Frozen Shoulder: Natural Treatment

I’ve had frozen shoulder at least twice in my life. At that time, I called a natural doctor that was a friend of my brother and his wife. By the time I called their office, my shoulder was locked and I was in so much pain that I didn’t even attempt to make an appointment. I simply called in and gave notice on their answering machine.

“I’m letting you know that tomorrow I’m coming. I’m not calling to ask for an appointment. I’m in too much pain. I’m just warning you that I’m coming.”

This particular doctor, Dr. Jeff Middleton, is not your normal doctor. He is a chiropractor that is a chemical specialist, but also, who has a spiritual gift. He’s located on the corner of Andrews Ave and Commercial Blvd in Ft. Lauderdale.

The day I arrived, he took me in, with no appointment, and sat with me for two hours, talking to me, and observing the interaction of my son and I. Then, he gave me 3 scriptures and sent me home. I left, wondering why he gave me the particular scriptures he had given me, but I determined that I was going to search them out to see why or if they applied to me.

One of the things he had said to me was, “You think too much.” That really confused me because at that time, I could not understand how one stops thinking. Then he said, “Lean not on your own understanding.” I couldn’t perceive of how I was doing that either, and that was one of the scriptures he gave me.

I read the three scriptures, but I didn’t see how they applied to me. I had to search them out. I had to start cross referencing. After several cross references on each scripture, I finally found something that clicked in my spirit. I had an aha moment. When that occurred, and I received that information in my spirit, some of the pain disappeared.

I returned to Dr. Middleton the following week, with a bit less pain. Again he talked to me for a while and gave me three more scriptures. This procedure repeated as I searched out each scripture; and after five weeks of this, all my pain was gone with two exceptions.

I had had a double fracture to my left leg in 2000, at the knee and ankle. So there was a place in the ankle where I still had pain. Additionally, I had pain in the axis of my neck. These were the only two areas of my body that he adjusted. Everything else, all the pain, left my body when my mind got aligned with God’s word, via the scriptures he had given me.

When I started school at American Institute, I was pretty much a mess. It wasn’t just my shoulders. It was my entire body. I was so stressed for so long, that I had knots on my adhesions (knots).

During practicum, I had several senior students massaging me at various times. Considering their greater knowledge base, I wanted them to work on me, because I knew I was a walking mass of contractions and overstressed muscles.

And work on me, they did. I was poked, prodded, elbowed, and massaged into gradual levels of relaxation. It was during the first 5 months of all this wonderful practice of giving and receiving massage, that I came up with my company name.

It was after yet another student had called the practicum instructor over to point out another unusual lump in my back, that I said, “Sorry, but I’ve got so many issues in my tissues, and they’re getting worked out here.” Five months of massage, several times a week, did a lot towards eliminating those issues caused by stress, from not just my shoulders, but my whole body.

Naturally, as a practicing massage therapist in training, I started to solicit my family so that I could work on them. Mom was the first to step up to the plate. I didn’t get a chance to check her alignment prior to her getting on the table, but when I looked at her shoulders I noticed that one had a raised pad of hard tissue between the neck and the edge of the shoulder.

“What’s going on with your shoulder? ” I asked. She then told me that she had been unable to lift that arm above waist level. I could see why. I began some effleurage to warm up the area prior to attempting to begin breaking that mass of adhesions in the affected shoulder.

Then I decided to try to send blood into the area from her feet. As I went to massage her feet, I found that she had a bunion on each foot; with the one on the same side of this shoulder problem, being considerably larger than on the other foot.

“I see the problem. Your feet are showing me.” I told her I was going to start to break the bunion, and I began a reflexology technique that did start breaking the bunion up. The top of it softened up, and she reported feeling a significant difference in the bunion, and her shoulder as well.

After that one treatment, with some additional neuromuscular massage on the affected shoulder, full range of motion returned to her shoulder. I did tell her it would take several more visits to completely treat that bunion, and fully address that raised muscle in her shoulder.

So how did this same pain start for me yet again? As a massage therapist, I find this to be a common problem in people who spend a lot of time on the computer, such as a writer like myself. So after leaving school, and spending a lot of time on the computer conducting business and marketing myself; I found myself facing another lockdown occurring in both of my arms.

Not only was the shoulders and neck being affected, but additionally, my forearms were so knotted up, that a fellow massage therapist had tried a method called “unwinding” to release it, to no avail. I had repeatedly tried two forms of friction on myself, “rolling” and “wringing.” I did my own trigger point therapy on my forearms and shoulders to the point of bruising myself, but still, it was not enough.

By the time I reached my ready point, I was in a no choice situation. The lockdown on my muscles had gotten extreme, and I was having quite a bit of pain. I hadn’t been massaged in about two months, and I was really feeling the difference.

The battle was hard fought, and finally, I had won, but by that time, it had definitely become a necessity. I started walking almost two weeks ago. I found a really nice park down the street, about 5 miles from my home. It has a great walking trail, biking trail, and a lot of other resources. I was happy to take advantage of that beautiful park.

I have a pair of leg weights, but I decided to use them for my arms instead of my legs. I strap them onto my wrists, and I walk with a long stride, swinging my arms really hard to make a pendulum effect.

I’ve been swinging that pendulum so well, that I feel a pull in my shoulders, and a twisting happening in my waist. This elongates my stride more. It’s not as fast as some of the walkers, but boy, do I feel it. I sweat, and that pull of pain in the shoulders is the pain of those muscles getting worked.

Not only have I been doing that swing, but I’ve been making a full, round the clock swing that does a full 180 on the pendulum while I’m walking. I do 10 reps backwards on each arm, and 10 reps forwards. I may do this 2-4 times while walking the entire track.

Considering the major changes I’ve been making in my life, an adjustment in my mindset had occurred and this was the catalyst for the changes I was making.

One big change, was that I had decided that I needed an exercise program. First of all, I just needed to exercise to be healthy, but additionally, being a massage therapist can be so stressful on the body, and most massage therapists only last 3-5 years if they don’t take proper care of themselves.

So I had made the decision, but you know how it is when you decide you want to do something. Everything in the universe is pulling for you, while everything within you is fighting against yourself. Your old habits are putting up a Titanic battle against change. Thus, it took a while after this decision was made, for me to actually begin to walk in it.

Since doing this, the pain has been dissipating from my shoulders and arms. The kinks in my neck that had been hurting me are all gone. I go to the park at least 4 mornings per week, and occasionally I go in the evening as well.

I was so sore in my legs until yesterday. Yesterday was the first morning that I was able to walk the entire path without feeling pain from the soreness in my hips. And for the last 4 days, I was suffering with the piriformis muscle in my left hip firing, which is located next to the sciatic muscle. Those long strides with the twisting and pulling from the weights on my swinging arms, really works the legs, right up through the gluteus maximus.

Stretching helps the leg/hip muscles; and stretching the arms on chin-up bars, or pull-up rings, really helps alleviate the contractions in the shoulders that too much time on a computer accumulates. I feel so much better, and now I am determined to counteract my time on the computer with a minimum of an hour per day of this type of walking exercise, along with massage. I believe that this will keep my muscle tone supple and relaxed and pain free.

Be sure to check the next article on this topic. I learned more about it because I suffered from the condition yet again. The more I suffer, the more I learn for healing purposes, which benefits all of us, because I'm gonna write about it. So be sure to check out all three articles.

Sandra M Urquhart

Massage Therapist/Writer

For links to more articles check out:

http://www.sandramurquhart.com & my new website: http://www.issuesinyourtissuesmassagetherapy.com