By Lisa Snow
Group Fitness Instructor

You had a shoulder injury, and were just discharged from physical therapy.  What do you do next?  Before heading to the nearest gym, consider your goals.  Is your goal to get back to exercise so you can lose weight?  Or are you already at a healthy weight and trying to return to sports, dance, or active hobbies like gardening?  If your goal is weight loss, consider alternate cardio options.  While we normally think of running as a lower body activity, there is actually considerable shoulder drive involved, and some shoulder injury clients can’t tolerate running on a treadmill, at least in the early stages of post-rehab.  A stationary bike, or bodyweight cardio drills, might be more appropriate.  

 

Whether you are looking for a personal trainer, a yoga teacher, or a massage therapist, be sure to choose someone experienced with shoulder injuries.  Ask your physical therapist if you can do overhead lifting, and if there’s a limit on how much weight you can lift.  If you’re not allowed to lift over 5 or 10 lbs, ask the therapist if you can use tubing and thera-bands instead.  Explain these and any other limitations to your trainer so they can design the safest program for you.  Many people leave PT with the “healthy” shoulder actually having worse range of motion than the injured shoulder!  An experienced post-rehab personal trainer won’t ignore your “good” side, but rather will screen you to be sure you have full flexion, extension, and internal and external rotation.  If your goal is to get back to sports or an active lifestlye you had prior to your injury, your trainer should be willing to talk to your PT by phone or email to find out what imbalances you still have, and work towards slowly, gradually correcting them.