Are you suffering from a sprain, a fracture, dislocation, bursitis, tendonitis, or even a rotator cuff tear? Maybe you are wondering if you can still exercise without exacerbating your bad shoulders?
Yes, you can exercise. However, it would help if you had an endorsement from your doctor before embarking on your physical fitness journey.
Keep reading as we show you how you can still exercise without hurting your shoulders more.
How to Diagnose “Bad Shoulders.”
There are various ways in which you can check if your shoulders are in bad shape. Here are some diagnoses of bad shoulders:
- When you have a painful swelling or bruise on your upper arm, check out if you have a shoulder dislocation.
- Whenever you experience trouble lifting your arm, this could signify a fracture to the collarbone and humerus.
- If your shoulder feels weak and locked, you could have suffered a cartilage tear during a fall.
- Trouble lifting heavy weights and pain during your related moments could signify that you suffer a rotator cuff tear.
- Also, get checked by the doctor if you have a frozen shoulder due to pain from previous surgery.
- Inability to maintain certain arm postures, tenderness, or pain in your shoulder could signify that you are suffering from tendonitis.
- When there is swelling, inflammation, and redness between the top of the arm bone and the tip of the shoulder, then you could be suffering from bursitis of the shoulder.
3 Best Therapy Exercises to Relieve Shoulder Pain
Shoulder pain is irritating; however, it doesn’t mean you have to skip the physical exercises unless the pain is severe. Exercises are significant aspects of your total shoulder recovery program.
Here are three exercises that are perfect for people with bad shoulders.
1. Pulleys
Do you enjoy sports or other physical exercises, but your shoulder pain is limiting you? A pulley system is one of the physical therapy exercises that will help restore your normal movement.
You can buy pulleys, or you can make simple shoulder pulleys at home.
To start with, perform shoulder flexion with your pulleys. After that, hang your pulleys over a door and stand with your back to the door. It would help if you then pulled the handle on the non-painful side of the pulley down with your two hands.
On the other hand, the second arm progressively lifts. Allow your shoulder and arm to travel forward and up while keeping your elbow straight.
Additionally, use your pulleys to elevate your arm as far as possible. You can perform this exercise several times, but it’s best to stop whenever you feel pain.
2. Theraband Exercises
Are your shoulders in pain, and would you love to get rid of the pain? We recommend that you conduct resistance band exercises to reduce your pain and also strengthen your shoulders.
For example, you can secure a band onto a chair and, with your arm forward at roughly 45 degrees, hold the other end of the band with slight tension. After that, extend your arm backward while maintaining a straight elbow. Hold for a moment and then gently return to the original position.
You can repeat this exercise several times for long-term relief.
3. Stretches
To treat frozen shoulder, you need to do some simple exercises like stretches. Some examples of these exercises include pendulum stretch, armpit stretch, and towel stretch.
The first step is to hold one end of a three-foot-long towel behind your back before grasping the opposing end to perform a towel stretch. When using the towel, make sure it is in a horizontal position.
Stretch the injured arm by pulling it upward with your strong arm. You can do a more advanced version of this exercise with the towel wrapped over your good shoulder.
Hold the bottom of the towel with the rotator cuff and draw it toward the lower back with the unharmed arm. You can perform this exercise multiple times to have long-term pain relief in your shoulder.
Final Thoughts
The bedrock to a shoulder pain recovery tour is a simple shoulder exercise that you can perform even at home. For more questions about the benefits of physical therapy for bad shoulders, call Cawley Physical Therapy and Rehab at 570-208-2787.
