There are eight physical therapy exercises that can help with shoulder impingement tendonitis and I will be doing them for 3 weeks to see if I can lick this thing. Its been 5 days since my cortisone shot so its time to start my shoulder physical therapy. The doctor thought there was an 80% chance I would need surgery anyway but I wanted to give the non-surgical route a try. By the way, with all these exercises remember that the shoulder muscles are very small and you should be using small weights – ego lifting with these will send you to the surgeon. Any pain at all in these exercises is bad, either you should cease the exercise entirely or use a much smaller weight.
For those who dont want to watch that video, the exercises illustrated in the above video are:
- internal rotation
- external rotation
- reverse fly
The other five are new to me for shoulder rehab, here they are:
- Supraspinatus – Starting position is with dumbbells hanging along side body. Ending position is dumbbells held with thumbs down at shoulder height and straight arms out at a 45 degree angle – like you are hugging the corner of a building.
- Scapular Retraction – Lay face down on narrow bench. Grab dumbbells and lift. Elbows should be out to side, not down at your hips. Stop when elbows are even with the plane of your body. During whole exercise, squeeze shoulder blades together. You can also do this with tubing.
- Shoulder Extension – Attach tubing to wall at face level. Starting position is palms down with both arms pointed to attach point. Slowly pull down while squeezing shoulder blades together
- Scapular Protraction – Lay on bench with arms straight and vertical with dumbbells held in comfortable grip. Push dumbbells to ceiling with shoulders while keeping arms straight.