Frozen Shoulder, Lower Back Pain, IT Band — How I Approach Common Injuries Differently

Most people deal with injuries the same way: rest, ice, maybe some ibuprofen, and a lot of hoping it gets better on its own. Sometimes it does. More often, it comes back — sometimes in the same place, sometimes somewhere else as your body compensates.

After 13 years working with clients through injuries, post-surgical rehab, and chronic pain, I've developed a different perspective on how to approach these things. It starts with one core belief: most injuries aren't random. They have a cause. And if you don't address the cause, you're just managing symptoms.

Here's how I approach some of the most common issues I see.

Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis)

Frozen shoulder is one of the most frustrating conditions to deal with. The shoulder joint becomes increasingly stiff and painful, often to the point where basic tasks like reaching overhead or putting on a jacket become nearly impossible. Conventional treatment often involves waiting it out — which can take 1–3 years.

My approach targets the joint capsule directly — which is exactly what FST is designed to do. By using gentle traction and movement through the fascial chains of the shoulder, we can begin to restore range of motion that passive rest alone can't recover. I combine this with targeted massage therapy to release the surrounding musculature and reduce the guarding that compounds the restriction.

I've worked with clients who came to me with stalled frozen shoulder recovery and saw genuine improvements in weeks rather than months. It takes consistency, but the results are real.

Lower Back Pain

Lower back pain is the most common musculoskeletal complaint I encounter. And in the vast majority of cases, the back itself isn't actually the primary problem — it's a victim of dysfunction elsewhere.

Tight hip flexors from sitting all day pull the pelvis forward, increasing the lumbar curve and putting excessive load on the lower back. Weak glutes fail to absorb force during movement, so the lower back compensates. Restricted thoracic mobility causes the lumbar spine to rotate more than it should. The back takes the blame for all of it.

My approach to lower back pain involves assessing the entire kinetic chain — hips, glutes, thoracic spine, core — and addressing the root restrictions through a combination of FST, massage, and corrective exercise. We don't just treat where it hurts. We treat why it hurts.

IT Band Syndrome

IT band syndrome is the bane of runners and cyclists everywhere — a sharp, burning pain on the outside of the knee that seemingly comes out of nowhere and refuses to go away. Foam rolling the IT band has become the go-to recommendation, but it's largely ineffective because the IT band itself isn't the problem. It's a symptom.

The IT band gets tight when the hip abductors — particularly the glute medius — are weak or inhibited. Without proper lateral hip stability, the IT band is forced to compensate with every stride, leading to friction and inflammation at the knee. The fix isn't to roll the IT band into submission. It's to strengthen the hip, release the surrounding fascia through FST, and retrain movement patterns that caused the imbalance in the first place.

Sciatica

Sciatica — radiating pain, tingling, or numbness down the leg — can be debilitating. It's caused by compression or irritation of the sciatic nerve, which can originate from disc issues in the lumbar spine or from soft tissue compression in the hip (particularly the piriformis muscle).

Massage therapy is highly effective for piriformis-related sciatica, releasing the deep hip rotators that are compressing the nerve. FST helps restore mobility in the hip joint and lumbar spine to reduce the mechanical load that's driving the compression. And corrective exercise helps build the stability needed to prevent recurrence.

The Common Thread

Every injury I've mentioned has the same underlying theme: the place that hurts is rarely the place that's broken. Effective injury management requires looking at the whole picture — how you move, where you're restricted, what's strong, what's weak, and what compensations your body has developed over time.

That's what I bring to every session. A combination of Registered Massage Therapy, Level 2 Fascial Stretch Therapy, and 13 years of experience working with bodies at every level — from post-surgical rehab to competitive athletes. If you're dealing with an injury that hasn't responded to rest, I'd love to take a different approach with you.