Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation (Intermediate)

Program Overview Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation (Intermediate) is a 24-week guided exercise program to help you regain shoulder movement, strength, and confidence after a shoulder fracture. It focuses on the rotator cuff, labrum, AC joint, and biceps tendon, using ankle weights, resistance bands, and a BOSU ball. This is a moderate-evidence program, so your therapist should check your progress along the way.

Who This Program Is For and Its Goal This program is for people healing from a shoulder fracture who are ready for an intermediate level of rehabilitation. The goal is to gradually restore comfortable range of motion, rebuild shoulder and upper-back strength, and return you to daily activities with less pain. You and your clinician will confirm this pace matches your stage of healing and your goals.

Before You Start Before beginning, review this plan with your treating clinician, who should confirm your fracture is stable enough for these exercises and check your wound and shoulder each step of the way. Do not start if your wound has reopened or if you have a recent fracture your clinician has not cleared. A warm-up before every session helps protect your shoulder.

Safety Notes and When to Stop Avoid overloading the shoulder, keep your spine in a comfortable neutral position, and warm up before each session. Stop and call your clinician if you notice the wound opening or separating, new or worsening pain, swelling, redness, or warmth around the shoulder, sudden loss of movement, numbness or tingling in the arm or hand, or pain that does not settle with rest. These could be signs something needs review.

Weekly Structure You will do four sessions each week, about 45 minutes each, for 24 weeks. Over time the plan moves through stages: early protection and pain control, then gentle passive movement, then active-assisted movement, then active movement as your shoulder allows. Your clinician guides each step based on how your shoulder responds, so progress is individual, not fixed to a calendar.

How the 24 Weeks Are Organized Each week includes four sessions of roughly 45 minutes using your ankle weights, resistance band, and BOSU ball. The plan builds in stages of protection and pain control, early passive movement, active-assisted movement, and active movement. Your clinician decides when you are ready for each stage based on your comfort, movement, and strength, so do not rush ahead on your own.

What a Typical Session Looks Like A typical session starts with a gentle warm-up, moves into the main shoulder and scapular work, and finishes with a cool-down. Your clinician may also use hands-on techniques and other treatments, such as cold therapy, soft tissue work, joint mobilization, or pulsed ultrasound, depending on your needs.

Warm-Up, Main Work, Cool-Down Begin with easy movement to warm the shoulder and upper back, keeping your spine neutral. The main work uses light ankle weights, the resistance band, and the BOSU ball for controlled strengthening and shoulder-blade control, avoiding overloading. Finish with gentle stretching and relaxed breathing. Ask your clinician which specific exercises and how much resistance suit you.

Tracking Progress Your clinician uses set readiness signs to decide when you move to the next stage, checking comfort at rest, available movement, shoulder-blade control, and tolerance to specific motions. Progress is based on your response, not just time. Outcome measures such as the Constant-Murley Score, ASES, DASH, Simple Shoulder Test, pain scale, and range-of-motion checks help track change over the weeks.

How Progression Criteria Are Used Your clinician uses the stage criteria to decide when you are ready to move forward, looking at pain at rest, available movement, shoulder-blade control, and tolerance to specific motions. Outcome measures such as the Constant-Murley Score, ASES, DASH, Simple Shoulder Test, pain scale, and range-of-motion checks help show whether the plan is working so adjustments can be made.

Recovery and Self-Care Pay attention to how your shoulder feels during and after sessions, and keep up gentle movement between sessions as advised. Protect the shoulder from direct pressure, use cold therapy as your clinician suggests, and pace yourself to avoid overloading. Good sleep and staying generally active support recovery. Report new or worsening symptoms to your clinician.

Pain Management and Red Flags Mild, short-lived soreness after exercise can be expected, but pain that builds or does not settle is a sign to ease back and check with your clinician. Do not push through sharp pain or try to speed up the program. Seek prompt review for wound opening, sudden weakness, numbness, or spreading redness, heat, or swelling.