Exercises After Breast Surgery

The first exercise is shoulder rolls. You can do this either sitting or standing. If you do it standing you want to make sure you stand up nice and tall. So the way we do this is you're first going to shrug your shoulders up then back and then around in circular motion. You can move both at once or you can do one at a time and you want to let your shoulders completely relax after every few repetitions. So you're going to relax after every five repetitions and then you're going to do them in the opposite direction. So the first set of repetitions you're going to roll your shoulders backwards and then the second set you're going to roll your shoulders forward. So the next one is pull apart and you're going to sit or stand again with your arms against your side. Elbows flexed. You're going to bring your hands apart as if you were stretching a rubber band. Your shoulder blades will begin to come together and you'll feel the front of your chest stretch. Hold that for two seconds and you can do that about five times. The next exercise is elbow circles. You're going to put your hands on your shoulders and rotate your elbows backwards. You want to make sure you do this slowly and point your elbow behind as you start. A good way to think about this is to think about a pencil on the end of your elbow and you're going to go first backwards and then you're going to go in the opposite direction. The next one is the snow angel stretch. You're going to line your back and you're gradually going to slide your arms out to the sides leading with your thumb. You're going to keep your arms supported on the floor or bed and stop when you feel a gentle stretch in your chest or shoulder. You might need a pillow or a folded towel underneath your affected arm. You want to take several deep breaths letting your arms relax for 20 to 30 seconds and you can do this five times. The next one is torso twist. You're going to start this exercise in the same position as you did the snow angel stretch. You're going to have your arms stretched out to the side and you're going to twist your legs towards your affected side. Hold for 10 seconds or just take a few nice deep breaths and then you're going to go in the opposite direction. You can do this a few times. The next one is the modified child's pose. This comes from a yoga position and we're going to do this at a sink or something like that is a little better than a chair or a table. You're going to hold on, gradually move your hips back away from your hands until you feel a gentle stretch and really you should bend your knees. You'll be more comfortable if you do that. You want to hold it for a nice few deep breaths and repeat it a few times. I think the next exercise is the cane exercise. You can use a ski pole or real cane or a section of a vacuum cleaner and you want to hold your arms at about shoulder width apart. Keep your elbows straight and you're going to raise the cane over your head. You're going to be stretching gently and you want to be sure to bend your knees. You can hold, take a couple of deep breaths and do the exercise a few times. The second part of this exercise after the first one is getting pretty easy. You can add this. You're going to slide your hands a little further apart, bend your elbows and gradually bring the cane over your head. Again, you're going to take a few nice deep breaths, hold it a little bit and repeat a few times. The next one is torso tilt or lift and lean as it's called. You're going to stand with your back to the wall. Place your hands on top of your shoulders. You want to keep your back and arms as close to the wall as you can. Then you're going to raise your unaffected arm up and then tilt your chest in the opposite direction. Then you're going to reverse sides and repeat that. Again, hold it for a couple of breaths and do this a couple of times. The most important thing about this exercise is that you are going to lift your elbow and then lean. So lift and lean. The next exercise is called wall slide and the important thing with this exercise is you really want to maintain contact with your forearm on the wall. So you're going to put your forearm on the wall facing the wall and you're slowly going to allow your forearm to go up the wall. You're going to feel a nice stretch when you do that and you're going to let the wall hold your arm up as much as possible. Then you're going to bring it down, take a few deep breaths and then you're going to do the same movement with your arm positioned at your side. The last exercise is the corner stretch and you do not want to do this if you have an expander or an implant in place. So the corner stretch, you're going to stand close to the corner with both forearms on the wall. You want to keep your body nice and straight and then you're going to lean forward into the corner itself and you'll feel a nice stretch over your chest and you can vary your arm height with each time you do it a little bit. Again, you want to move into the stretch, take a few nice deep breaths and hold it. Do it a few times.