Exercise your way out of shoulder pain!
Rotator cuff pain can be a frustrating setback, especially when it limits your daily activities or fitness routine. Whether caused by injury, overuse, or age-related wear and tear, shoulder discomfort doesn’t have to mean the end of movement.
If you’re sick of complaining about your shoulder giving you grief, then this is the blog for you! Following on from the previous blog in the shoulder series, we’re going to focus on exercises that can help support your shoulder both in the short term and all the way to a long-term supportive focus.
In this blog, we’ll explore gentle, targeted movements designed to strengthen the rotator cuff, improve flexibility, and reduce pain—safely and effectively. Whether you’re just starting rehab or looking to prevent future issues, these exercises can help you regain strength, confidence, and function in your shoulder.
The Rehabilitation Journey
At Live Well Rozelle, the rehabilitation journey follows three distinct phases:
Acute inflammatory relief and restoration of daily function
Progressive overload of muscular strength
Support long-term health and activity
For the majority of rotator cuff (and shoulder) presentations I see in the clinic, the key is finding the correct amount of stress to be placing on the shoulder. If we overload the shoulder, the shoulder will continue the inflammatory cycle.
Conversely, if we don’t load the shoulder enough, we’re not placing the stress required at the tendon & muscular level to produce the change we need to settle the inflammation. In essence, we need to find the Goldilocks zone.
Acute inflammatory relief and restoration of daily function
The key to this phase is to help settle your shoulder by following these simple objectives:
Restore full shoulder movement (range of motion)
Restore shoulder mechanics
Relieve tendon & muscular inflammation
Let’s focus on exercises that can help with the above!
1. Restore full shoulder movement
These exercises can be fantastic to help regain movement in the shoulder if you are finding your shoulder pain is restricting your movement. I often default to two main exercises to help restore shoulder movement:
Active-assisted range of motion: Lying on your back and using a broomstick or a towel, use your non-injured arm to raise your arm as close to overhead as you are able. The injured arm will raise alongside the non-injured arm to help find additional movement, it is not able to in its current inflamed state.
2 sets 15 reps, 2-3x per dayHand crawl up the wall: setting up in front of a wall, place your hand on the wall at shoulder height. Using your hand, slowly crawl your hand up the wall as high as you can manage, followed by returning to the starting position. I would recommend doing this in a hot shower to help settle the shoulder and maximise movement.
2 sets 10 reps 2-3x per day
2. Restore shoulder mechanics
For rotator cuff-related pathologies, it is vital to help restore shoulder mechanics, with a particular emphasis on your shoulder blade. The shoulder blade provides the base for your shoulder to work off, in turn minimising the strain placed on your rotator cuff tendons. Again, I default to two main exercises to restore shoulder mechanics:
Straight arm row: Using a resistance band tethered to a pole or door handle, stand away to create tension on the band. Keeping your arm straight, pull the band down and backwards towards your back pocket. You should feel a strong feeling underneath your armpit, which is your latissimus dorsi muscle.
2 sets of 20 repetitions 2x per dayScapula push up: setting up in a kneeling push up, lower your chest to the floor whilst keeping your arms locked straight. You should feel your shoulder blades come together. Push up by pushing your shoulder blades away from each other.
2 sets of 20 repetitions 2x per day
3. Relieve tendon & muscular inflammation
As discussed previously, we need to find the Goldilocks zone when attempting to get some workload into the acutely inflamed tendons. To achieve this, isometric exercises are a fantastic starting point. Isometric exercises are exercises where you are holding a consistent pressure for a period, compared to moving back and forth with a particular movement. For acutely inflamed tendons, we can often place more loads in the tendon without flaring it up, helping to restore movement and shoulder mechanics.
Isometric external rotation: Using a heavy resistance loop band, place your hands in the loop with your elbows tucked in by your side. Push your wrists out into the band as hard as you can tolerate and hold.
5 sets of 30-second holds 2-3x per day
Progressive overload of muscular strength
Once the initial goals in phase 1 are achieved, the next goal is to restore and progressively overload muscular strength to minimise the risk of future occurrences.
At Live Well Rozelle, we use the AxIT testing system that can help detect strength and/or power deficiencies in particular movements and potential asymmetries from side to side. Using this quantitative data, it allows us to create an effective programme to target key weak areas to minimise future injury risk.
Support long-term health & activity
As you return to your normal routine and place your shoulder under all the stressors and loads that set your shoulder off to begin with, it’s important to continue to support the shoulder moving forward.
The exercises listed are a great tool that can be used continuously to support long-term health. I would suggest using those exercises in a warm-up routine before starting your activity to ensure all supporting musculature in the shoulder is warm and ready to go!
Don’t let your shoulder get in the way of you living the life you want to live! It’s vital to support your shoulder through exercise to maximise and maintain your full shoulder potential.
Disclaimer: This article is created and published online for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health or personal advice.
