Here is a brain teaser question for you.
What does the world’s second longest reigning monarch have to do with frozen shoulders?
As I’m sure you’ve heard, the big news over the last week has been the passing of the queen of England.
As this has been so much in the news this week, I thought I would share the most interesting story that I have heard about her.
On a misty morning in 1995, the Queen was hit by a “kamikaze” grouse.
She was on a hunt in Scotland when out of the blue, a bird plummets from the sky right into her shoulder. It turns out, the bird was shot as part of the hunt and it was pure bad luck that it crash dived towards her.
She was slightly injured but nothing serious.
Another shoulder injury that can come out of the blue with almost no warning is a Frozen Shoulder (see how I made that connection?)
I want to share a study that compared two treatment strategies for a frozen shoulder.
As tempting as it might be, the best advice for a Frozen Shoulder isn’t to just “let it gooo..”
(I know, I know, I am guilty of loving bad jokes.)
Is stretching or mobilising a better technique to thaw a frozen shoulder?
Here’s the answer according to Duzgun and colleagues study from 2019:
These researchers compared two protocols:
Stretching the posterior capsule versus mobilizing the scapula
Abduction ROM increased by 10° with mobilisations compared to 5° with stretching.
External rotation ROM improved by 5.5° with mobilisation compared to 1.2° with stretching.
Active internal rotation improved by 6° with mobilisation compared to 3.6° with stretching.
When you combined both of them, however, ROM increased by an awesome 9.8°.
Main take-away:
Life is full of surprises and sometimes that it is going to be a dive bombing bird, while other times it’s not being able to move your shoulder.
Attack those surprises with a two-pronged approach of both stretching and mobilising to win back mobility.
References
Written by Kyle van Heerden
Online Educator at Research Raconteur
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