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Shoulder Rehabilitation · Canberra ACT

Shoulder rehabilitation in Canberra, rotator cuff, frozen shoulder & impingement.

Structured exercise physiology for shoulder conditions. Rotator cuff tears and tendinopathy, frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis), shoulder impingement, and post-surgical shoulder rehabilitation. Evidence-based, 1:1 with James.

Rotator cuff tears & tendinopathy
Frozen shoulder (adhesive capsulitis)
Shoulder impingement
Post-surgical shoulder rehab

Book an appointment → 0418 153 608

Shoulder conditions

Shoulder conditions we treat.

Rotator Cuff Tears & Tendinopathy

Conservative management and post-surgical rehabilitation for rotator cuff tears. Tendinopathy loading protocols with strong evidence base for pain reduction and strength recovery.

Rotator cuff

Frozen Shoulder (Adhesive Capsulitis)

Structured exercise through the freezing, frozen, and thawing phases of adhesive capsulitis. Range of motion progression, pain management, and return to full function.

Frozen shoulder

Shoulder Impingement

Subacromial impingement rehabilitation targeting rotator cuff strengthening, scapular control, and movement pattern correction to reduce impingement and restore pain-free function.

Impingement

Post-Surgical Shoulder Rehab

Rehabilitation following rotator cuff repair, labral surgery, shoulder stabilisation, and total shoulder replacement. Surgeon-protocol-aligned progressive loading.

Post-surgical

What the evidence says.

Across the common shoulder diagnoses, rotator cuff related pain, impingement, frozen shoulder, instability, the evidence keeps returning the same verdict: structured progressive exercise matches or beats surgery for most presentations, and decompression surgery has failed placebo controlled trials outright. Shoulders are capacity problems far more often than they are structural emergencies, and imaging findings like cuff tears appear routinely in pain free shoulders, which is why I treat the person and their function, not the report.

How I treat it.

This hub covers the shoulder problems I see weekly, each with its own detailed page. The common thread: proper assessment of what your cuff, scapula and thoracic spine can actually do, a progressive loading program built for your specific diagnosis and life demands, hands on work for the guarded tissue that shoulders accumulate, and honest referral when a presentation genuinely needs a surgeon.

Whether yours is a gym shoulder, a work shoulder or a sleep destroying mystery, the pathway starts the same way: find the real problem, then load it back to capacity.

What we aim for.

Night pain resolved, usually the first win
Reaching, lifting and overhead life restored
Strength benchmarks met and maintained
Surgery reserved for the shoulders that truly need it

The shoulder evidence, honestly.

Shoulder care has been through a quiet revolution: placebo-controlled surgical trials have shown that some of the most common shoulder operations perform no better than sham surgery or structured exercise for degenerative rotator cuff presentations and 'impingement'. That doesn't mean surgery is never right, it means a properly progressed loading program is the evidence-based first step for most non-traumatic shoulder pain, and it's what surgeons increasingly want exhausted before operating.

Our shoulder programs build capacity through the rotator cuff and scapula into the whole kinetic chain, with graded return to overhead work, lifting and sport. Lateral elbow pain from gripping and desk work has its own program, see tennis elbow.

Frequently asked

Conservative rotator cuff tendinopathy typically responds well in 8–16 weeks of structured loading. Full-thickness tears managed conservatively may take 4–6 months. Post-surgical rotator cuff repair rehabilitation typically runs 6–12 months depending on the repair type and your surgeon's protocol.

In most cases, yes. The evidence supports structured physiotherapy and exercise through the phases of frozen shoulder, with surgery reserved for cases that don't respond after 12–18 months. The frozen and thawing phases are the most responsive to progressive range-of-motion work.

Yes. Shoulder conditions are covered under NDIS where the condition impacts daily living or work capacity, and under DVA with a D904 GP referral for eligible veterans. Medicare CDM plans and Workers Comp also cover shoulder rehabilitation.

Online booking

Book your appointment.

Same-week availability for NDIS, DVA, CDM, CTP and private clients.

Prefer to call? 0418 153 608 · or email admin@fwphysiology.com