Beginner Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation

Beginner Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation — Program Overview

This four-week, beginner-level program is designed for people recovering from a shoulder fracture who have been cleared by their clinician to begin gentle rehabilitation. Its goal is to protect the healing bone while gradually restoring comfortable movement, reducing stiffness, and rebuilding strength in the shoulder and surrounding muscles. The plan moves slowly and deliberately, with each week building on the last. You will use simple equipment — a tennis ball, therapy putty, and a weight vest — to support safe, progressive exercise under your care team's guidance.

Before You Start

Always begin only after your clinician has assessed your shoulder and confirmed it is safe to move. Do not start if you have limited range of motion that has not been assessed, or if the shoulder is in an acute, inflamed, or swollen state. Keep your spine in a neutral, comfortable position during all exercises, and never force or overload the shoulder. Stop immediately and contact your clinician if you notice sharp or worsening pain, new swelling, numbness, or a sudden loss of movement.

Weekly Structure

The program runs four weeks with two sessions per week of about sixty minutes each. Each week represents a phase: Week one focuses on protection and pain control; week two introduces early protected motion; week three advances motion and light resistance; and week four begins early strengthening. Every session uses the tennis ball, therapy putty, and weight vest as appropriate to the phase. Your clinician will confirm when you are ready to move from one phase to the next based on how your shoulder responds.

What a Typical Session Looks Like

Sessions follow a warm-up, main work, and cool-down pattern. Warm-up may include gentle heat and supported pendulum movements. The main work uses the tennis ball for light range-of-motion and scapular control drills, therapy putty for gentle grip and rotator cuff activation, and the weight vest only when your clinician confirms you are ready for added load — always keeping the spine neutral. Cool-down includes slow, pain-free stretching and settling the shoulder. Your clinician may add modalities such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, or taping as part of your care.

Tracking Progress

Progression between phases is guided by specific clinical checkpoints — such as pain levels, swelling, comfortable range of motion, and tolerance of gentle muscle contractions — that your clinician assesses. You will not simply move forward because a week has passed. Outcome measures, including the ASES score, Simple Shoulder Test, pain scale, range-of-motion measurements, manual muscle testing, and the SPADI, help your care team track change over time and adjust the plan safely.

Recovery and Self-Care

Manage pain sensibly and pace yourself — some mild soreness is common, but sharp or increasing pain is not. Follow your clinician's advice on rest, activity modification, and any pain relief. Do not push through inflammation or try to speed up the timeline. Seek prompt care for red flags such as sudden severe pain, new deformity, marked swelling, fever, or numbness and tingling in the arm or hand.