Intermediate Shoulder Tendon Repair Rehabilitation

Intermediate Shoulder Tendon Repair Rehabilitation: Your 7-Week Program Guide

This program is for people recovering from shoulder tendon repair surgery who have been cleared by their surgeon to begin intermediate rehabilitation. Its goal is to help you safely regain shoulder motion, strength, and everyday function over seven weeks using graded exercises, gentle equipment, and hands-on therapies. Progress is guided by how your shoulder responds, not by a fixed calendar, so your clinician will adjust the pace to suit you.

Before You Start

Your surgeon and physical therapist must clear you before starting, and this program is not appropriate if you have an unstable tendon fixation or severe osteoporosis. Stop and call your clinician if you notice sudden severe pain, new weakness or giving-way, swelling, fever, numbness, or pain that keeps rising despite rest. Avoid overloading the shoulder, and always finish with a cool-down. Never push through sharp pain; mild discomfort during gentle motion is common, but your clinician decides what is safe for you.

Weekly Structure

Plan on three sessions per week, about 45 minutes each, across seven weeks. Early weeks focus on protection and gentle assisted motion; the middle weeks add controlled active movement and light strengthening; later weeks build endurance and function using balance boards, tennis balls, foam rollers, weight vests, and suspension trainers. Your therapist may add low-frequency pulsed ultrasound, iontophoresis, aquatic therapy, kinesiology taping, and low-intensity blood flow restriction training where appropriate. Progression depends on meeting phase criteria, not simply the week number.

What a Typical Session Looks Like

Start with a gentle warm-up, such as pendulum motion and light scapular setting, then move into your main work: assisted and active range-of-motion exercises, scapular control drills using a tennis ball against a wall, and graded strengthening with the suspension trainer or light weights. Foam rolling targets the upper back and unaffected muscles, not the repair site. Cool-down includes gentle stretching and relaxed breathing. A weight vest and balance board may be used later for controlled functional work; your therapist guides all equipment use.

Tracking Progress

Your therapist uses the phase criteria—such as pain at rest, passive and active range of motion, scapular control, and pain-free isometric strength—to decide when to advance. Meeting several criteria consistently, rather than one good day, signals readiness. Outcome measures like the ASES, Constant-Murley Score, pain scale, goniometric range of motion, manual muscle testing, and the Single Arm Egg Drop Test are repeated periodically to show your trajectory and catch problems early. Share any new symptoms promptly.

Recovery and Self-Care

Follow your sling and activity instructions exactly, especially early on. Use pain as your guide: soreness that settles within a day is generally acceptable, but rising or night pain warrants a check-in with your clinician. Keep up rest and sleep, stay hydrated, and avoid heavy lifting or sudden reaching until cleared. Do not change medication, ultrasound, iontophoresis, taping, or blood flow restriction settings on your own—these are clinician-directed. Red flags such as fever, spreading redness, or sudden loss of function need prompt medical attention.