Shoulder Tendonitis Therapy

Rest

• The first thing to do to start caring for a shoulder affected by tendonitis is to rest it immediately until pain stops. Chances are a shoulder with tendonitis will be painful when lifting objects; even holding the arm up, such as you would to grab a steering wheel may cause pain. Rest the shoulder until you can move it around normally without any extra weight before moving on to physical therapy exercises. It may take a couple of days before soreness and pain to dissipate.

Inflammation

• Inflammation of the tendons is often brought on by stresses to the shoulder, such as lifting heavy objects or participating in sports like baseball, tennis, wrestling or boxing. Reducing inflammation will help alleviate pain and discomfort from tendonitis. As you rest your shoulder apply ice to it every couple of hours for 15 minutes until pain or soreness dissipates. You can also take anti inflammatory medications to cut down on swelling. When you eventually get back into activity, you may wish to ice the shoulder afterward as a precautionary measure against inflammation.

Stretching

• Greater shoulder flexibility will help the joint resist strain and hyper-extension. When rehabbing a shoulder from tendonitis, you may not feel up to doing any shoulder lifts for a week or so, but you can usually do some simple shoulder stretches to maintain range of motion and keep the tendons and ligaments limber. One simple stretch is to join your fingers behind your back, then lift your arms upward. Another can be done by putting an arm across your chest and using your other arm to pull the elbow in tighter to the chest.

Rotator Cuff Exercise

• The rotator cuffs are a small group of muscles and tendons in the shoulders that stabilize the ball and socket joint. The stronger the rotator cuff muscles are the most strongly the bone of the upper arm will be held into the socket of the shoulder, which will help prevent shoulder soreness and pain. Doing regular exercises to strengthen the rotator cuff is a must tor shoulder therapy. The rotator cuff is worked when the shoulder rotates at the upper arm. To work out the rotator cuff, lay on your side on a bench, bed or sofa. Keep the elbow of the arm closer to the ceiling at your side, but allow the forearm to droop down across your belly. Simply rotate that arm at the shoulder until the forearm is parallel whit the floor and repeat until fatigued. The rotator cuff is such a small muscle that you will likely not need extra resistance to work it out to fatigue.

Shoulder Exercise

• As your shoulder recovery progresses, you will want to start doing some mild lifting with your shoulder to strengthen the muscles and solidity the joint. Lifts that are good for shoulder stability are those that work the smaller supporting muscles around the shoulder, not the large deltoid muscles on top of the shoulder, like the military press. Three effective exercises can all be done from a stand with a dumbbell in both hands. Move the arms straight out to the sides repeatedly until fatigued, then straight ahead of you and then straight back. It is a good idea to continue these exercises along with rotator cuff exercise long after your shoulders feel better to prevent injury.