SHOULDER STRETCHES

After a shoulder strain or injury, shoulder stretches are an important part of helping you recover. It is tempting to avoid all movements because of the worry of triggering more episodes of pain, but this increases your risk of getting a lot of shoulder stiffness and a 'frozen shoulder'.

WHEN SHOULD I START?

After a shoulder injury, you need to give it some time to recover before trying to mobilize it. However, you also need to balance this against not moving your shoulder for a prolonged period, since injured shoulder muscles will tighten up and cause stiffness very quickly.

A good ballpark figure is to wait 3 days, then start doing some very gentle stretches, and see how you feel. A bit of mild discomfort is normal, but if doing even simple stretches hurts very much, stop and wait for another 3 to 4 days to try again.

Once you get started, do these stretches 2 to 3 times a week.

If you haven't had a shoulder injury, you can start these stretches whenever you want, and do these simple stretches 2 to 3 times a week.

A caveat to this would be that if you've had a shoulder fracture (broken bone), dislocation or surgery, you absolutely do NOT want to move your shoulder until your doctor advises you that it's safe to do so. Starting movements too early for cases like these will worsen your injury, or worsen the outcome of your operation since you may disrupt the healing process.

WHAT DO I NEED?

A towel, and a doorframe. That's all!

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

We'll run through a few stretching movements here. You can hold each stretch on one side for 30 seconds, then release and repeat it on the other side. Do each stretch 3 times before moving on to the next movement.

The explanations may be a bit difficult to comprehend if you haven't done these movements before, so it would be a good idea to watch these short videos to understand the movements better.

POSTERIOR (REAR) SHOULDER STRETCH

Hold your right arm straight across your body and use your left arm to apply gentle backwards pressure on this arm until you feel a stretch in the back of your right shoulder, and hold for 30 seconds. Repeat it on the other side, and perform 2 to 3 times on each side.

OVERHEAD STRETCH

Interlock your fingers, face your palms away from your body, and raise your hands in front of you until they are overhead, and hold this position for 30 seconds

WALK UP THE WALL

Stand facing the wall, approximately 10 to 15 cm away from it. Place the fingers of both hands on the wall and slowly 'walk' your hands up the wall. Go up as high as you can, hold this position for 30 seconds, then 'walk' your hands back down. Repeat 5 to 10 times.

EXTERNAL ROTATION STRETCH

Hold the towel, and hold it behind your back with one elbow overhead. Grip the other end of the towel with your other hand, and gently pull downwards, until you feel a stretch in the shoulder on the side with the elbow overhead. Hold for 30 seconds, then repeat on the other side. Be very careful to do this motion gently, and not jerk your arm around in sudden movements, so you don't injure your shoulder and elbow.

INTERNAL ROTATION STRETCH

Using the same position as the above stretch (5), now pull UPWARDS to stretch the shoulder with the elbow in the lower position. Again, be very careful to do this motion gently, and not jerk your arm around in sudden movements, so you don't injure your shoulder and elbow.

BE SAFE

Always always ALWAYS be gentle when doing these stretches, and don't over-exert yourself. Remember that you can injure yourself if you do stretches wrongly. Perform these stretches with slow, controlled movements. Stop pulling and stretching if anything hurts.

Never, ever, do stretches with sharp, jerky movements. You'll injure yourself and prolong your recovery.

If you're not sure about how to do these stretches, have someone fit and active watch the videos and run through the movements with you. People who exercise often tend to be more familiar with stretching and strength movements and can (hopefully) teach you how to perform the movements correctly.

WRAP IT UP!

These stretches sound simply, but they'll stretch your shoulder through a nice, healthy range of motion. They don't take very long to do at all - you can run through all the above stretches in less than 10 minutes. Try to do them 2 to 3 times a week for best results. Give them a try and see if they help!