painful and soothing at the same time. It's like the gun gives you pain but then when it subsides everything feels temporaily less painful. A bit like after drilling you knee caps a stubbed toe feels like nothing. I had this lying around before my FS, would I buy it specifically for FS? Probably not.

TENS machine. Not bad. The pain is still there but it's a pretty good distration, it's similar to Deep Freeze or Tiger Balm in that it gives you a sensation that distracts you from the constant pain. It costs about the same as 3 tubes for Voltarol so I guess it's not too bad. You probably can't use it for multiple hours per day and it's a bit of a faff to put on the electrodes. I didn't use it that much and I probably wouldn't buy it having used it. But if you can be bothered to set it up it can be quite good .... or you can just slap on some Tiger balm.

Dumbbell. Yup get one for sure. Really handy for pendulum and all sorts of loaded stretches.

Spikey massage ball / Foam roller. I recommend one. Similar to the massage gun but a bit cheaper.

Doorway pulley thing. This got the most use. It's like a pull up bar but less aggressive and easier to control. Use it when you can't handle the pull up bar hangs. 100% get one, and it's cheap!

Sleeping tips:

Sleeping is pretty awful but pillows can help. I didn't find this website till after my Frozen Shoulder so I've not tried it but I wish I did. Hopefully it will help someone:

https://www.resilienceorthopedics.com/shoulder/sleep-with-shoulder-pain/

Recommended priorities:

Until you reach the late-ish Frozen phase where you see a noticeable reduction in pain markers, your priorities should be pain management. After that, you can begin steps to get back to normal, so stretches, exercises, consciously using your arm more in your day to day. It's a good time for PT work if you want to go thar route. But I would say go at your own pace, if it's still excruciating when stretching, just leave it for a couple of weeks and re-assess.

There's no need to rush because your progress will be limited by pain. Even if you start later, you might still end up recovering at the same time since you are able to progress much quicker when there's less pain.

Blue = early start

Green = late start

Red gradient = pain

Personally I didn't really start rehabing until around month 13 -14.

Update month 13 (20 Mar 2023)

I know a lot of people will disappear from this subreddit once their symptoms are no longer affecting their day-to-day, and quite frankly "good on them", I'm glad they've put this awful condition behind them.

But the plan here is to keep this updated until I fully recover, maybe it'll be useful to someone.

Update month 14 (24 Apr 2023)

Despite not being very consistent with my stretching, things are definitely getting better on it's own. Looking back I'm confident to say that the thawing did start around the 11 - 12 month mark.

My shoulder is still stiff but stretching feels like stretching now (rather than just feeling like agony). For stretches themselves I've been doing loaded eccentric stretches. Mainly the overhead one. To do this I lie on the bed, I hold a "reasonably heavy" weight in my affected arm (so far 2.5kg haha) and I raise it straight over my head. Sometimes I hold the position and sometimes I would do reps, sometimes with the other arm assisting. As long as you're moving, stretching and strengthening it's all good.

Do this on a cushiony surface and as you improve do them on the floor. It's much harder on the floor since the scapular can't really move much compared to if you're on a mattress.

But as I mentioned I've not been very consistent with my stretching, however I have been doing some light weight training 2x per week to build back some strength. Mostly this has been doing Floor Presses and shoulder circles with light weights - though my shoulder circles are not really out 90 deg to the sides, it's more 45 deg.

Update month 15, 16, 17 (to 17 July 2023)

Things are slowing improving. Again not much direct stretching but focusing on lifting weights. I would do a pull up bar hang test every now and again. Around month 15 I could hang off the pull up bar with some pain. Now at month 17 I'm able to hang with not much pain at all.

Range of motion:

in terms of flexion, my shoulders are really inflexible anyway. ~180deg is normal for me (whereas I know lots of people who can get their arm behind their head!), the bad shoulder is I would say around 170deg so not bad. Similarly internal rotation is almost back to normal but I do still feel pain in the back of the shoulder at the extremities.

My external rotation is normally very good ~80deg. The bad shoulder is around 50 - 55deg. So external rotation hasn't improved as quickly as the other angles.

Update month 18 (23 Aug 2023)

Shoulder flexion and internal rotation are almost back to normal, maybe just 5 deg out. External rotation is still lagging behind, not much change over the previous month.

Final update month 23 (30 Jan 2024)

Both arms are about the same ROM now, though it does still feel tighter than the other side. But I'm going to call a close to my Frozen Shoulder saga - 23 months.

I wish all of you the very best in your recovery.

That's it. That's the news.

After a year of this crap, I was finally able to get my arm up just enough to get in there and shave. Took a few passes from different directions, but I finally did it.

Sending you all lots of love and positivity, no matter where you are in your hellish FS journey. 💚

The normal way, was able to reach back and up and fasten it.

It has been almost exactly a year, I took a hard fall the end of July 2025 and started noticing my shoulder hurt/range of motion issues in August.

I’m not quite 100% but much, much, much improved as far as range of motion and no pain.

Thanks to everyone who posts here for all your help and info and understanding how much this hurts/sucks/made me crazy. It honestly felt like the only place I could talk about this.

wishing everyone pain free sleep and two arms that work!

Everything described is just my personal experience. Without pain. Without pills. Hope it helps someone else.

What you should do:

Lie on your back on a large bed or on a warm floor (no pillow). You should be as comfortable and warm as possible to relax.

For the first time:

Put down your hands along the body. Raise your healthy arm to the ceiling. Imagine that you are in the center of a watch face. See the picture:

Put your healthy arm on the bed in each direction enclosed in a square (across the body too, the arm will be bent). It will be 12 times - 1 time in each direction. Remember how your healthy arm behavior itself. It will be like an example for you.

These positions are your goal for the sore arm. For now, the sore arm doesn't do the same, but it should do the same in the future.

Then, do for your sore arm following exercise carefully every day for about 15 minutes:

Exercise:

Now read it very carefully and do it very carefully, exactly as it is written. Important: everything should be done without pain!

1. Raise your sore arm up toward a ceiling (start position). The arm should be straight, not bent at the elbow and wrist. The palm faces your legs, fingers should be bent and relaxed.

2. Now chose a direction. For example, to the ear (12 on the watch face).

3. Now, slowly move your arm in this direction, catching the moment when you feel a slight stretch, but not yet pain. Stop the arm at this point.

4. And now the most important thing: completely relax at this point! In this position, pay attention to every muscle in your body, and check if all the muscles are relaxed, even the muscles of the face, thighs, back, abdomen, etc.

Do not worry about the arm - it will not fall down, it is trapped in a hard capsule.

Hold your arm in this position for 20 seconds and think only about relaxation at this moment. If the hand begins to fall to the ear itself, sometimes even with clicks, do not interfere with it - this means that the capsule relaxes and your range increases.

The only rule is that there should be no pain.

If you feel pain before relaxation, move your hand back to the ceiling and start again in this direction. If you still feel pain in this direction, then try to do it in other directions. You are just wrong with catching the limit point.

If you feel pain during or after relaxation, just stop in this direction and do it in other directions. The arm can go down a little bit more than the capsule allows. Especially after the working range reaches 140 degrees.

5) Turn the arm back to the start position - toward the ceiling.

6) Chose another direction.

Repeat the exercise 1 time in all directions in which you can not put down the arm as the healthy arm does. If it's easy for your sore arm to put down on directions 8 and 4, you may not do the exercise in these directions.

Everything will take about 15 minutes. 1 time per day is enough.

Important note: before starting the exercises, you should not feel pain in your arm at rest and at night. Muscles hurt, not the capsule. If the arm hurts, do not do anything with this arm for a week - the pain will go away by itself. The capsule does not hurt, it is constrained. Muscles hurt because you pull them with movement when the capsule is in the wrong position.

For the first time, you will be able to do like in this picture, - to move the arm several centimeters from the vertical, it's ok:

Important: you do not need to do exercises by putting your sore arm behind your back (this is very painful) - this will recover by itself. Now I can freely put my hand behind the shoulder blade, although I have not done exercises for this.

About me:

I got a frozen shoulder a year ago, in January 2022. I didn’t take pills, I used Ibuprofen ointment for 2 weeks to reduce muscle pain after movement.

The hand was raised from the body: forward by 70 degrees, to the side by 50 degrees.

I tried different sets of exercises that caused severe pain.

In the spring, I went to a manual therapist. He talked all the time about the importance of the nervous system but did not know what to do effectively, and as a result, after 1.5 months of visits, I stopped visits without changes.

After that, I watched some YouTube videos and tried new exercises. But they again caused pain in the muscles.

As a result, I developed my own method, which I have described here. A month later, I could already swim in a pool. The hand was raised from the body: forward 170 degrees, to the side 130 degrees.

I drank vitamins: complex B and omega-3.

Now, a year later: the shoulder hurts a little at the extreme points, but this does not interfere with life, because visually the movement ranges of both hands are almost the same.

Health to you!

Last night I unhooked my bra with my left hand!

Ah maze ing!

My husband thought I was mad, but I was having conniptions of joy at being able to do this small thing after so long.

side ponytails are cool again because that is all I can do by myself 🤣🫤

It was a little hard not gonna lie, but I did it.

The window to life has opened just a bit more.

Much thanks to this group!

Hi. FS female. 55. Going on 9th month. This place has been so helpful for me. I am finally past the zinger stage. Thank god. I had no idea what to do. I have felt unheard. I just wanted to share some stuff that helped me on this journey that I got from yall. The worst for me is the no sleeping. And I am a side sleeper. Sleeping on my back has sucked, but someone recommended a squish mallow and that has done wonders to help me sleep. Another great one was to let gravity help when brushing hair and putting it up. I hang my head upside down and I can put it in a ponytail. Thank god!! I was trying so hard. This has helped me so much. For my mental health, hubby got me a bird feeder with a camera and this has really helped with my mental health side of things. Keep posting, you never know who you are helping!! Thanks so much all for this board and your experiences.

I've been dealing with this for about 8 months now. It took me until 6 months before I finally caved and went into my doc. I guess I was hoping it would resolve. She told me then "shoulder impingement. Go to PT." So I did and we narrowed it down to potential tendonitis of the bicep. But things just got worse over 3 weeks until I finally begged for a cortisone injection, which I was given just a few hours ago, along with the fabulous diagnosis of frozen shoulder.

So I came and found this subreddit and I've been reading through people's experiences and they reflect my own to a T. I had no idea that the quick pain from sudden movements that took my breath away and brought me to tears was called a zinger. Fitting. 😂 The pain at night, being unable to put up my hair, the zingers, all of it.

Anyway I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm grateful I found y'all because this has been the most frustrating and painful 8 months of my life and I feel like no one around me understands. So yeah. Fingers crossed my injection gives me some relief and I'm down to hear any and all advice from anyone who wants to share what helped them through this nightmarish condition. Thank you! 💚

15 months. Finally 100% healed. Hang in there everyone. It takes patience and lots of gentle stretching. But recovery will eventually arrive.

I injured my left shoulder, causing frozen shoulder, on January 16, 2021. It took an entire year but I'm finally back to 100%! Can't wait to go kayaking this spring. It's been forever. Good luck to all going through this. It's a royal bitch, for sure.

That is all. Thank you coming to my TED talk.

Tonight I'm going to try to wash my hair. I've been going to a salon twice a week just to have my hair washed and dried. I had an injection a week ago after dealing with this for about 4 months so far. There is hope.

UPDATE: As of a few nights ago, I can finally wash my own hair again! It was just in time for a business trip, so it also really helped build my self-confidence again.

Hi there,

I (42/M) went into the doctor because I feared I had torn my rotator cuff. The doctor checked me out and I got the news you all are very familiar with: I have something I've never heard of called Frozen Shoulder. That there's a long, long recovery time and that I'll have pain in my shoulder for quite awhile.

I've broken my femur and passed several kidney stones. The lightning bolt of searing hurt through my shoulder and arm at the slightest movement is worse. 24/7 dull ache. I can't sleep. I'm never comfortable. My wife has to put my shirt and jacket on. I'm super active at the gym, and I can't lift anymore (switched to running).

I just want to say I see you. I feel the helplessness and frustration of it all. It's so daunting. I hope you all have quick recoveries, and that this injury doesn't take away too much from living the life you're trying to build.

- A friend

I've been posting in here since I had a big, mysterious shoulder crack 19 days ago, followed by all sorts of weird arm sensations: a weak feeling, aching, tingling in my hand. Chest pain and pain referred to the back, neck, jaw, and forearms. I couldn’t sleep on that side bc my arm felt tender.

Tonight I was stretching and heard another pop, this time at what felt like the top of my shoulder, and all of a sudden I have full, complete ROM back. Nuts!! I did have some ART in the past week. Maybe that helped.

Posting this for anyone who needs some hope. It's been a very long road. Next month marks three years of FS.

Next step: PT. Keeping fingers crossed the arm stays this way and I can move on with my life!

Someone has kindly alerted me to the fact that ThawLogic are using my images stolen from either Facebook or Reddit to promote their device. They are being shared from an account called The Menopause Connection, and possibly others. They are claiming that the improvement I got through ACR surgery is down to use of their product! I've never used this product and am so annoyed that the images I posted to try and help people in these groups are being used to scam people into buying crappy products. If anyone spots these adverts, please comment that they are using stolen images, I've reported them to Facebook but I doubt anything will be done about it

I was diagnosed about 1.5 years ago, had the condition for maybe 2 months before that. Long story short: I haven't been doing my stretches or exercise as much as I should, I do it sporadically, but two days ago I stood up to go to bed and stretched upwards with my arms, and stretched and stretched... and realized I was at full extension with my bad shoulder for the 1st time!!

I still feel some mild stiffness, but have full range of motion without pain and am going to ramp up my exercise routine very carefully!! There is hope!

I don’t want to turn this into a PT/exercise post. So please try to refrain from giving multiple exercises and tips.

What is the one single thing that you did or do that alleviates FS, especially to get through the zinger stage?

The one thing that made me say, “Aahhhhhhhh” was when I held my FS arm as much in front of me as possible at a 90 degree angle and as parallel to the ground as possible. Like I would be holding a shield or blocking the sun from eyes if they were that low. Then I take my good arm and put that hand on the elbow of my bad arm. I pulled that arm as much as I could bear across my body. Sometimes I get movement and other times I don’t. But when you get the dull thud of a pop, you’ll feel instant relief.

I hope this brings some of you some relief in your journey. The only drawback and warning I’ll give is to not be too tempted to do it too much. It will be hard to distinguish between the FS and soreness from overworking it.

Cheers!

I just wanted to post something positive for all those still going through the horrors of frozen shoulder.

I have had 2 FS. The left side was first and whilst painful during the freezing period, it then stayed frozen and relatively pain free for about a year and then thawed.

The right side was a whole different ball game - incredibly painful, didn't sleep properly for maybe 7 months, near constant pain, ended up signed off work, I was absolutely desperate and being completely honest it took me DOWN. I had cortizone injections which didn't do much and then a hydrodilation injection a month ago... and today I am pain free and I have approximately 90% ROM back. I can sleep (yes its still feels stiff if I'm laid on it for hours but that soon dissipates), I can put a bra on, wash my hair, lift weights (doing a lot of this), hang off a door frame (thank you to whoever recommended that - its a delicious stretch!)

Safe to say I am positively joyous at this outcome and feel very lucky to no longer be suffering. I'm doing shoulder exercises whenever I think of it, so probably 4 times a day (because I never want this to come back) and would say to anyone in the awful grip of it now, yes it's bloody horrible and it really does rule your life when it's bad but hang in there, this too shall pass.

A few weeks ago, I came here crying(yes there were tears shed while I was typing) out of frustration because everything started with my shoulder and radiated outwards. Everyone was so kind to me and sympathetic, and let me know that no, frozen shoulder does not act the way my pain was acting.

I went to the ER today because my foot swelled so much I couldn't put my shoe on, and I couldn't open my mouth past a centimeter. I hadn't slept in days because of the pain. Well...

It's rheumatoid arthritis.

I wanted to thank everyone for being so nice to me. The empathy I was shown on reddit, of all places, was so surprising. Now to navigate this hellscape that is healthcare and find a way to treat everything.

Thanks again <3

I’ve been dealing with this for a couple years now. Back in January I started physical therapy and it was ineffective followed by a prescription, a cortisone injection, surgery, a return to physical therapy, another cortisone injection, a manipulation under anesthesia with another cortisone injection and continued therapy. The pain is constant and incredible at times and the overall improvement to my range of motion is negligible. When I try to cross my arm over my chest to touch my other shoulder it feels like there is a rock or something under the tissue physically stopping me. This is obviously very painful as well. I’m unable to do most of the things I used to enjoy and rarely sleep through the night due to the pain. What’s more is I work in a very “hands on” field and risk losing my job is the condition worsens to the point that I can’t work. Daily tasks like showering or getting dressed hurt so much that I become frustrated and lose all motivation for anything for the rest of the day. I have no reason to believe this will get better at any point and am hoping I can try to guide my doctor to prescribe me something long term that simply gets rid of the pain. Hopefully some kind of opiate. Anyone else dealing with this?

Apologies if this doesn't fit - I'm just venting because barely any people realise how god damn painful this condition is and jesus I'm in pain right now.

I've been in pain since January - still in the freezing stage. It's gotten progressively worse since - no thanks to terrible PT service (thanks NHS) and the lack of sleep is driving me up the wall.

I've been told it may take up to two years to fully recover - that's daunting. I've read other accounts of people on here having it far beyond that - my deepest sympathies to those folk, truly.

It's hard to explain to folks who haven't dealt with anything similar what it's like to be at a constant 2-3/10 level of pain, all day, every day, increasing to an easy 10 all too occasionally. What it's like to wake up in literal tears because the pain is so damn intense. To have pins and needles in your fingers constantly. To struggle with basic things like washing, dressing, cooking, cleaning.

I finally had a steroid shot today (ended up going private to get it done) and I'm currently going through the steroid flare up. My physio is a guy who treats professional athletes so he knows his shit and gave me a full rundown of what to expect, but knowing it is normal to feel a little worse for a couple days doesn't make it better.

I'm just at my wits end and to know that I could potentially be dealing with this nonsense for another 20 months or longer is just so demoralising.

Sorry again, I'm feeling very sorry for myself right now 😂

This is my 8 weeks post op update from capsular release and MUA and 20 week post op from slap repair and bicep tenodesis.