Beginner Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation

Program Overview This is a five-week, beginner-level shoulder rehabilitation guide for someone recovering from a shoulder fracture. It is designed to be delivered twice a week in 60-minute sessions and blends gentle hands-on techniques with a steady, step-by-step return to movement and strength.

Who This Program Is For and Its Goal This program is for adults early in recovery from a shoulder fracture who have been cleared by their physician to begin guided movement. The goal is to reduce pain, gradually restore shoulder motion, rebuild rotator cuff and shoulder-blade control, and return to everyday activities safely—all while respecting healing tissue.

Before You Start Your first step is a clearance and assessment visit with your physical therapist.

Safety Notes and When to Stop Tell your clinician if you have severe osteoporosis, hardware that is unstable, or very limited motion that has not yet been assessed—these may change or pause your program. Always warm up first, and stop if pain increases. Seek urgent care for sudden severe pain, new swelling or warmth, numbness, fever, or a shoulder that looks deformed or gives way.

Weekly Structure Sessions build gently across the five weeks.

How the Plan Is Organized You will attend two 60-minute sessions each week for five weeks. Early sessions focus on calming pain and gentle motion, then progress toward active movement, then to light strengthening. The kettlebell, knee brace, and weight vest are optional tools your therapist may use for positioning, support, or graded loading—only when appropriate for you.

What a Typical Session Looks Like Each session follows a consistent pattern.

Warm-Up, Main Work, Cool-Down You begin with a gentle warm-up (light arm swings, shoulder-blade squeezes, posture work). The main portion combines hands-on soft tissue and joint mobilization, cryotherapy, and electrical stimulation for muscle activation, followed by guided motion and strengthening exercises. Equipment like the kettlebell or weight vest is added only when your therapist decides it is safe. You finish with a cool-down of gentle stretching and calming breathing.

Tracking Progress Your therapist records simple measures each phase.

How Progression Criteria Are Used You move to the next phase only when specific, therapist-checked goals are met—such as tolerated passive motion early on, then active range, then strength and shoulder-blade control. Outcome measures like the Constant-Murley score, DASH questionnaire, pain scale, goniometry, manual muscle testing, and the Simple Shoulder Test help guide these decisions and track your gains over time.

Recovery and Self-Care Rest, sleep, and good nutrition support healing.

Pain Management and Red Flags Use ice or heat as advised, keep activity within a comfortable range, and avoid pushing through sharp or worsening pain. Rest the shoulder when it feels irritated. Call your clinician if pain keeps climbing, swelling or warmth returns, motion suddenly worsens, or you notice numbness or weakness—these are signs to pause and get checked.