Shoulder Pain? The Solution & Prevention, Revised & Expanded

6 yr update: 56, still gratefull this book gave me the active life I have today, as an older woman, no gyms, nearly no fitness regimen, but staying very active with bulletproof shoulders & upper back that had held me back and even debilitated me in younger years. Shoulders are better and stronger than 30, 20 and 10 years ago. Just changed my heavy wheels, lifted them onto storage hangers, going kayaking. Buy the book, or just HANG. 2 yr update: Still at the top of this grey haired windsurfer's gratitude list for changing my life massively. My shoulders are strong as heck and my old back is grateful, too. If I forget to hang for too long, I start to feel the torn cuff when kayaking, lifting weights, windsurfing etc. but go right back to a bit of hanging most days and the pain and tightness is gone. 1 yr update: still a freaking miracle, and this old lady will arm wrestle all naysayers! If you aren't already hanging, but are taking time to read this review, just buy the book. I honestly don't hang every day, still don't have a real bar, but occasional hanging has kept my shoulders fully functioning and pain free for a year, now. Really feels good for my back, too, when it gets sore from all the heavy lifting I can do, now. 6-month review: Total miracle for a nonbeliever!!! The book looks hokey, but buy it. Knowing how well it works, this was worth a fortune to me. It was other reviewers here and on youtube that convinced me to try this after 10 months of pain and life limitations from torn rotator cuff with severely frozen shoulder, so I'll add my testimony as a former skeptic. Yes, one word synopsis is accurate: HANG. That seemed impossible to me, but by the third day and a total of about 20 seconds of sort-of-trying-to-hang, my life changed. But if you are reading this review and haven't already reshaped your shoulder by hanging, you must be like me - one of those people who need to buy the dang book, read it, criticize it in your mind, google Dr. Kirsch and wonder if he's still alive and why his website is so funky. THEN HANG! Then bless his name as your shoulder savior, forever. The book does include imaging of the way hanging reshapes shoulder anatomy, and I needed to see that as a skeptic who was too scared/lazy/dumb to just try hanging without the book. I was ready to spend tens of thousands on iffy surgery just to be able to live with the pain. I was a middle-aged woman with one shoulder about ten years post rotator cuff tear - sort of OK, but feeling precarious - and the other cuff now very torn for ten months and completely (painfully) frozen for many of those months. You could see the knotted up torn part just looking at my arm - even without the MRI - it was that bad. The frozen shoulder was even worse for me, though. I just wanted to be able to sleep through the night, maybe brush my hair, and had totally given up hope of ever getting back to the sports and activities of my younger years. I was even considering MUA, but read a lot of publications on the high instance of broken bones, low instance of happy shoulders one, two, five, ten years later, and was very discouraged. Basically, I could not imagine how my arm could get up to a hanging position ever again, but saw with MUA they just yank it up there (under anesthesia) and charge you like that's surgery. In a scary percentage of patients, this actually breaks the arm bone and not encouraging one-year odds of good recovery! I figured - if I was ready to pay someone a fortune to drug me, give a quick yank to tear through all that scar-like encapsulating "frozen" tissue, maybe break my arm, very likely leave me back with same problem or even worse soon after - then I could try to do it myself with a more incremental approach. I was honestly scared to try to hang, as it hurt to barely jostle my arm. So, I spent too much time reading the part of the book that some guest contributor added to this edition - how to make hanging bars, what kind of hand hooks to use, etc. I shopped for those online without buying, and otherwise dithered. I especially worried for too long how, exactly, I should move all the way from the barely 45 degrees I could push my upper arm to (barely parallel with the floor) to somehow hanging with my hands overhead. To even get my upper arm parallel with the ground, I had to use the other hand to push it, and had to "cheat" with extreme contortion of my torso and hunching. The detail of how exactly to "hang" from there isn't really explained in the book, but I'll tell you how I awkwardly started what seemed impossible. First, don't be scared - you do not have to feel like you are ripping through that frozen shoulder stuff, or busting past that hard-stop bone-on-bone feeling. Doctors tell you frozen shoulder is sort of like scar tissue, and it feels like bone-on-bone with painful nerves trapped between. But it is also different from scar tissue. For me - even though it felt like physical tissue, bone, nerve that would need to be torn and forced to move again - it only took a tiny bit of pulling via gravity, and my acromium was quickly reshaped enough to relieve those pinched nerves and tendons, and then the encapsulation/scar-like stuff faded away unbelievably quickly. So, just try it like I finally did. With bent elbows down, and hands up, I finally just grabbed what I could reach - the top of my shower's tub door frame - overhand grip, shoulder-width apart. The "bar" was only about eye level. Once I had grabbed it, I bent my knees just a little to drop my body down a bit try to pull my arms a bit more over my head. I still had bent elbows and my hands were barely higher than my head and a little ways in front of me. I felt that frozen-shoulder block that seems like bone on bone, and I let gravity push against that just a bit for maybe two seconds of OUCH! It wasn't much of a lasting pain, though, and within ten minutes after hanging, I didn't feel like I had really pushed it. This was surprising, as doing PT things like gently pushing my arm into some rotation, walking my hand up a wall, or using pulleys to try to get it out to the side would all leave lasting pain (and never made a dent in the frozen shoulder situation). So, I tried the fake hanging again a little later in the day and a few times the next day. By the third day and - maybe with an accumulated total of 20 SECONDS of half-a$$ approximation of hanging - my horribly frozen shoulder was unbelievably unfreezing! Within a week of doing this a few times a day, I could brush my hair! Not only could I finally rotate inward far enough to touch my stomach like I couldn't do for months, I could reach a tiny bit behind my back. I could even just sit, and not worry about carefully positioning my arm to avoid pain just from normal gravity. In week two, I started working to regain the atrophied muscle tone in that arm, but I could already do almost all the everyday chores I couldn't do for 10 months - put groceries away over my head, ride a bike, etc. and I could sleep through the night without waking myself in pain with any little movement. Within three weeks, I could lift my arm all the way out to the side and then nearly straight up - a smooth motion, with just a little cheating toward the front . (I could not lift it even a few inches out from my side before my sort-of-hanging.) By the third week, I was thrilled to be working out, planking, internal and external rotating with strong therapy bands, lifting 8 lb dumbbells overhead, etc. I could see my shoulder movement becoming more and more normal in the mirror - no hunching up - and see the totally atrophied muscles returning. Now, six months later, I can't believe it, but I really can do everything I was doing two decades ago, and more. When I tore my other rotator cuff about ten years ago, doctors said it could never heal on its own, but I procrastinated on surgery and it maybe 70% healed over three years (no hanging, just pushing it with regular PT exercises as hard as I could). That was my first clue that MRIs and surgeons are not always right about what might heal on its own. Now, after a bit of hanging here and there for six months, my only limitation is that I can't reach very high behind my back, but who cares? I'm a 50 year old woman, working on cars over my head, windsurfing, kayaking, and now think I'll try kiteboarding. I honestly did not put a lot of effort into this, but it was enough to quickly transform my shoulders (and my life). I like adrenaline sports and hate gyms and boring working out stuff. I still don't hang my full body weight because I've been too lazy to put a bar up. Most days, once or twice a day, I grab the top of a door frame, a metal cabinet at work, or my shower door and only sort of bent-knee hang, but I can now relax into it, feel my shoulders rotate normally up around my ears, and open up the joint as that arch thing gets bent. At any hint of shoulder pain, stiffness or impinging, I'll look for something I can sort of hang from - a metal cabinet at work, stair railings in my parking garage, or whatever I can use to traction that arm out and open up the shoulder. I do just a few exercises with therapy bands over a door and dumbbells, and both my shoulders are now fully ripped after a decade of being torn and/or frozen.

This book is a gift, literally and figuratively. After a car accident and wearing a body brace, I lost muscle tone in my body. Although the brace allowed my whiplash injury (mid-back) to heal, I did not have physical therapy while wearing it and I lost normal muscle tone and ended up with tendinitis in my left arm. After six months of left arm elbow pain I was given this book as a gift. The bookstore owner said it helped his shoulder and his wife's back. He knew I had been having back complications from the car accident and thought it might help me. Dr. Kirsch's book was one of the best gifts I have ever received. I was unable to begin hanging right away because of tendinitis in my left elbow. But ironically 4 months after I received the book, as my left elbow was healing, I developed pain in my right shoulder. An MRI revealed a partial tear in my subscapularis rotator cuff tendon. My left elbow seemed "healed" so I began to do a partial hang using a chair. Full body hanging was much too painful. (my routine: hang 6 times for 10 seconds over a 15 minute period which I gradually increased to 30 seconds over 20 minutes today with 1 to 2 minute breaks between each "hang"-then the 3 exercises in the book with NO weights. It took me at least a month before I was able to add weight, and then I could only handle 1/2 lb. Note that I experienced 1 step forward and 2 steps back along the way, as I test how much I can do. It is something to approach conservatively and slowly so as not to cause further discomfort.) It has been 3 months since I started "hanging" and doing the strengthening exercises. Not only do I have improved range of motion in my right arm due to hanging, I am very encouraged that the strength I have built during the program will help me overall. It is important to remember that I couldn't begin to hang for very long, but gradually this changed, although it was painful... but I persevered. Hanging is no longer painful to my right rotator cuff. Something that helped immensely is exercising (walking outside or indoors for a minimum of 30 minutes BEFORE doing the hanging/ strengthening protocol.) It warms up the muscles making the body more pliable. At first I tried the routine everyday and that was too much, so after about 1 month I began to do it every other day because my left elbow started to bother me. After 2 months I had to stop hanging with both arms as my left arm tendinitis became re-inflamed. I had to use my left arm so much due to the onset of right shoulder pain and I was never able to get my left arm strengthened completely. It has been 3 months since I started the program. I continue to do the program with my right arm only and have full range of motion for all three exercises. Although I couldn't use a weight for a long time, I finally tolerated 1/2 lb after 2 months and I have begun to use a 1 lb weight now after 3 months. This program designed by Dr. Kirsch definitely has merit but take note: this takes time and patience and pain does not disappear miraculously. I am much improved but my pain has not gone away entirely - yet. Based on what I have experienced so far I hope to in another six months be pain free. What has been extremely helpful is that Dr. Kirsch has been so willing to correspond via email to answer questions to help me out along the way. It is rare in today's world to find a doctor who is so altruistic! I hold Dr. John Kirsch in high esteem. After 33 years of being an Orthopedic Surgeon here is a doctor that is more concerned with helping others heal themselves, than in trying to encourage surgery for more income stream. We need more doctors like Dr. Kirsch in the world. Again, I still have pain and am unable to adduct my right arm fully to my left shoulder, but I am able to tolerate lying on my right shoulder longer and have gradually gotten back much of the range of motion I had lost. This is something everyone would benefit from learning in grade school, along with the weight lifting exercises. I plan on practicing this for the rest of my life. As we age we lose collagen-I believe this is one of the reasons our tendons become weakened - and one of the most effective ways to prevent that loss is by weight lifting. By keeping the CA arch in the shoulder open, and strengthening our bodies we all can have healthier shoulders! So exercise means weight lifting too-it's not all for vanity this is essential keep our bodies more functional as we age. I highly recommend this book not only because the concept is ingenious but also because it is written by a well-seasoned doctor who has taken much time and effort to relay a very important mechanical issue that no one else has brought to light. Buy this book if you are interested in helping yourself, with the guidance of a knowledgeable Orthopedic Surgeon. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

Upshot: Great technique, but the book is a bit of a mess. I've been suffering for a year from shoulder pain due to a slight rotator cuff tear, impingement, and frozen shoulder. I finally started on a regimen of round-the-clock anti-inflammatory medications for 8 weeks, which really helped clear up most of the frozen shoulder issues, but there was still some pain (mostly overnight) and lack of range of motion. It only took a couple of days of hanging before I saw a very noticeable improvement. Big reduction in overnight pain, and much more range of motion. After 2 weeks, my range of motion is nearly normal, and the pain is mostly gone. It's totally amazing. The first day I only hung for about 5 seconds on the first try, and 15 on the second. After that, I've only been doing one daily session, doing 2 or 3 repetitions of about a 20-second hang. Even that has been enough to make a lot of progress. As for the book itself, it's klunky to read - lots of information that might be interesting to the medical profession, but probably not interesting for the average person just looking for a solution to their shoulder pain. Dr. Kirsch explains his theory of the cause of the pain and why the hanging technique helps. There are lots of CT-scans, testimonials, various people hanging, and articles written by other people. The information about the actual technique (hanging from a bar, plus some strengthening exercises with increasing weights) is what's important, and only takes a couple of pages. There's also a chapter on how to set up a bar in your home, and suggestions for using weight gloves that might be useful. You can find some videos on Youtube on the technique, but the book does go into a little more detail, including some information on who should and should not try this method.

I am just going to tell you my experience and maybe you can relate. I am an active middle-aged male person and I like doing sports that heavily involve shoulder movements including tennis, football, basketball, golf and lifting weights. I have been dealing with a right shoulder that has pain that emanates from the top of the shoulder down the front of the shoulder that appears to be right at the rotator cuff joint. This pain would happen anytime I accidentally hit my arm against any solid object even a little bit or when I tried to lift say a suitcase with my right arm extended forward even a little bit. In the Gym when lifting I could barely lift 20 lb dumbbells with my right arm while being right handed had no problem doing so with my left and even with more weight. It was getting worse as I started waking up in the middle of the night as a stomach/side sleeper and realizing sharp pain in my shoulder due to rolling on my right side actually woke me and I am a sound sleeper. I would try yoga before golfing and it worked enough to get me through the outing but the pain would just be managed and would ruin me the rest of the day. Tennis serves had become weak where they were once my strong shot and painful of course. I just thought I would have to deal with this and perhaps have an MRI and maybe surgery if there was a tear. In desperation I decided to look on the internet for possible solutions but everything seemed so varied and haphazard in the advice so I went to Amazon to look for a book that was recommended on another site and was buying it and saw books recommended by Amazon according to other customers and bought a couple other books including this one which was cheap enough considering my shoulder problem. I luckily was delivered this one first before the other. NOW THE SOLUTION I went to bed as usual that night then as usual woke-up with searing pain in my right shoulder. Looking at this thin book with the easy read I picked it up and started reading what to do. This took all of 10 minutes to figure out with its simple hanging regime and 3 dumbbell exercises. I have a hanging bar and went at it and thought this might take a few weeks to see results but it's worth a shot. So I hung there for up to 30 seconds and minute rests for about 15 minutes and did the 3 dumbbell exercises the whole routine taking 20 minutes total (that's it). I went back to bed and got up. When it was time to hit the gym I went and noticed warming up almost no pain in normal stretches I did, then on to the weightlifting and much to my shock and AMAZEMENT! I felt no pain doing bicep and back exercises that would always cause shoulder pain, just unbelievable results. I could, all of a sudden, do dumbbell curls without pain and properly feeling the action in the bicep as one should. I have continued for a week now daily hanging and exercise and the shoulder is getting better and better. I can't tell you what a relief after decades of this shoulder problem and now with this simple oh so simple method I am reshaping my shoulder joint at home and feel 20 years younger with throwing a ball or lifting and no more waking up because of shoulder pain and I cannot thank Dr Kirsch enough. This simple routine of hanging and dumbbell exercises would put a major dent in the wallets of orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors and anyone else making money off shoulder pain patients and is, I suspect, why it is almost never mentioned amongst them. Thanks to the good Dr Kirsch for this and I hope others give this amazingly simple routine a try before anything else. As to any reviewers or commentators talking about the meager price for this book you really must not have any shoulder issues because it would be foolish and irresponsible for anyone to complain about a few dollars to save perhaps thousands of dollars in therapies and drugs and countless hours of pain. Get this if you can relate. That's my 2 cents and I hope it helps. Good luck.

Pain free for 3 months! If you have shoulder pain and/or weakness when lifting the milk jug from the frig or the shampoo from the window ledge in the shower - this book is for you. I have suffered from shoulder impingement and other injuries over the last 2-3 years. If not the left shoulder, then right shoulder, etc. I would pause working out for for 1-2 months to heal, hit the gym, then re-injure sooner or later. Tried Physical Therapy for 6 weeks. It was a short term fix. More pain. YouTube has no end of advice on how to resolve shoulder pain; however, I noticed a number of PT's mentioning Dr. Kirsch's book. The Doc is an orthopedic surgeon. I bought it. It is an interesting book of 135 pages - variety x-rays, MRI's, and anatomical graphics explaining the root cause to your shoulder pain and a simple and elegant solution that does not require surgery or super human strength or agility. Page 73 says it all: Just start hanging. No pullups, no ab crunches, no acrobatic dismounts. Get/find a bar to hang from. I use a step stool. I do not hang my entire 200+ lbs - my toes touch the ground. You may need to start with 30 seconds at time. Shoot for a total of 2 minutes a day. MIND THE GAP =========== In 2 weeks, I made the significant 80% progress. As described in the book, hanging stretches more open the acromion gap where shoulders tendons and muscles have to slip through. As you age, the 'CA Arch' can bend causing the gap to shrink. Less gap means more impingement. Over time, hanging widens the gap. I will be hanging for the rest of life. Do I do other shoulder exercises? Absolutely! Hanging widens the gap, but it does not strengthen the shoulder muscles. I use the rubber band exercises from PT to strengthen those muscles, as I feel that many atrophied over the years. With shoulder pain, I could barely lift the milk jug. Now I can bench press 140lbs for 5 reps and deadlift 180lbs for 15 reps. (Yes, I know, these are not fantastic personal records for young bucks in the gym - but when you are early 60's and barely lifting your arm above your head..... they are awesome : ) I know it sounds too simple to be true.... Well, it is simple and true, which is why I am writing this review... Good luck!

I went from doing regular Kick-Boxing workouts, long distance swimming and pressing my own bodyweight on the incline press for reps to not being able to lift a glass of water without pain. It crept up on me, a nagging discomfort at first, then pain and finally it got to the point when after a workout I didn't experience sore muscles but inflamed joints and ligaments. I had been working out for decades. I knew what to do - so I thought. I modified my training, used pain killers, massage and a whole bunch of other modalities including dry needle, ultrasound, acupuncture, chiropractic. I did lots of sets of rotator cuff exercises. Of course, pain killers worked but the minute they wore off, the pain returned. Sleeping was difficult, sleeping on the side, just too painful. Lifting things - however light they were caused a lot of pain. I was literally scared walking along a crowded sidewalk for fear of someone could run into my bad shoulder. This went on for months. The orthopedic surgeons all wanted to operate on my shoulder. Well, they are surgeons, right? But I knew that an operation was not going to fix it. After all, my shoulder injury was not caused by a traumatic event, like a bike or workout accident. It wasn't until I did two things that I got off the vicious cycle of inflammation and pain. For one I changed my diet to an all vegan diet, followed by a kidney, liver and bowl cleanse. This stopped the inflammation. However, the physical/mechanical problem that had caused the inflammation in the first place remained. A close friend recommended Dr. Kirsch's book to me. I bought it and put it immediately to practice. At first, hanging even with my feet on the ground supporting, hurt like hell. It felt like someone put a dagger in my shoulder and twisted it. But to my surprise the second set of a few seconds felt better, and so did the third set! By the time I finished my 2 minutes of hanging, it felt much better. Now, this was great. This was something I could pro-actively do to regain my shoulder health! The next day, was a repetition of the first - sharp pain when hanging at first....but I stuck with it. Gradually, it got better and better. Later, I developed my own shoulder & arm rehab resistance training, which I have done regularly twice a week. Hanging from a bar, I do almost every day. Sometimes even twice a day, because it stretches my shoulder girdle and upper body so well. Now, after 1+ year of hanging and rehab exercises, my shoulders have reached a normal level of shoulder strength and flexibility. In my workouts, I even do wide pull-ups and dumbbell military presses with up to 25lbs again. I can highly recommend Dr. Kirsch's book. It will give you hope and not only that. It will give you a proven program that does not involve surgery or pharmaceutical drugs. It may hurt. It may hurt a lot at the beginning but if you stick with it. It will get better and your shoulders will get stronger. I wish you all a speedy recovery!

The good: I've been hanging for several weeks now and my shoulder appears to show improvement, in fact I started to feel improvement within days. Too early to say if its a permanent solution. Since I'm a fairly big guy at 250+ lbs I was only hanging for 30 seconds at a time and my hands started to get sore after a week. I bought a pair of weightlifting hooks designed for pulling exercises that help a lot. In fact I bought a brand I had to send back simply because they don't work. These are the ones I ended up with and the only ones you should buy, they are expensive but well made and they work perfectly. Haulin' Hooks - Originals The bad: As at least one other reviewer has mentioned, everything a sufferer needs to know can be put on one page. Now, I suppose if one were a trainer, medical professional, doctor or educator, a little bit of the other information is beneficial. Most of the pages in this book are fluff. One example; why is it necessary to have pages of testimonials AFTER I already purchased the book. I'm sorry Doctor, but I know filler when I see it. This book appears amateurish in format and the photos look like they've been through a copier one too many times. The author states that he developed this technique and started using it in his practice decades ago. The questions that beg to be asked are - If it was known for so long to be a useful approach, where are the studies? the peer reviews? Was the discovery ever published in a professional journal? Why is this decades old technique so unknown? The maybe: Yes, it does seem to be helping. Yes, it is less than a single co-pay. Yet I can't help but feel cheated in a way, and feel the the good doctor is just out to make a quick buck. Why? Because everything I needed to know could be presented in a couple of sentences, but then you cannot charge $15 for two sentences now can you? In fact, everything I needed to know is shown on the cover of the book. I suffer from sleep apnea and purchased a book Sleep, Interrupted: A physician reveals the #1 reason why so many of us are sick and tired by a Dr. Park who is a ENT specialist for $25.99 a few years back. That book was a hardcover with a paper wrap around cover (the term escapes me at the moment) professionally done and illustrated with a ton of good information. Dr. Parks' book is an example of a book to be proud of, not one designed for a quick money grab.

First, I would like to thank God and Dr Kirsch for this book! I am a 70 year old surfer. A year and a half ago I thought my surfing days were over. I could no longer paddle due to the severe pain in my right shoulder. I also suffered from frozen shoulder. I could no longer do Push-ups or any kind of upper body strength conditioning. I would never submit to surgery, but I did see a chiropractor and an Acupuncturist, with negative results. I found Dr Kirsch's book on Amazon and ordered it. 15 months later I am completely healed! It only took a few weeks of hanging to feel some relief. However, every month my shoulder felt better. I now surf every day and I'm able to do Push-ups and upper body strengthening! I have no shoulder pain and the frozen should is nonexistent! Dr Kirsch, I would like to thank you for sharing your medical knowledge, your expertise, and your years experience! Thank you for writing such a wonderful book, that has undoubtedly helped hundreds of thousands of people with their shoulder pain. If you have shoulder pain, buy this book and thank God and Dr Kirsch!

Helped me with solving rotator cuff issues someone close to me had. Brachiation and hanging, basic human moves. We actually have a joint specifically means for this stuff, the crazy thing is, we don't use it enough.

I am 77. I had a torn rotator cuff, severe arthritis, impingement, virtually everything that can be wrong with the shoulder. Saw a surgeon who said there was so much going on in my shoulder, he decided not to operate because even if he repaired the cuff, it was likely to tear again. It got steadily worse; couldn't raise the arm above the horizontal, could not sleep on that side, could not use the computer mouse etc etc. In desperation I bought this book and religeously followed its advice. Be warned, the initial pain of hanging is out of this world - but must be endured! Absolutely amazing! I am totally cured! Within just a couple of sessions I could even sleep on the affected side. The shoulder is a bit noisy, but NO pain now at all. Back in the gym, and doing exercises I'd been unable to do for years. As strong as the other shoulder. God bless Dr Kirsch. If the rotator cuff is still torn - it's not bothering me. Dr Kirsch says other structures take over. They certainly have in my case.I hang for a minimum of two 35 second sessions a day. Bonus - its helped my back, and I also do leg raises as I hang, to strengthen the abdomen and hip flexors. Regarding the reviewer who complains that the book is about just one thing. Namely hanging from a bar. What on earth does that matter - if the method works??? It DOES work! Absolutely amazing, a total and almost instant cure to a very severe problem.

Its really good and very new concept. Would like to try it for sure. I think it definitely works. The author is an experienced doctor and has lot of evidence to prove his theory.

Livre pratique et efficace pour retrouver une mobilité normale et sans douleur d’une épaule blessée par de longues années de mauvaise utilisation ( golf et tennis + travail). Efficace rapidement si on réalise les exercices avec régularité. Approche très logique quand on connaît l’anatomie et la physiologie de l’épaule. Je recommande

This is a very good book. The instructions on how to do the exercises is simple and easy to understand