Physiotherapy
Shoulder Pain Physiotherapy in Singapore
Written by Zita Sham, Shiv Mohan Banka and Ching Yee, Principal Physiotherapists at Phoenix Rehab.Clinically reviewed by Louise Yow, Principal Physiotherapist & Director, AHPC A1300363H.Last reviewed 4 October 2026.
Most shoulders stop hurting long before they can lift again.
That gap is where people stop coming, and it is why the same shoulder is back eight months later. Pain is the first thing to leave. Strength is the last to train and recover.
$230 per 45 minute appointment. No referral needed to start.
Where are you right now?
It started recently
A few weeks of pain reaching overhead, sleeping on that side, or after one specific movement you remember. Most of these settle. The point of coming in early is to find out whether yours is one of them.
It has been months
You have worked around it. You do not reach for the top shelf with that arm any more. A shoulder you have stopped using is losing range quietly, and that is harder to reverse than the pain.
You have had surgery
Rotator cuff repair, stabilization, a replacement. Your surgeon’s protocol decides what may move and when. Send us the operation note and we will tell you where you should be.
Not sure which of those is you? Message us and describe it in your own words. Sorting that out is free and takes a minute.
Shoulder pain that keeps coming back
Shoulder pain that keeps coming back usually means the pain settled before the shoulder’s strength and control did. The common causes are an overloaded rotator cuff, a shoulder left loose by an old dislocation, and stiffness after frozen shoulder. At Phoenix Rehab, a physiotherapist measures strength, range and control against your other side, and the plan is built on those numbers.
| The pattern | Usually | What we measure |
|---|---|---|
| Aches reaching overhead and lying on that side at night, and returns each time you go back to the gym, badminton or swimming | Rotator cuff overload | Rotator cuff strength on both sides, and the point in the arc where it hurts |
| It has slipped or come out before, and you guard it with the arm out to the side and back | Shoulder instability after a dislocation | Control in that position, and strength through the full range |
| Stiff in every direction, worst turning the arm out, after months of pain | Frozen shoulder | Range against the other side, week by week |
| Pain that spreads from the neck, with tingling down the arm | The neck, not the shoulder: see neck pain | Neck movement and nerve tests |
Many recurring shoulders have one thing in common. The ache went, so the exercises stopped, while the strength gap was still there. The next heavy week finds it. Tested, not dated: you go back to full load when the strength numbers match your other side, not when it stops hurting.
What is usually behind it
Shoulder pain is a symptom, not a diagnosis
The shoulder trades stability for range. It is the most mobile joint you have, and it holds together through muscle and tendon rather than bone shape. That is why so many different problems present as the same ache.
Rotator cuff tendinopathy and tears
The cuff is four muscles that hold the head of the humerus centred while you move. Overload it, or tear it, and reaching overhead becomes painful and weak. Not every tear needs surgery, and the decision usually rests on what the shoulder can still do rather than what the scan shows.
Impingement
Cuff tendons and bursa repeatedly compressed in a narrowing space, typically in people who work or train overhead. Posture and scapular control are usually part of it, which is why treating only the painful spot tends not to hold.
Instability
The joint dislocates or partially dislocates, either after a specific injury or because the surrounding structures are lax. Rehabilitation is about control rather than stretch, and it is one of the cases where doing the wrong exercises makes things worse.
Shoulder arthritis
Cartilage loss in the glenohumeral joint, causing pain, stiffness and reduced range. More common past the age of 50, and also seen after earlier trauma or with rheumatoid arthritis.
Fracture
A break in the humerus, clavicle or scapula. Severe pain, swelling, bruising and an arm you cannot use. This needs a doctor and an X-ray before it needs a physiotherapist.
Frozen shoulder
A different problem with a different timeline, and it has its own page. Frozen shoulder treatment →
Send us your scan report or referral letter
We will tell you what it means for your rehabilitation, when therapy should start, and roughly how long it takes. No appointment needed to ask, and no charge for it.
We explain what the report means for your recovery and the likely timeframe. We do not diagnose from documents, which needs an assessment.
When to stop reading and call someone
Shoulder pain that is not a physiotherapy problem
Most shoulder pain is musculoskeletal. Some of it is not, and the difference matters more than anything else on this page.
- Call 995 and do not drive yourself if shoulder or arm pain comes with chest tightness, breathlessness, sweating, nausea or jaw pain. Left shoulder pain can be cardiac.
- Emergency department now for an obviously deformed shoulder after a fall or impact, an arm you cannot move at all, or numbness and a cold, pale hand.
- A doctor the same day for shoulder pain with fever, a hot swollen joint, or pain that came on with no injury and is severe at rest.
- A doctor soon for pain that wakes you every night, unexplained weight loss alongside it, or a shoulder that has been weak rather than painful since a specific incident.
How the work is structured
Four stages, and you move up on criteria
You progress when the shoulder meets the marker for the next stage, not when a number of weeks has passed. Your therapist measures the same things the same way each visit so that both of you can see whether the plan is working.
- Calm & Protect. Settling an irritable shoulder and protecting the tissue or the repair. Work, not rest.
- Move & Mobilize. Range trained back, within what the tissue safely allows.
- Rebuild & Strengthen. Cuff and scapular strength, then load and endurance. This is the stage most people never reach, and it is the one that decides whether the shoulder holds.
- Return & Perform. Overhead work, the gym, the racquet, the child you lift.
None of the four is passive.
After shoulder surgery
Post-surgical shoulder rehabilitation
Rehabilitation starts when your surgeon clears it, and their protocol takes precedence over anything written here. Bring the operation note to the first appointment.
Rotator cuff repair
A repaired tendon has to be protected before it can be loaded, and the window where controlled movement begins is what decides how much range you end up with. We work to the protocol you were given.
Stabilization and labral repair
A graded return to movement and then to control. Getting ahead of the protocol here risks the repair; getting behind it costs range.
Shoulder replacement
Different rules again, and they depend on whether it was anatomic or reverse. The operation note tells us which, and that changes the plan substantially.
If it has stopped moving forward
Six months in and it is still the same
A shoulder that has plateaued is not the same problem as a shoulder that has just started hurting, and treating it as though it were is why it plateaued. Something is either being missed or being under-loaded.
The Stalled Recovery Review is three appointments over three weeks with the same therapist, because whether a stiff joint actually moves cannot be measured on day one. $690.
After a dislocation or a labral repair, the Shoulder Dislocation and Labral Repair Recovery Program runs the four stages to your surgeon’s protocol.
What it costs
$230 per 45 minute appointment
One therapist, the same one every visit, for the whole 45 minutes.
Nett, no GST. Same price for your first appointment and your last. Most of that 45 minutes is treatment: manual therapy, joint mobilization, soft tissue work and graded loading, with assessment continuing throughout. You do not pay for a consultation and come back another day to be treated.
A shoulder program is 12 appointments, $2,760 in all, paid as you attend. If you need more, your physiotherapist shows you which stage criteria are still open, and each extra appointment is $230.
Questions we get asked
Do I need a scan before I come?
No. A scan is useful when it changes the plan, and often it does not. Shoulder scans in people with no pain at all frequently show cuff changes, so what the shoulder can do matters more than what the image shows. If we think you need imaging, we say so and point you to a doctor.
Should I rest it or keep using it?
Almost never complete rest. A shoulder that stops moving stiffens quickly, and stiffness is harder to reverse than pain. What changes is which movements, how much and how often, which is what the assessment sorts out.
Can physiotherapy fix a rotator cuff tear without surgery?
Many partial tears and some full-thickness tears are managed without surgery, and the decision rests on your age, what you need the shoulder to do, and what it can currently do. That is a conversation between you, your surgeon and your therapist rather than a yes or no.
Why does it hurt most at night?
Lying down removes the support the arm gets during the day and compresses the joint against the mattress, and cuff problems in particular tend to be worse at night. It is common. It is also worth mentioning to us, because night pain that is getting steadily worse is one of the things we want to know about.
How long until I can go back to the gym?
That depends on the diagnosis and on what you were lifting. What we can tell you is that the return is staged and tested rather than dated, and pressing overhead is usually the last thing to come back, not the first.
Where we are
Clinics across Singapore
ORCHARD
400 Orchard Road #12-12
Orchard Towers, S238875
NS22 Orchard MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Orchard →
WhatsApp 8800 1830TAMPINES
9 Tampines Grande #01-20
Asia Green, S528735
EW2DT32 Tampines MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Tampines →
WhatsApp 8780 9608SERANGOON
265 Serangoon Central Drive #04-269
S550265 · Lift C only
NE12CC13 Serangoon MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Serangoon →
WhatsApp 8892 4121TANJONG PAGAR
10 Anson Road #02-77A
International Plaza, S079903
EW15 Tanjong Pagar MRT
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Tanjong Pagar →
WhatsApp 8227 7074JURONG EAST
2 Venture Drive #02-02
Vision Exchange, S608526
NS1EW24 Jurong East MRT
Opening 20 October 2026
Physiotherapy and hand therapy in Jurong East →
WhatsApp 8242 7340Find out which stage your shoulder is in
Tell us what it stops you doing rather than how much it hurts. That is the more useful information, and it is what the first appointment works from.
Shoulder physiotherapy is available at all clinics. $230 per 45 minute appointment, nett, no GST.
What our patients say
Google reviews from our clinics in Singapore.
