Acupuncture and massage for stiff and frozen shoulder

What are stiff and frozen shoulders?

Some shoulders become stiff due to a known cause: injury, trauma, immobilisation through a period of time. According to ISAKOS (an International Society of orthopaedic surgeons, sports scientists, physicians and physical therapists), frozen shoulder is a stiff shoulder without a known cause. We don't know what causes it but it's been observed that frozen shoulder is more common in women after 50 years of age, though it can happen to men as well.

Frozen shoulder starts with pain and inflammation in the shoulder wich gets worse at night and persists for more than three months. The range of motion decreases gradually over time, until it gets difficult or even impossible to do household activities like combing your hair, getting dressed, or reaching for the seatbelt in a car. After a while the pain decreases, but the stiffness and limited range of motion persists. As a consequence of this limitation, it is common to compensate some movements with the neck, the other arm, or the back which can create ocasional pain in other parts of the body. Frozen shoulder usually recovers by itself within a period of between 1-3,5 years.

What can help a frozen shoulder?

First of all, if you are experiencing shoulder pain and stiffness it is best to see a doctor or physiotherapist and get diagnosed. Your particular condition could be related to other health problems which requires different treatment methods.

There is not consensus on the treatment of frozen shoulder. There are still ongoing studies aiming to find effective treatments. Physical therapy, medication and surgery are some examples. According to this study, acupuncture and massage improves the range of motion of people with frozen shoulder.

I can tell from my experience that acupuncture and massage helps to reduce the pain, and increase range of motion with clients with frozen shoulder after a session. I do not have enough experience to tell how long the improvement sustains in time or if frequent sessions could lead to a faster improvement. But I do know that my clients feel better and lighter and more comfortable in their bodies after a session, which is an improvement to their quality of life during this difficult period.

How to treat a stiff and a frozen shoulder with acupuncture and massage?

I like to start with acupuncture. It usually makes everything better quickly and it makes it easier to massage afterwards.

• Energy channels like Lung, Large Intestine, Triple Burner and Small Intestine go through the shoulder. Chinese Traditional Medicine says "where there is no circulation, there is pain". I use pulse reading diagnosis and touch the skin to find out the channels with blockages or weaknesses and I balance them with acupuncture.

After the acupuncture treatment, I do a myofascial massage and trigger point therapy to all the structures involved or affected by the frozen shoulder: remember that the lack of mobility in the shoulder may create secondary problems like tension in the neck or back from compensating movements.

• My main focus is releasing tension in the Subscapularis muscle, reaching it's trigger points from near the armpit. This technique is painful and I perform it while communicating with my clients to adapt to what they can handle. Scientific studies show an important association between Subscapularis trigger points and frozen shoulder. After this treatment my client's range of motion usually improves and they report feeling better.

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