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Wallwalkers

Wallwalkers are an exercise that most of our members believe should be done regularly as soon as a patient is able to stand following surgery.  The purpose of wallwalkers is to gently stretch the arm, shoulder, and chest muscles on the side where the breast cancer surgery took place.  The exercise helps to maintain the range of motion in the shoulder as well as flexibility in the hand.  Additionally, we have found that most of us who persist in regularly doing our wallwalkers generally don't develop debilitating lymphedema.

How can I do wallwalkers?

To prepare for wallwalking,
  1. Face a door jamb in such a way that you are facing the door opening with the "latch" side on the same side as Visual representation of starting point for doing wallwalkers your affected side. For example, if you had surgery on your right side, the right "edge" of your shoulder should be even with the right edge of the door jamb as in the picture to the right.
  2. Stand with your toes about 8 inches from the door jamb.
  3. Place your fingers on the door jamb approximately at shoulder height with your elbow bent.
To do wallwalking,
  1. "Walk" your fingers up the door jamb until you feel the muscles in your axilla (armpit) stretching gently.
  2. Walk a step or two more up the door jamb and then walk back down until your fingers are as far down as they will go.  
  3. Repeat this process ten times.  Gradually work up to doing three reps at least four times a day.  A rep means to repeat the set of ten such that, in this case, you do the "up and down" a total of thirty times at least four times a day.
Note:  You should gradually stretch farther and farther up so that you keep the muscles in your arm, shoulder, and chest flexible while the surgical scar(s) are healing.  


Legal stuff:

None of the information contained on this page is intended to provide medical, legal, or psycho-social advice. For those kinds of information, you should contact qualified practitioners in your local area. 
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