After many years of battling against stubborn shoulder injuries, I wanted to share with you some tips we have learned over the years to get the most out of your shoulder therapy.
Tip 1: Go Hard
A shoulder injury isn’t something that you should ignore. For a few, rest will be enough to get rid of the pain, but resting doesnt solve the reason the injury happened in the first place.
Please don’t just do nothing, the sooner you start the process the easier it will be! Getting it sorted right now will result in:
- less total time spent on rehab
- less total pain endured
- less sleepless nights
- less medical expenses
Tip 2: You need to maintain your range of motion
Don’t just avoid movements that once were painful. Most people should avoid loaded movements at painful ranges, but not all movements.
Often we see clients who have avoided lifting their arms above their head due to the pain they feel. If the muscles don’t go through their full range of motion often, they will shorten & tighten and make it more difficult to restore their length & flexibility later.
Always keep working on your range of motion and we can help you figure out the best way for you to do that.
Tip 3: Work out the movements that are aggrevators
You don’t necessarily need to avoid these movements but learning which movements in the “real world” (your normal life outside the clinic) could aggrevate your injury will help you (and us) figure out which movements require more strengthening at later stages of your recovery.
Tip 4: Don’t use heat before bed
It’s a very common solution that is widespread in old school folk lore but heat can result in inflammation pooling when you aren’t moving (like when you’re asleep). Sometimes we recommend ice but at the very least avoiding using heat right before bed is a helpful trick to managing pain and accelerating recovery.
We really strive to help you on your road to recovery.
If you need any help from us please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Regards,
Hany & the Activate Clinic Clinical Team