Frozen Shoulder Physiotherapy at Home in Sadashiv Peth, Pune

A frozen shoulder announces itself through ordinary household tasks. Reaching for a high cupboard, hanging washing on a line, fastening a blouse or a bra behind the back, or turning over at night becomes painful and then impossible. For someone living in an old Sadashiv Peth home, with its deep shelves, lofts and a washing line across a courtyard or terrace, the shoulder is in use from the first chore of the morning.

The frozen shoulder physiotherapy guide explains the condition. Here we look at what makes it hard to live with in a peth household, and how a home visit can work around that.

The chores that trigger and aggravate it

• High storage. Old homes often have tall cupboards and loft shelves, which demand a full overhead reach.
• Washing lines. Lifting wet clothes up and pegging them out is a repeated overhead movement.
• Drawing and carrying water. Where a tap or tank is awkwardly placed, lifting and carrying a heavy can loads the shoulder through its range.
• Dressing and hair. Reaching behind the back and up to the head are usually the first movements to be lost.
• Sleeping. Lying on the sore side hurts, and sleeping on a thin mattress on the floor gives little scope to find a supported position.

The stages, and why treatment changes with them

A frozen shoulder commonly passes through a painful, increasingly stiff phase, a stiff phase in which the pain eases, and a phase of slow thawing. Which stage you are in changes what helps. When pain is sharp, forcing the joint tends to make it angrier, so we use gentle movement, positioning and pain relief. As pain settles, work moves to stretching and regaining the range, and later to strengthening. We do not predict how long each stage will last, because it varies from person to person.

Diabetes is linked with frozen shoulder, and the physiotherapist will ask about it, as well as about previous injury or surgery. Pain that began with a fall, or that seems to come from the neck, needs a different assessment, which our pages on neck pain physiotherapy and shoulder pain physiotherapy outline.

What happens when we come to your house

The physiotherapist measures how far the arm moves forward, sideways and rotating outwards, and compares it with the other side. Then comes the most useful part: asking you to reach for your own cupboard, or to mime hanging a cloth, so that we see which movement is lost and what compensation your body makes. Treatment may include hands-on mobilisation (see manual therapy at home), heat or a pain-relief device before exercise, and a short set of stretches for you to do several times a day.

Managing the household while the shoulder thaws

• Bring the things you use daily down to waist-to-shoulder height, and leave the top shelf for later.
• Hang washing on a lower line, or peg only lighter items, and let the stronger arm do the lifting.
• Carry water in two small containers, one in each hand, rather than one heavy can.
• Sleep on your back or the other side, with a pillow under the sore arm.
• Do the stretches in short, frequent sessions. A warm bath beforehand can make them easier.

For ideas about the exercises themselves, see our blog article on frozen shoulder mobility exercises.

Shoulder pain that should be checked quickly

Pain with chest tightness, sweating or breathlessness could be heart-related and needs emergency care. A hot, swollen and very painful joint, or a shoulder that cannot move at all after an injury, also needs a doctor first.

To arrange treatment, book a visit. Our page on home physiotherapy in Sadashiv Peth explains how visits work in the neighbourhood.