The forward and back push up-- not fun. Courtesy of: http://www.goodhousekeeping.com

Since my last post, my PT has been focused on slowly building my strength. We’ve session over session moved away from the stretching and instead focused on the strengthening of my shoulder via light weights. The wall climb and pendulum were discontinued early in the week. Instead we focus on the cane isometric extension with 3 pounds of weight. The bicep curl went through stages of one, then two, and finally three pounds of weight. The tricep curl was introduced with a pound and has session over session climbed to three pounds. We started the hand bike on two minutes thirty seconds forward and two minutes thirty seconds reverse. I continue the neck stretches and the pulleys.A second pulley stretch has been introduced that extends away at 45 degrees from my body. Since many of the exercises are done with both arms this has finally started to help my other shoulder. We continue the massages and over head stretches, as well as, more external rotation. I’ve also started weight lifting two (and later three) pound weights laying on my left side and extending away from my body upward. The scapular stretch has also been weighted at three pounds. Finally the whole thing accumulated with me at twelve weeks doing a non-extended push ups on an exercise ball. This is the most weight I’ve put on my shoulder since August 2009 and shows the true distance I’ve come. All in all, I’m sore; but not in complete pain. I feel stronger day over day and there is slow, but noticeable improvement. This strength training will continue over the next six weeks. Now that I’m at twelve weeks I’m considered “healed” and capable of intense exercise. The focus will be to strengthen my arm to its pre-operation best. I already notice my strength returning.