The Biggest Shoulder Rehab Mistake
Posted By: Andy Barker
If there is one joint I get the most questions on it is the shoulder.
Things like…
What are the best questions to ask during your subjective assessment…
What special tests to use to differently diagnose the shoulder…
Where to start with rehab…
And the best exercises to use to keep the shoulder pain from returning.
The shoulder is notoriously difficult to manage.
This is made harder by the fact you are probably overcomplicating your assessments, treatments and rehab when managing shoulder problems.
The biggest mistakes usually happen during rehab…
And this is where things go wrong.
You start off with some low-level rehab like some scapula stability work or banded rotator cuff work…
Then you might progress to rehab exercises like cable rows or bodyweight push ups.
But when you start adding load things start to flare up.
You add in some weight or more advanced exercises like the bench or shoulder press and symptoms quickly come back.
The reason this happens is because you have been rehabbing the wrong problems.
All shoulder problems are different.
That is why generic shoulder rehab programmes do not work.
Each rehab programme you design needs to be individual to the patient in front of you.
Just copying and pasting a previous programme does not work, even if it seemed to work with another patient.
Giving generic shoulder stability or rotator cuff exercises for every shoulder injury you treat will give you generic results…
Some shoulder pain patients will get better, some patients won’t really change and some patients will get worse.
The key is making sure you are rehabbing the right thing.
If you give scapula stability work for a patient that does not need it they won’t get better.
If you are trying to improve range of movement but your patients main problem is their strength then it is likely their recovery will be slow (if they recover at all).
If you skip steps in the rehab process and progress a patient too quickly in their rehab their symptoms will flare up and it can take an age with the shoulder to settle these back down.
Shoulder injuries are actually no more difficult to deal with than a lower back, knee, achilles or any other injury for that matter.
You just need to ensure you are fixing up the right issues and then all you need to do is follow a simple, structured and logical rehab plan.
Feel like you might need some help with your shoulder assessments, treatment and rehab planning?
Then my upcoming 1 day New Grad Physio LIVE Upper Limb Course is for you.
The shoulder will feature heavily on this course and I will use several real-life case studies to show you how differentially diagnose the shoulder, where to start with your shoulder rehab…
How to progress your patients rehab from early, middle and late stage…
And have the confidence to push your patients to get them back to full fitness quickly…
But not be worried that you will flare them up.
Places are going quickly for this course and my 1 day New Grad Physio LIVE Lower Limb Course so do not wait around too long to secure your place or you might miss out.
You can do that here…
Andy
PS. If you want to attend both days you can attend both and save £50.
You can do that by hitting the link here.