Most anyone who has ever had a frozen shoulder and physical therapy can tell you real quick that stretching is at the top of their therapist’s list. And stretching is extremely important  because you obviously can’t use your arm if your range of motion is poor. I see so many therapists design their patient’s programs around stretching and ROM as if they forget that the involved arm will get weaker as time goes on. In fact, every single patient I have muscle tested with frozen shoulder after they have had it for a few weeks had significant weakness in their affected arm versus their non-involved arm.

It only makes sense that the affected arm will get weaker because of disuse. This is why it is crucial to implement some strengthening exercises into a frozen shoulder exercise program:

1) Scapular strengthening – begin with shoulder blade pinches then progress to shoulder depression exercises. These help to keep the shoulder blade from “riding up” to soon into a range of motion. This riding up is also referred to as scapular substitution.

2) Cuff strengthening – The rotator cuff are responsible for stabilizing the head of the humerus into the glenohumeral joint (socket). As these tiny muscles get weak from under use, they begin to “misfire” and cause all sorts of pain and problems including impingement.

3) Hand/Grip strengthening – Measures with a hand grip strength tool (called a dynamometer) in a person with a frozen shoulder almost always show decreased strength. Strengthening your grip will help keep this all important function intact.

**With the above, perform any group of strengthening exercises once per day. Stretches should be done in frequent short bursts throughout the day.

Remember to always strengthen in the pain free range of motion and try not to force ROM too much with the strengthening exercises. If you strengthen as you gain ROM you will be way ahead of the curve in terms of recovery and outcome.