ROM exercises causing more tightness?

You should check with your surgeon about what exercises are safe to do. I was told to not raise my arms above shoulder level for two weeks.

The exercises that PT gave me were pretty simple. Their mantra was to work slowly and only to the point of feeling some "pulling" and then hold it there for a bit longer each time.

Sorry I don't have a lot of advice but they put me in water therapy rather than ROM therapy and over 6 weeks it was life changing. I felt significant improvement. I plan on continuing for the next year. Maybe I will become a good swimmer after all.

The first exercises were moving my arms in the water and walking. Basically all the exercises you are doing on land but under shoulder height water.

your welcome

I can share my story maybe you might find some of it helpful. I had a DBL mastectomy with TE then implants. They placed the biggest implant they could because I had a wide chest. It was tight and I had very little guidance on what to do about it. I did the wall clock exercise etc. Well once things healed it was still crazy tight and I had plans to go to PE. Then with the oophrectomy and arimidex both of my arms went numb and I had neuropathy in both my foot and my forearms and hands.

So in hindsight I should have just went and gotten in the water but I had very little advice. They sent me to hand therapy with exercises that even with diligence just make the tingling worse. So at that point I went to a neurologist and they performed Carpal Tunnel and D'quervaines surgery.

That removed most of the numbness but my chest and arms were very tight and my foot was numb at times and my knee was creaky from the arimidex.

They sent me to the cancer center PT and they tried to give me bands and all kinds of ROM exercises. When I did them it just made things tighter and caused the numbness to come back.

So they sent me to water therapy. They were the easiest silliest exercises but after diligently going to the pool and performing the exercises I had significant improvement.

I warm up by walking in the water many different ways forward backwards sideways. Then I go and move my arms through the water. Especially when it is shoulder height.

I take a break if I have numbness but it quickly goes away after one day.

Over time I now have most of my ROM back and no pain/tightness in my arms, chest or knees and feet. I wish they would have sent me there at the beginnning. I now added exercises laying on my back floating so I can work to extend my arms in a full range of motion through the water. This allows me to extend my back muscles and trapezius to strengthen them.

I plan on trying a swim coach to help me find ways to do swim strokes that will not hurt me but further improve my range of motion. For now I just turn farther to breath and my back stroke exits early and wider but it keeps improving.

I truly believe water therapy is the best as it supports the joints and ensures gently improvement but it takes a pool and time. Though it annoying and slow going I made incremental gains over time and I am so happy I found this modality.