Intermediate Shoulder Post-Fracture Rehabilitation

Program Overview This is a five-week, intermediate-level shoulder rehabilitation guide for someone recovering after a shoulder fracture. It combines hands-on therapy with progressive strengthening, balance (proprioception) work, and pain-management techniques. The plan is designed to be delivered under the supervision of a licensed clinician, who will adapt it to your specific fracture, healing stage, and response.

Who This Program Is For and Its Goal This program suits people whose fracture is healing and who are ready to move beyond early protection into regaining motion, strength, and confidence using the arm again. The goal is to restore comfortable shoulder movement, rebuild rotator cuff and shoulder-blade (scapular) control, and return to everyday reaching and lifting safely, while keeping pain manageable and avoiding setbacks.

Before You Start Please review this plan with your treating clinician before beginning and at each phase change. Your therapist will confirm your fracture is stable enough for this level of activity and will adjust exercises to your needs.

Safety Notes Do your warm-up first and cool-down afterward, and stop any exercise if pain increases. Do not exercise over a wound that is opening or pulling apart (dehiscence), and do not train if you have signs of infection such as spreading redness, heat, swelling, or fever. Stop and contact your clinician if pain rises, new weakness appears, or your shoulder feels unstable.

Weekly Structure You will do four sessions per week, about sixty minutes each, for five weeks. Sessions are grouped into phases that build on each other: early protection and gentle motion, then early motion, then the intermediate phase, and finally early strengthening. You move forward only when you meet your clinician's readiness checks, not simply because a week has passed.

How the Five Weeks Are Organized Week one focuses on protection and gentle assisted movement. Week two adds early motion and light rotator cuff work. Week three works toward fuller motion and shoulder-blade control. Week four begins loading and strengthening. Week five consolidates strength and functional reaching, with your therapist deciding each step.

What a Typical Session Looks Like Each session follows a warm-up, main work, and cool-down pattern, using the available equipment as your therapist directs. Manual therapy, soft-tissue work, and pain-relief modalities (such as TENS or IFC) are applied by your clinician alongside the exercises.

Warm-Up, Main Work, and Cool-Down Begin with gentle movement and light foam-roller work on the upper back and chest to prepare the shoulder. Main work includes assisted and active range-of-motion, rotator cuff and scapular strengthening, closed-chain and PNF (proprioceptive) patterns, and graded loading with kettlebells or a barbell where appropriate. Dip-station and knee-brace use should be cleared by your therapist. Finish with a calm cool-down and stretching.

Tracking Progress Your clinician will record your range of motion, strength, and pain at intervals, along with questionnaires like the ASES, DASH, Simple Shoulder Test, and a pain scale. These records show whether you are improving and help guide safe progression. Share any changes you notice between visits.

How Progression Is Decided You advance to the next phase when you meet the readiness checks for your current phase, such as comfortable pain levels, improving motion, and strengthening without increased symptoms. Outcome measures support these decisions by showing trends over time. Your clinician makes the final call, so do not push ahead on your own.

Recovery and Self-Care Rest between sessions, keep up gentle movement as advised, and protect sleep and nutrition to support healing. Apply ice or heat only as your clinician recommends. Follow any wound-care instructions, and avoid positions or loads that provoke your shoulder until cleared.

Pain Management Cautions and Red Flags Use pain-relief modalities only under clinician guidance, and never ignore rising pain during exercise. Seek prompt medical advice for increasing pain, new swelling, wound opening, fever, or signs of infection. These are reasons to pause training and be assessed rather than push through.