Shoulder pendulum exercise · Shoulder pain · St. Louis · Regen.MD physiotherapy
Shoulder pendulum exercise:
move a painful shoulder without working it
The shoulder pendulum is a home exercise that keeps a painful shoulder moving with its muscles switched off. Brace your good hand on a tabletop, let the sore arm dangle like a rope, and sway your hips so the hand traces small circles. Roughly 30 seconds, ten circles each direction.
Only the exercises your physician has ticked on your home plan are yours to do. Twice daily is the rhythm unless the written plan says something different.
Step by step: shoulder pendulum exercise
- Starting position. Brace your good hand on a tabletop and fold forward. Let the sore arm dangle like a rope.
- The motion. Sway your hips gently so the hanging hand traces small circles. Gravity does the moving.
- How much. Roughly 30 seconds, ten circles each direction.
What the pendulum does for tissue repair
A shoulder that stops moving stiffens fast. The pendulum keeps the joint gliding while the rotator cuff rests, which makes it a common early step after a shoulder injection when your physician says so.
Fresh from an injection? Read this first
After a PRP or other orthobiologic injection in your shoulder, the treated tissue needs a protected stretch of days before it is asked to work. Your physician tells you when this exercise comes back. When it does, start with fewer repetitions and build to the full dose over the following visits. Loading in steps like this is how the repair signal from the injection turns into stronger tissue.
More on that: why load is the treatment an injection cannot supply.
Form errors we correct most often
- Powering the arm with shoulder muscles. Your hips do the work.
- Swinging wide loops. Little ones are plenty.
- Straightening up. Stay folded at the hips.
Signs that mean stop and phone us
Feeling the muscle work, a gentle pull, or some next-day stiffness is normal. Call us at (314) 295-3000 if you notice:
- Pain that turns sharp or stabbing
- A pain score that climbs 2 or more points and stays up longer than an hour
- New numbness, tingling or loss of strength
- Feeling dizzy, or your eyesight changing
Call 911, not the clinic, for chest pain, a hard time breathing or passing out.
Tracking what changes
Keep a short log: a check mark for each session and one pain score per day. Hand it over at each appointment; your technician tallies the sessions and has you perform one repetition so your form can be corrected. At each re-check you also repeat the same function questionnaire, and if your physician orders it, a Kinetisense 3D motion scan, so the change is measured instead of guessed.
What to remember
- Hips sway; the arm is a rope.
- Small circles.
- Stay folded forward.
Show us you have it: Before you go, do 10 seconds of the pendulum and let us check that the arm is relaxed. If a point is fuzzy, say so and we walk through it again with you.
The rest of the shoulder series
- Wall walk: overhead reach
- Outward turn with band: rotator cuff
- Band row: shoulder blade base
- I raise: letter I
- Y raise: letter Y
- T raise: letter T
- A press: letter A
Related reading: partial rotator cuff tears and non-surgical options, shoulder surgery alternatives.
Where this fits: the Regen.MD physiotherapy program, physician-directed rehab paired with our regenerative care. A physician must be in the building and reachable within moments before any treatment begins.