Beyond Regaining Movement ー　Learning About My Shoulder During the Second Half of Rehabilitation September 28, 2026 (Monday) Reiwa8 Day 32 of Hospitalization

  I fractured my left upper arm and underwent surgery. Now I am entering the second half of my rehabilitation.

At first, my shoulder could hardly move. It had become very stiff, and even lifting my arm was difficult. Now, I can raise my arm much better than before.

But now that I have regained some movement, I am beginning to notice a new challenge.

It is the movement of rotating my shoulder.

My therapists have taught me that the shoulder is not moved simply by the arm itself. The shoulder blade, the upper arm bone, and many surrounding muscles all work together.

For example, muscles such as the infraspinatus and teres minor are involved in external rotation of the shoulder.

In my case, when I keep my elbow against my body and try to rotate my forearm outward, I can still move only about 15 degrees. I can go a little farther, but it starts to hurt.

It is interesting that I can now raise my arm quite well, yet this simple-looking rotational movement is still very difficult.

I asked one of my therapists, "Do people actually make this kind of movement in everyday life?"

He said, "Not very often. Baseball players use it when throwing a ball, for example. But if you want to swim again, it is better to have this movement."

That made sense to me.

For me, rehabilitation is no longer simply about being able to raise my arm. I want to regain the shoulder movements that will eventually allow me to swim again.

Another therapist has been helping me work on internal rotation.

When I take a bath, I look in the mirror and see how far I can reach with my left hand toward the right side of my body.

At first, I could only reach around my navel. Now I can reach much closer to my right armpit.

At first I thought, "I can finally do it!"

But when I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my right shoulder was lifting—and even my left shoulder was lifting.

In other words, I was not accomplishing the movement entirely with my shoulder. I was shrugging both shoulders and using other parts of my body to help my hand reach the desired place.

The human body is amazingly clever.

When one part cannot move well, the body finds another way to accomplish the task.

But in rehabilitation, I think the next step is to move beyond simply "getting the job done" and gradually learn to perform the movement using the shoulder itself, without unnecessary compensation.

I have also started studying the muscles around the shoulder.

There are so many of them: the trapezius, pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, teres major, teres minor, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and others.

I am not very good at visualizing things in three dimensions, so at first I could not imagine where all these muscles were located or how they overlapped around the armpit and shoulder.

But little by little, I have been connecting what my therapists feel with their hands when they tell me, "This area is still tight," with what I learn about the muscles.

As a result, I am beginning to understand my own body in a more three-dimensional way.

The bone I fractured was the upper arm bone, and I now have a titanium plate and seven screws from the surgery.

At first, I thought simply, "I broke a bone."

Now I understand that recovery is not only about the bone healing.

The muscles and joints around it, the shoulder blade, and the stiffness and muscle weakness that developed while I could not move my arm are all part of the process of regaining normal movement.

And now I am at a stage where it is no longer simply a question of whether my shoulder can move or not.

I am beginning to pay attention to more subtle questions:

"How is it moving?"

"Which muscles am I using?"

"Can I move it without shrugging my shoulder?"

That is why rehabilitation feels difficult in a different way now that I have entered the second half.

But I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.

In the beginning, the problem was that my shoulder would not move.

Now that it has started moving again, I can finally see the next set of challenges.

The fact that I can only externally rotate about 15 degrees, and the fact that I still shrug my shoulders when reaching behind me, are not simply signs of what I cannot do.

They are clues from my body showing me what I need to work on next.

I want to take my time, follow the guidance of my therapists, and gradually learn how my own body moves.

And someday, when I swim again, I hope I will be able to think,

"Ah, I can do this movement again."

What began as rehabilitation after a fracture has gradually become an opportunity to learn about my own body.

#Rehabilitation  
#UpperArmFracture  
#ShoulderRehabilitation  
#ExternalRotation  
#InternalRotation  
#RotatorCuff  
#MuscleRecovery  
#RangeOfMotion  
#SwimmingAgain  
#Day32  
#SecondHalfOfRehabilitation