Shoulder Rehabilitation Exercises

The shoulders are ball and socket joints that bestow the arms with a great deal of mobility at the cost of being relatively easy to injure. Shoulder injuries like strains, dislocations and tendinitis should be rested for as many days or weeks as necessary for pain and soreness to dissipate, but eventually you should do some shoulder exercises to further recovery and increase shoulder stability.

  1. Rotator Lift

    • The rotator cuffs are small groups of muscles and tendons in the shoulder that help solidify the shoulder joint and can prevent injury and pain when strengthened. To do a basic rotator cuff lift, begin by setting up a cable machine or resistance band so that resistance will be supplied at around the level of your belly button. Next, grab the handle of the cable machine or the end of the band with one hand, and position your body so that the forearm of that arm is across your belly with the resistance pulling the arm further across the belly. Now rotate the arm at the shoulder, keeping the elbow firmly at your side at a 90-degree angle, until your fist is pointing straight ahead. Rotate back to the starting position and repeat. The exercises will be a short 90-degree rotation and you may not feel like you are working anything until the small rotator cuff muscles begin to fatigue.

    Front Dumbbell Lift

    • After a shoulder injury, you shouldn't jump right back into heavy shoulder lifting like the military press or shoulder press. Instead, you should focus on exercises that build up the smaller supporting muscles of the shoulder, which require less weight to get a good workout.

      Begin by finding two standard dumbbells of equal weight and standing with a weight in each hand, resting comfortably at your sides. Move one arm forward, rotating the wrist so that your fist looks as if you've just thrown a straight punch at the top of the lift. Slowly lower the arm back to your side and do the same lift with the opposite arm. Alternating arms while doing the front dumbbell lift will help keep you balanced throughout the exercise.

    Side Dumbbell Lift

    • The side dumbbell lift begins from the same starting position as the front lift. With dumbbells resting at your sides, move both arms out to your sides, keeping the arms straight throughout the lift. Once your arms and body create a T, slowly lower the weight back to your sides and repeat. It is essential to keep the weight under control on the downward part of the lift. With lighter dumbbells, you can hold the T position for a few seconds on the up side of the lift to get a more intense workout.