The Frozen Shoulder Workbook: Trigger Point Therapy for Overcoming Pain and Regaining Range of Motion (A New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) Paperback – Illustrated, August 1, 2006

Excellent reference book. If you have any shoulder issues, get this book. Also get the the 1st book, same Authors the book, The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook is phenomenal! These books will help you eliminate pain & discomfort from many areas of your body. Share The books with friends and family are better yet get them their own copies.

I would like to tell you how the Frozen Shoulder Workbook helped me overcome a painful but common illness with no surgery or manipulation under anesthesia. I found relief!This past spring I fell while carrying a folding chair and bruised my ribs. Due to the rib pain I stopped my daily stretching and swimming. I was also under a lot of stress at work. The rib healed but I began to have arm pain on reaching down. One time when plugging in a power cord I had shooting pains in my shoulder and arm. (ten on a 1 to 10 pain scale) I returned to swimming and found it to be painful so I went to my primary doctor. She said it was bursitis and gave me an anti-inflammation drug and sent we to physical therapy. It got worse and my shoulder froze up. PT was no help and the pain got worse. X-rays showed a normal joint when I went to a shoulder specialist. He said it was bursitis and possible tendonitis. He gave me a cortisone shot in the shoulder and a prescription for a shoulder MRI, if it didn't resolve itself in a week. No relief from the shot and the MRI would have cost me US $195 out of pocket so I looked for an alternate plan. I went to a Chiropractor and I sent off for this book. The Chiropractor told me I should have come to him sooner before the shoulder froze up. I could not lift my arm over my head, work was very difficult and nighttime required sleeping pills and painkillers. My neck muscles on that side where very tight and the scapula (shoulder blade) was not moving. (I learned that the scapula must rotate 30 degrees for the arm to reach over the head completely.) Clair Davies book is excellent, I began using his techniques to massage my tight neck, chest, shoulder, and arm muscles. The first thing to improve was the pain. I found a great massage therapist to help me and the Chiropractor worked to free up the shoulder joint capsule by stretching after 15 minutes of icing the shoulder . The Trigger Point Therapy truly works if you follow this books instruction carefully. Work through chapter 5 and 6, massage with the book open. It is not an easy path but your diligent self-treatment will pay off (there are 24 muscles that help the shoulder move). Stay positive, work on standing up strait and reducing stress. Today I was able to hang from a chin up bar and pain is almost gone. I have resumed swimming and next week I will begin upper body strengthening exercises. One tip not in the book is that I suggest is to rest your shoulder completely one day per week, the following day you will see improved range of motion from the relaxed trigger points. Good Luck!

I can hardly begin to explain how much this book helped me with my frozen shoulder. THE FROZEN SHOULDER WORKBOOK gave me tools that improved my situation and that complimented my other medical support, such as PT and acupuncture. It helped me manage the worst of the terrible pain and feel productive again, despite this (rotten, infuriating) disability.Clair Davies describes in deep and understandable language and pictures what had happened to my shoulder -- which muscles were involved and how the pain was referred -- so I could talk with my medical help more precisely. He accurately describes the pain and the limitations that I dealt with daily -- which no one else had done -- so I didn't feel like I was over-reacting or making things up.Most important, the book has muscle trigger point exercises that you can do yourself to help manage the pain and move you closer to the day when PT can actually help you instead of only making things worse. I was a month into excruciating pain when I read this book and began the exercises immediately; for the first time in weeks I felt an improvement and actually slept that night.The exercises didn't cure my frozen shoulder, but they put me back in control of my body.You don't have to read all the detailed anatomy, and you'll probably chuckle at the very basic line drawings. But -- after you read the basics and go through the exercise descriptions, I bet you'll go back to learn more because you'll be so confident that the rest of the book will help you.I'm an a-type person and the inactivity imposed by my frozen shoulder was driving me nuts. This book gave me back my focus and the confidence to do what I could for myself. It put my mind-body connection back to work by presenting a firm idea of what a frozen shoulder is all about. Frankly, I think every person who is diagnosed with a frozen shoulder should be handed this book along with an acupuncture referral and the first dose of pain medication!

I bought this book as a self-help tool for my arthritic shoulders. The illustrations are great, however the book is most appropriate for professionals. I loaned it to my massage therapist to study so she can try the trigger point therapy on my shoulders. She loved the book so much that she ordered one for herself so she can highlight in it--she didn't want to mark up my book. I have no doubt the book will be helpful to me because it offers causation explanations for pain as well as strengthening exercises. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is because the medical terminology is beyond a layperson's understanding.