Frozen shoulder is known in medical terms as adhesive capsulitis. The shoulder is made up of three bones that form a ball-and-socket joint. They are your upper arm (humerus), shoulder blade (scapula), and collarbone (clavicle). There’s also tissue surrounding your shoulder joint that holds everything together. This is called the shoulder capsule. With this condition the capsule becomes thickened and tight, severely restricting someone movement in a capsular pattern. The medical world is not sure what directly causes frozen shoulder- although you are more at risk with trauma to the shoulder, repetitive strain on the shoulder, female, aged between 40-60, suffer from diabetes or have undergone breast/ shoulder surgery. 

The main indication of frozen shoulder is inability to fully move the shoulder joint. It presents and develops through three phases

1. Freezing stage- pain slowly worsens over time, loss of range
2. Frozen stage- pain may reduce but stiffness worsens
3. Thawing stage- range and pain levels improve

Common symptoms are as follows

• Inability to reach above shoulder height
• Inability to toss a ball
• Inability to reach for something quickly
• Inability to reach behind your back to clasp a bra or tuck a shirt, for example
• Inability to reach to your side and behind to put on a seatbelt, for example
• Inability to sleep or lie on your side