Shoulder Strengthening Program - first level

These exercises move your shoulder through its entire range of motion and exercise virtually all of the muscles in the shoulder. As Garrick recommends, I do them in the gentlest way--no weights, no resistance. A week of the exercises did my shoulder huge favors. After just ten days I could lift my bad arm through all directions, and only in a couple of them did I feel anything like pain. Now, after three weeks, it's almost completely without that pain. I do all these exercises still, and don't push anything. I do them through the range of motion that is comfortable. If I get a twinge, I cut down on the range and the effort. I started by doing 20 reps for each of them, twice a day. These were so successful for me that within a couple of days I increased both reps and sets, so I was doing thirty to fifty reps each, four to eight times away. Garrick reminds us to progress slowly and take it easy, that it's more important to progress well, and not to worry about progressing quickly. Circles Bend over at the waist and let the arm on your bad shoulder hang free in front of you. Move your torso so that the arm starts to swing in a circle in a clockwise direction. Use just enough muscle to kick the arm into motion and keep it swinging lazily. If it hurts to make a circle, make an egg shape or any other figure that feels comfortable. Do 20 circles in the clockwise direction, then twenty counterclockwise. Change arms and do the same. The more you do, the more your range of motion will increase. Shrugs Stand or sit up straight. Shrug your shoulders. Gently and slowly. When you've progressed enough that this motion doesn't hurt, vary the path of the shrug. That means do a forward circle, or a backward circle, or a figure eight if you think getting fancy is a fun and safe idea. Sawing Stand up straight, hands at sides. Reach forward as far as your comfortable range will allow, then pretend you are at one end of a two-handled saw, and draw your hand and elbow back as far as your range of comfort will allow, but in the beginning do it without tensing or pretending to pull heavy weight. I found this excellent just for loosening up that twenty-year hurt shoulder. I did it gently when the shoulder was sore and after about three weeks the soreness has almost completely left. I started with ten reps each arm, and did these several times a day. Obviously I wasn't as sore as you might be. Swings I hated this exercise because it demanded I do arm lifts right through the place where my arm shoulder hurt the most, so I modified it to place less streaa on my shoulder in the beginning. Stand up straight, arms down at your sides. Lift them straight out to the sides and up till they meet at the center over your head, then lower them. Do this slowly so you don't jerk your shoulder. These are called "Abduction Swings". Actually at the beginning you raise your arms to a comfortable level only. Even so, this hurt my right shoulder terribly. I figured out that the arm, extended out to its full length, hurt too much to do these so I decided to make my arm weigh less--I flexed the elbow and brought half the weight of my right arm in to my body. It was then pretty easy to raise my right "wing" to almost horizontal. From there I slowly progressed to horizontal, with my arm halfway open (that is, the right elbow bent to a ninety-degree angle) and slowly gained more height from there. I'll be working on opening my arm all the way out. I can do that much now, but it's uncomfortable and I'm not eager to push it. Slow but steady wins the race and doesn't send me back to an arm sling.