How much movement is enough? 

How much movement is enough? 

It can be hard to work out how to progress your exercises and physical activity, especially when you’re worried about getting sore. 

One of the key things to remember is that the structures around your shoulder, like the nerves, tendons and muscles, need some stress to adapt and to remain healthy. When we talk about mechanical stress on the body, it basically means physical activity or moving. This could be exercises you’re given by your physio, how you use your shoulder at work, regular exercise, around the home or anything where you’re using your shoulder. 

So, with the right amount of stress (exercises and physical activity) you will get positive adaptations, like increased strength and flexibility. 

However, if you don’t do enough, your body will adapt to that too, meaning you would lose strength and flexibility. We start loosing ‘tissue health’.

But you can have too much of a good thing. If you go past your body’s maximum capacity, you’re likely to get more soreness, stiffness and potentially injury. When this happens, you’re more likely to drop your activity levels right back again. This type of pattern is called ‘boom and bust’. Or you could think of it as taking one step forward and two back. 

Once you know what might trigger your shoulder pain, you can be in control of how to progress your activity levels.  

Have a look at our short video on ‘How much movement is enough?’.