I may have mentioned it before, but in Pilates, we're always most interested in our body's least stable joints and the muscles attached to them.

So that means that muscles attaching your legs to your trunk; those attaching your arms to your trunk; and the muscles engaged in moving your spine.

So this week, I want to talk specifically about shoulders, and particularly  "frozen shoulder".

What's frozen shoulder?

If reaching up feels like a challenge, or you wince every time you put on a coat or reach behind your back, then it could be adhesive capsulitis, which is more commonly known as frozen shoulder.

Sadly, unlike a frozen strawberry daiquiri, it's absolutely zero fun and put simply means the joint's decided it’s had enough of moving.

But really, what is frozen shoulder?

In simple terms, the capsule around your shoulder joint (a flexible, bag-like structure that helps the joint move smoothly) starts to thicken and tighten.

This creates adhesions (internal stickiness), and the result is exactly what it sounds like—your shoulder starts to freeze.

Movement becomes painful, and eventually, limited.

It typically develops in three stages:

1. Freezing – it begins with inflammation or of the soft tissues in the shoulder. Pain increases that's worse with movement and this limits you from using your full range of movement. The lack of movement itself then reduces the ability of the capsule to stretch making it feel worse. 
2. Frozen – stiffness remains, but the pain might ease slightly
3. Thawing – movement starts to return (very, very slowly)

The whole process can take months, or even a couple of years in some cases. Yep. Zero fun at all.

Why does frozen shoulder happen?

No one knows exactly why, but we do know this:
🔹 It’s more common in women aged 40–60
🔹 It’s often linked with hormonal shifts, particularly around perimenopause and menopause
🔹 You’re more likely to get it if you’ve had a period of immobilisation (e.g. after surgery or an injury..NB it's not necessarily from a shoulder injury itself)
🔹 Some autoimmune conditions, particularly diabetes, or thyroid issues can increase your risk too

It's very frequently misdiagnosed. Often it's confused with a bursitis or simply an "impingement". Basically, if your shoulder could talk, it'd be saying "Something's changing here and I do not like it"

What can you do about frozen shoulder?

The good news: It usually gets better. 

The bad news: It can take ages

Rehab often includes:

• Gentle, daily mobility exercises (in fact, the more consistent you are with your daily rehab exercises, the more quickly you'll recover. Yes, I know it's dull)
• Manual physiotherapy
• Sometimes steroid or cortisone injections to reduce inflammation
• A LOT of patience (sorry)

Can you pre-hab for frozen shoulder?

As with so much, prevention is definitely the name of the game, especially if you’ve had issues with one shoulder already (it often hits the other one next 🙄).

Here’s what helps:
✅ Keeping your shoulders mobile and strong (think: getting on all fours and engaging all the muscles round your shoulders to stabilise yourself)
✅ Regular controlled movement through a full range (think: arm circles, scapular slides, rotations)

✅ Stay hydrated - all connective tissue works better when it's got enough water.

✅ Being mindful of posture (that old chestnut!)
✅ Breathwork and ribcage mobility, because your shoulder’s not doing all the work on its own. As with last week's message - everything's connected!

In short: move well, move often, and don’t ignore your shoulders just because they’re not currently complaining. Because once they do? You'll know about it